Cat Napping...

purr purr purr purr.... *paw to face.

I love both my cats, but the past three weeks have been *cat*astrophic (harhar).

Since Atreyu didn't know how to jump until 6 months after we got Asteya, he got used to us carrying him around so he could sniff and explore things he couldn't normally reach. Like books on the bookshelf... Sometimes Andrew calls him his little prince... awww...

No seriously, for the past three weeks, every night has resulted in three to four wake ups from my cats. I haven't had a full night's sleep the entire time... and we don't even have the hope that they will eventually grow out of the multiple times a night wake ups. Our cats are no longer kittens, so they will be this way forever.

(What? I can jump down from here right?)

A bit of background:

That cute, fluffy black cat? That's Atreyu. We adopted him from the SPCA when he was 8 weeks old. He was a premature kitten that spent the first 7 weeks of his life in a kitten incubator... and obviously has come to us with cognitive impairment... and a vet diagnosed anxiety psycho somatic disorder. Yep, when little Atreyu get's stressed (which he's scared of everything, including the toaster popping) he demonstrates all the symptoms of a bladder infection: inflamed bladder, pain, clenching and inability to pee... without the infection.

(I will allow you to photograph me and my beautiful face)

Asteya was adopted from the SPCA when she was about 1 year old (1.5 yrs ago). She had obviously been abandoned and hadn't had a full meal in a long time. She's now a huge fatty who would eat until she blew up. We have to feed her in a muffin tin.

(this angle makes me look thin... it's like magic!)

These two are the bestest friends (ok, so Atreyu thinks they are and Asteya just tolerates his slow tendencies like she's resigned to living with a brother who is special). Night time means they take turns waking us up. If we shut our non-latching heritage version of "french" doors (complete with windows) they knock. For hours. We've even started feeding them extra food RIGHT before we go to sleep at night. It only works if we go to sleep at midnight (which is crazy, I need more than 6 hours of sleep).

If we leave the doors open they take turns. It goes something like this:

3:45am Asteya decides to jump on the bed and "blurp" at us a bunch cuz she's kinda hungry.
4:30am Asteya has resulted to running over the bed (and our bodies) repeatedly with her rolly polly body. Atreyu thinks it's a fun game and decides to join in.
4:45am I give up and stumble out of bed to feed them.

(this is where for the past 6 months the noise would stop)

5:15am Atreyu is now very excited about the running game... and keeps it going. Over our now awake bodies.
5:30am Atreyu decides he now wants cuddles. Resulting is walking over our bodies until we pet him to his satisfaction.
6:00am Atreyu is asleep... and my alarm goes off.

Sunday Andrew and I bought ss-cat (haha, SCAT... the most ridiculous name ever). It has a motion detector and will release pressurized air to anything within a metre. Last night, despite the risk that this would stress Atreyu out (and cause another psycho-somatic faux bladder infection), we gave it a try. At 4:45am, when Atreyu started knocking on the doors, we placed the sscat outside, shut the doors and waited. One SSSSSSHHHH and we were rewarded with an extra TWO hours of sleep.

And one very traumatized cat the next morning (he needed catnip bubbles and lots of love before he'd even come near the door).

Who needs children really?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com