Why Do Cats Like To Sit On Paper?
Cats are extremely tactile creatures and have scent glands between their front paws, around cheeks, tail and other areas. This means they can exchange scents with other cats and humans and also mark their territory. Feral and wild cats 'nest' together and pregnant Queens do the same but on their own, domestic cats housed together will also do the same, (if they also understand the body language they are also capable of interspecies relationships with other animals, even dogs and birds!)
They appear to enjoy the rustling sounds of crinkly paper and plastic as it may be similar to small prey sounds rustling through undergrowth and leaves.
As they are essentially nocturnal it may be that they want to curl up close to you during the day and that might well be on that important piece of artwork, printout or newspaper you are reading or working on.
Heat exchange with paper is a possible explanation but cats are also attracted to any surface that is on top of another solid surface, throws, clothing, rugs etc, anything they can nest on and possibly get their claws into. They also have extremely tough skins, injured cats can often have extremely bad internal injuries with very little external sign of any damage.
Kittens 'make dough' with a claw kneading action on the mother whilst purring to encourage her to express milk and this behaviour often carries on to adulthood using humans or inanimate objects such as blankets or clothing Therefore the desire to sit on paper or any surface that may also remind it of mothers skin could well be a combination of basic primal instincts such as nesting, comfort and survival.
Having companioned a cat for 19 years I think I may have gleaned quite a lot of useful information!
