The Difference Between Nob-a-Bobs and Romples

Ready for nob-a-bobs? Or romples?

When a cat has the urge to show its owner how much it loves them, it can do it in several different ways: rubbing itself around its owner's ankles, for example, or miaowing and purring into human's ears at 4am on a Tuesday morning, prior to nibbling their thumb.

Each expression of affection will be heartfelt for a few minutes, before kitty disappears to go and have a nap for the next sixteen hours, worn out by its own behaviour.

In this house, Tommy has two particular favourite methods of showing his lovableness. The first is nob-a-bobs. With nob-a-bobs, Tommy sits on a stair at the same height above the ground as his human object d'amour. When human comes close, he starts purring and bumping his head against human's head. Climbing on human's shoulders with two paws still on the stair is optional. This can go on for several minutes.

The second favourite is romples. To have a romple, the human must be laying down, or nearly horizontal whilst sitting. Tommy will then purr loudly, bump heads, turn round and round several times, tread on painful parts of human's anatomy, e.g., the collar bone, then lie down on human, with his face two inches from human's face whilst padding his paws up and down in human's neck (claws out). After five minutes, he stops purring, pretends to hear a bird on the windowsill and leaps off.

Such a sweetie!