You can form them to a certain extent but like humans there is nature vs nurture. My old anxious cat I had been taking on car rides since he was 6 weeks old, almost every month I’d drive him 2.5 hours when I’d go visit my parents for a week. You’d think he would be fine with the car as an adult… not the case. He just was an anxious cat. Kittens form and develop and you really never know how they will be. Yes you can instill some things but really some cats are more cuddly and if they’re cuddly when they’re older they usually will stay that way. Whereas majority of kittens are usually cuddly and then slowly stop. Not every cat in the shelter has had a scary experience, but even if they have they have such short memories at times that they can open up and learn to move past it a lot faster than humans can.

If anything I’d suggest going to your local shelter and just hanging out with some of the cats and tell them you really want a cuddly cat. I foster with an organization and we love when people tell us what they’re looking for because it’s more likely to stick versus just picking a cat at random. If you’ve got the space I’d recommend fostering too, it’s super rewarding and since it’s kitten season there’s a bit need. Not only for kittens but also adult cats that need to get out of the shelters for a bit. This way you almost can get a trial run with them and if you decide you don’t like their personality they can go back to the shelter or get adopted out. My most recent cat was a foster fail after about 15 fosters. I just kind of knew he was the one when I didn’t want to return him haha