Rescue Journal

wanna know how you sleep at night here?

Alison · Oct 17, 2006

i will tell you anyway!

first you walk into the bedroom, and the bed is empty (every single night, right at bed time there is no one on it, don't ask me why cuz i don't know). then you check for wet spots, hopefully there aren't any (if there are you strip the bed and start anew, only with the help of the sheet grabbers (panda, harrison, and rainbow)). then you collect up pippa and jack and cedric and put the first two up on the bed. cedric guards the door on a soft quilt. pippa plays goofy girl while jack rubs and rolls and rubs and rolls some more. my job is to make sure neither of them fall off the edge til they are done (once in a while, one slips past me and hits the floor (then i feel like crap) finally you shove them over towards the wall and lay down like a fence to stop them from getting too close to the edge again.

once the light goes off, the cats start to slip in. julie pops up on my hip, hester wedges herself into the small of my back, harrison claims the hollow around my bent knees. lola starts out at my head and then wedges herself in between pippa and jack for warmth. panda sneaks in and takes over my head and tries to shove his droolie face into my neck. if i get the covers right to keep me dry, i let him. jesse comandeers the foot of the bed and pops, waits on the stool next to the bed for me to fall asleep. then mr wet and soggy and makes me cringe in the dark cuz i can't see his face, climbs up on my pillow and purrs like a well oiled (and wet) machine. several of the others pop in and out for a face rub and a kiss which i can provide with minimal sleep disruption.

i usually have to get up at least once during the night, and since i am in a hurry, they all go flying. then the whole process begins again and once completed no one moves til the annoying alarm goes off.

it's weird but it works. that is multi tasking in your sleep, cats getting their special 10 on 1 time and i get my rest. pretty smart eh?

Comments

Carol

if it is any consolation deb...cats used to hate me, it wasn't til i started a cat shelter out of necessity that i learned how to communicate with them...dogs were a natural for me, cats were hard work for me to find a connection. now it is great.Â maybeÂ start alphamutts feline rescue society, they'll all adore you within a year.

Deb

The night that Bella sleeps with us is the night I'll be murdered by suffocation. That cat hates me! She'd put a pillow over my head and sit on it until I stopped struggling.When I go into Christine's office to talk to her, Bella starts screaming (I don't mean meowing loudly, I mean full bore Maine Coon screeching) and when I try to stroke her or brush her, she growls. For Chris she purrs, I get the pissed off cougar rumble.
Cats have never liked me, but I've never before felt the malevolence of a feline who would just love to see my head mounted on a wall somewhere.

Carol

i miss sleeping with those two!!!! they were the very bestest bed buddies in the world, nothing like a good laugh and lots of love every single night to end the day, plus the odd concussion as they flopped right onto your head like a sack of potatoes...you should give those two back and take phoebe instead.

Maureen

Ripley ( AKA tackelbox) is another absolute bed-hog, face-planting cat. He simply marches up & then falls over & mostly lands half on my face & around my shoulder & under my armpit... Gizmo ( aka tinderbox)does a similar dance ( yet with a little dignity & grace )on the opposite side & I sleep with a couple kitty book-ends under my arms. Levi, Smoo & Roxie manage as best they can with the left over space, and I wake up with a sore back.

The Box Babies are the coolest cats in town & I'm really lucky to have em : - )

Chris Thomas

WE have a cat who is banned from the bedroom at night because she weights 24 pounds (Maine Coon) and is not graceful. Once she does 'land' she proceeds to knead...lots. I get no sleep. Mackenzie would eat Phoebe so that's not going to happen!!!

Rae

After reading that I won't be complaining about Fred stealing the covers anymore!!!!!!

Jean

Oh, there's a thought. Chris, we have a red whirling dervish that would probably love to sleep on the bed and keep you warm. And if Deb tries to steal the blanket, well, Phebes absolutely won't stand for that!

Julie

One way to fix the potential hypothermia problem,.. Cats! lots and lots of cats on the bed! or if you prefer, more dogs. :)

Chris Thomas

Ok,ok wait a minute here!! I share a bed with a dog who pins the blankets and who takes up the whole bottom of the bed and a woman who likes to flip and take the blankets with her! It is indeed a miracle that I do not end up with hypothermia at night!

Deb

Maybe after reading about your human pretzel routine, Carol, and realizing that some people have real bed-hog issues to deal with, Christine will stop bellyaching about sharing a king sized bed with me and one (1) dog.

Jean

Well, now I feel guilty and Allie wants to come live at your house. Allie used to sleep on my bed, but since Isaac came to live with me she either torments him at night (by flicking at his ears with her paws, or sitting staring intently into his face for hours on end, or simply initiating a game of chase with my poor plodding foster)or she sleeps up in the loft. I am relieved - she hogged the very middle of the bed, and I always got a back ache having to contort myself around her. But I just realized she seldom gets any one-on-one time now, or even three-on-one time.

Of course, since Allie hates other cats she probably wouldn't do well at SAINTS - though she would have a ball as part of a tag-team with her look-alike Stripe tormenting Phoebe. Teasing dogs is her specialty.