Silent Jungle Predators?!?

[StinkyT]

I just wanted to rant, I didn't get too much sleep last night.

I know cats are nocturnal and accept a degree of noise while we're sleeping but I was sooo angry last night because I had a headache and it was one of those days where you're just totally drained and need to pass out peacefully and the cats started tearing the house apart!

All I could think about were their wild cousins, stalking prey and being all silent and mysterious. I doubt they walk along tree branches and knock stuff out of them just to hear the fun noises that follow! I also can't imagine them gallopping back and forth through the forest or savana and keeping all those gnu and whatevers awake.

My cats, people, are NOT stealthy. They are so heavy-footed I can hear them when they walk. And when they tear up and down the halls I think they might've strapped on some astronaut boots or something. And they seriously sound like a herd of horses the way they go. Siighhh... and of course once they wound themselves down the big one hopped up on the bed and took up prime real estate forcing mommy's legs to tetris off the side of the bed.

The worst is when I get out of bed. That's when they follow me around looking all angelic and sweet. I know I can't stay mad... at least until I go back to sleep tonight...

[jessi76]

LMAO! sounds like my house too! I have 2, and last night, while veggin on the couch, it sounded like a herd of elephants upstairs... then when I got to bed, one of the little monsters jumped up on my head, kneeded my head and my hair, nuzzled her sweet little face into my ear, started to purrr and then....

drooled.



they're so lucky they're cute.

[StinkyT]

Yah, my little one used to drool too. Now he just swallows heavily and constantly so it's less gross... but still juicy sounding.

I swear they do it on purpose. "Quiet time?! No way, play time. I can be louder than you! Let's see who mommy and daddy'll yell at first before we run and hide so they can't find us!"

It got so bad with them running in and out of our bedroom I had to close our door. Of course the big one knows how doors work so she sat outside pushing and banging on it. When that didn't work she stuck her paw underneath the door and started plucking causing our double doors to bang even louder. Finally she resorted to rubbing it and making those high-pitched "oh woe is me" mews. That's when I'd had enough and opened the door. And then she beat me back to the bed.

I shake my fists at them from time to time and make all kinds of threats. Apparently that's their cue to purr, plop down and wriggle around waiting for belly rubs.

Them cats are just full of the devil!

[Skryker]

Hee hee, I don't think I've slept all the way through the night in years! Dancer likes to go in and out of the bedroom all night-and I have to sleep with the door closed. So, she goes to the door and meows or scraches and I get up and stumble over to let her out...and then repeat the process in 5 minutes to let her back in after she's had her mouthful of food or slurp of water. And 3-4am is playtime, no matter if I'm sleeping or not.
She's really a benevolent master, though. I usually am allowed to sleep soundly between 12 and 3am.

[jawert1]

My last kitty was a polydactyl Maine Coon/Siamese mix who had paws as big as hooves and sounded like a small herd of buffalo running through the house. Her favorite game was "wait till Mom hits REM sleep, and then I'm gonna pounce on her eyelids cuz they're moving". I didn't get much sleep for at least the first year I had her, she just refused to calm down at night. I will say this though, I was the first one out of bed when it got too quiet, something about that eerie silence that wakes you right up after you're used to the racket

[chico2]

Since we are home with our cats(retired,us not the cats )we have a great schedule,they are busy most of the day,with a few cat-naps in between,we also take them outside for a while.
By the time it's 10-11pm they are pooped and when we go to bed so do they and sleep ALL night.Good Kitties

[mom_to_many]

Wow...I'm gonna hug my kitties for letting me sleep! Their biggest problem is who is going to get the crook of my arm first! It's usually Spook as he loves the feather pillow to knead on. But he does share! Well...sometimes.

[mhass1129]

I actually have to put my cats in their own room for the night. If I leave them in the living room no one will sleep. Talk about NOT having any stealth skills - they will knock down picture frames and lamps and whatever they run through during the night.

Their room has their litter box, cat food, and cat furniture with sufficient room to be all spread out. But it's the room furthest to our bedroom, and we can close their door. So I sleep just fine, I don't know if they go to sleep or chase eachother in there (but it's not as fun!!) all I know is that at 7am they start meaowing and they are ready to go back out to the living room.

[Rick C]

We have four cats and the thumping and running has been going on since time began . . . . . not just with these cats but all the ones before them.

One cat would wake me up at 4 in the morning on the dot for years.

Through 20 some odd years its just something we've gotten used to and it doesn't bother us.

Rick C
www.goldentales.ca

[CyberKitten]

I have had cats that wake me up at ungodly hours but I have to say my current brood - YY and the Spjynx Girls - are great about sleeping thru ther nite. In fact, the very 1st night I brought YY home, when I woke up in the am, exhasuted, she was awake and playing with her little toy next to me -she had slept with me that first night. She is a sweetheart and remains so - well , most of the time, lol (My mom says no-one would kidnap her (we were dicsussing the rash of dognapping occuring in the UK, dog and catnapping for ransom, 80 last week alone) because the entire community would hear her meezer yowls. However, I admit I do worry about catnapping - and not just b/c I recently watched 101 Dalmations with the kids at the hospital recently - Maybe IU read too many mystery novels but anyone kidnapping a meezer would prob give them something to put them to sleep (sigh!) tho my YY is picky about what she eats - they'd have to force it into it and that might be a struggle. Oh dear, I worry about such things!!

[StinkyT]

Haha.. it's good to know I'm not the only one at the mercy of these felines. It's hard to have closed doors. The little one headbutts coz I guess he thinks that's how they open. They he gets preoccupied with the door-stopper-spring thingy. So from inside it'll sound like "BANG. BANG-BANG! BBROOOIIINNGGG!! BANG!"

It's also hard to not put them away coz the little one will also hop on the bed at 4:30am on the dot, purr away and knead mommy's..... throat. Yes, imagine waking up to thoughts of being rhythmically strangled.

Sometimes the big one will wander in and out looking at empty space and do that freaky "Eeeooooooooou..... Yeeooouuuuuu... mmmm!"

My husband also used to stack his pocket change into nice piles for the next morning. He stopped doing that when in the middle of the night we'd hear the coins topple over and then chased under the couches.

[mhass1129]

LOL. My cats figured out how to open doors if they don't click when you close them. Twister will jump and hit the handle of the door if there's a chance that it's just enough fo rit to bust open. Then they play their favorite game - get in the bathroom, sit onthe toilet, and take turns shredding the toilet paper till mom and dad walk in to the remains of feline Mardi Gras and have nothing to wipe with.

Since i'm pregnant and I have to use the bathroom regularly during the night, I had to put them away safely because I'm not all that awake when I use the restroom.. I have tripped over them, accidently stepped on them, and basically we just can't compete for that seat on the toilet. I get priority.

My cats will bang our bedroom door as loud as it was described in an earlier post during hte night if they are not in the room as well - it still wakes up my husband with a jump. Then you hear me mumbling.... "Go back to sleep, it's the cats..."