Night Alarums or Cat Tales

Let me begin by saying that 1) I have no desire to cause any animal harm and 2) no animals have been harmed.  That being said, I am sure that some of pet loving friends may never speak to me again after reading this.

I am a classic non-sleeper. Usually takes me forever to get to sleep, wake up often and cannot get back to sleep, yada, yada, yada.  Since we moved, I have mostly slept well.  Still takes me a long time to get to sleep, buy once there I stay there until 5ish.  The ugliness of no sleep has taken over again, but I blame the animals in our house.

Huxley sleeps in the house because he barks all night if left out.  So regardless of where we put his nice bed, he spends the night wedging himself under our bed and then trying to roll over.  Gets stuck. Collar jingles.  Bed shakes.  I am awake.

Dr. Coconut was in until he started jumping on Bell and demanding to go out at 3 a.m.  Princess Buttercup mostly does okay, but she sometimes jumps on Bell too.  Then I have a small body wedging herself into my bed, leaving no room for me.

Nora Jane has been the catalyst of my ire.  Nora spent all summer meowing to come in.  I got worn down.  I felt guilty because the other cats came in for some petting and loving, but poor Nora was all alone.  Now please remember that she is NOT our cat.  Just a stray.  Nevertheless, I caved and started letting her in a bit in the morning and in the evening.  Nora thanked me by first acting sweet.  Then she snuck into the kitchen ate the top off the cooling pizza.  The next day she had some more pizza. One day it was sweet and sour pork when I stepped out of the kitchen for a moment.  Despite all the scolding, Jack let her stay in one night.  She peed on Bell's bed.  Needless, to say Nora is back to outside status.  Now she scratches as the door.  12.3.5. All night.  Huxley and I hear her.  Yesterday morning in the shower at an ungodly early hour, I wondered what would happen if we plastered the door with unfolded glue traps.  I bet the scratching would become shrieking and I surely would not want to be the one to unstick her.  But just maybe she would go sleep in the barn. The idea of electrifying the back door held possibility.   Not to hurt, just to give a tiny shock.  Just enough to warn her back.

My temper had settled a bit until this morning Buttercup decided to chase her tail under the edge of the bed.  I am sure she didn't realize that it was my side or that she was making noise.  I am sure that it was purely innocent that she returned at 5 to do it some more.  Maybe she will have more space to chase her tail in the yard tonight.