Cat naps are aptly named. With a calico cat that makes her home with us but only on her terms, we are on-call throughout the night. As darkness falls, we open the front door to beckon in Kitty for the evening. She makes no effort to come closer, let alone acknowledge us, before she is ready. Dealing with that “cat-titude” is off-putting. My wife Sheri, more patient than me, leaves doors ajar for the cat.
This cat also seems to have distinct preferences as to where she sleeps and with whom. Sometimes, she prefers the couch in the living room. While I thought she wants to join my wife there, already dozing with the television on, it seems she prefers to be the initiator not the “joiner”. Some nights she wakes Sheri, from our bed, to follow her to the living room couch, where she prefers human company for a little catnap. If Sheri had couch duty the prior evening, sometimes I try to answer the cat on her first request.
At least with dogs, they would bed down at the side of the bed, and sleep most of the night. If they went in and out of the doggie door several times a night, unless they barked, I rarely was conscious of it. Though my family are light sleepers anyway, it seems the cat wakens us often to let her inside or outdoors. If outside, with an uncanny knack she possesses, she knows which bedroom window is whose when she wants in.
On the nights our son is not working overnight, and the cat is outside, she has fewer staff to respond to her. I try to remain in bed until morning if put her outside before midnight. Yet she seems to know when he is home -and her meows will get him out of bed as well. Catnaps are all we seem to get anymore. But we are okay with it. This is the cat that lived in our garage for several years while the dogs were alive. She never set foot inside their home prior to six months ago, though we were appreciative that she hunted gopher all these years. While she does not act like a feral cat anymore, I might like it if she were a little less Egyptian god and more ‘house’cat .
It's a Dog's Life 