Monday, October 11, 2010

My cat is staging a hostile takeover of my bed. Which is either less weird or weirder than it sounds.

I like sleep. It's one of my favorite things to do. My parents' cat, Boo, is trying to make me sad by destroying one of my favorite things. My parents think it's retaliation for bringing her two lovely new friends to play with. I think she's just a bitch.

This is a very crudely drawn representation of my preferred sleeping arrangement:
As you can see (ish), I sleep on one side of the bed and use the other side as a very comfy shelf. The white thing in the middle is the pile of pillows my knee requires for an agony-free sleep, since I secretly have the joints of an 80 year old man. Don't tell anyone.

Since moving home, every evening when I enter my room, I see this:
That little black spot would be the previously-unknown-to-be-evil Boo. Right where I would like to be sleeping.

Still, fine, cat in bed, whatever, right? I'm big, she's small, I can move her to another bedroom. So I do. Repeatedly, since she inevitably shows back up. I've never really been one to sleep with the door shut, but when I'm eventually forced out of extreme annoyance to close it, it doesn't always take.

So small cat in bed again. Only now she's angry, because maybe one of my cats has followed her in, or maybe the stupid dog started barking at her when she left whatever room I put her in.

Out of what I have determined to be unbridled hate, she starts clawing at the bed. Which is a very cat thing to do, but when she keeps edging closer and closer to any exposed part of my body, I get nervous, and I move her away.

She always comes back.

Eventually, I give up on getting her out of my bed, and she momentarily pauses her evil clawing, I assume in order to lull me into a false sense of security so that I can fall asleep. At which point, my life becomes a horrible chess match, with me trying to sleep where I like on my bed, and her trying to make me miserable because she can.

Which looks something like


[No, I am not that skinny, wobbly, or bald. Bear with me here, I can't take pictures of this]

Only I move around a lot in the hour or two it takes me to get to sleep, and Boo doesn't like that. So she growls and whines and scratches and shifts, and eventually, I wake up more like this:
The slow shift towards the wrong side of the bed continues all night, with my knocking things on the floor, which--get this--SHE THEN PEES ON. So if I want to keep from having to wash a shirt or pair of pants every day, I have to make sure to not actually knock anything on the floor.

Long story short, it tends to end like this:
With me, sleeping on top of (or under) whatever crap has piled up on top of my bed. And, if you will, note the conspicuous lack of cat.

That's right, most mornings she gets bored with this, and wanders off to torment someone else in the family. And pee on stuff we leave on the floor.

Long story short: if you're ever in my house, don't put anything that resembles clothing on the floor, and don't make eye contact with the evil cat. I have yet to confirm this, but she may eat your soul.


5 comments:

  1. I have a similar sleeping pattern with my cat. But it is usually a battle of which uncomfortable spot on my body she wants to sleep on. She is a small cat, but when she stomps on my boobs to make herself comfortable it hurts and typically ends in her flying across the room.

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  2. I stared at these "photos" of your sleeping preferences multiple times as I read through this post. I even took the time to scroll back up to the top and then back down again. This might be one of my favorite posts as I have met these cats as well as seen your boudoir in person. (I'm the luckiest dog around.) Someday I hope to be that tiny black circle invading your personal sleep space. Growl.

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  3. I'm about to go to sleep, and here's how it will end up: Sam flopping his leg as arm over me on one side, and Natalie Portman (the dog) jabbing her feet into me on the other side. Sam will put his pillow on top of mine, since I have established the "everyone stay the fuck on their own fucking pillow" rule. I will wrestle for a few hours before finally falling asleep, and in the morning my shoulder will ache. And Sam will accuse me of being a bed hog.
    The other night I dreamt of you, me, Misha, and Smells renting a cabin in the woods and reconnecting over an open fire and lots of rum (Sam's been on two boyz only camping trips recently). Do you think that could ever happen in real life?

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  4. Q, that would be undeniably awesome.
    Mae, isn't it annoying how despite weighing only 6 pounds, they manage to find the one spot on your ribs that causes excruciating pain?
    KT, *wink*

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  5. Tally, this is hilarious. I particularly love the pictures, very clever. I have similar problems with Moose, but as he weighs upwards of 50 pounds, I tend to give in to whatever he wants because he is slightly difficult to move. Which often means I wake up with no feeling in my lower legs and feet. Or puppy paws scarily close to my face.

    Have an amazing time in Costa Rica!!!!!!

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