Bedtime & Witching Hour: Blue’s Intrusive Nightly Behaviors

Hi, I’m Amanda! Read my introduction to learn more about me and Blue, my fluffy fire point Himalayan-Persian cat.

Not too long ago, I wrote about how Blue and I seemed to be in sync regarding our morning routine and how blogging has brought us closer than ever. We are in a good rhythm most of the time, but I failed to report the few negatives that have inevitably developed from our newfound friendship.

Our kinship is not one that can be tarnished by a few nightly mishaps, and my fondness of her will never waver, but I admit that I’m not all that thrilled about the commotion Blue causes at two crucial points during the night. The time I put my kids to sleep and the witching hour, my least favorite time to be yanked out of a good dream.

It’s not like it happens every night. There are days when we don’t struggle to find a spot for her in our bed or she comes late enough that it doesn’t matter. It’s even less often that I am violently shaken from my subconscious by a cat heaving at the foot of the bed.

Bedtime

Before I call it a night, I like to make my bed. Pull all my blankets back to their rightful spots and tuck in any excess. Many people probably make their bed as soon as they leave it in the morning, but not me. I like to live on the wild side. Tight sheets feel like a big welcoming hug at the end of a long day. Blue must feel the same way because there she is, as soon as we turn in, eager to find her spot on the bed, or should I say on top of us.

As much as I would love to have Blue snuggle into her first-choice spot, her weight does not act like a weighted blanket. Rather, it’s like a paperweight, trapping your legs like a sausage casing under the sheets. The warm hug turns one of us into a cocoon and usually results in a whirl of protests until I relocate her to a free area of the bed.

This is a relatively new behavior for Blue. Many nights, she’d meander into our bed once the house was quiet, but lately, story time and the 1000th “I love you” and “good night” don’t appear to bother her much. The settling-in process feels just as important to her as it does to the rest of us. I did say the blog transformed my relationship with Blue, and it’s certainly impacted the way my boys interact with her, too. We’re all just peas in a pod now.

Witching Hour

Our little nightly nest must be pretty comfortable because there has been another notable shift in Blue’s regular kitty-cat etiquette. When duty calls, your girl answers. I don’t mean she's bathrooming on the bed, that’d be exponentially worse, but when a hairball strikes, she feels no need to expel it anywhere else but where she is currently posted, of course. I imagine it being similar to going to the bathroom in the middle of the night without attempting to fully wake up.

Luckily, I can still count on one hand the number of times this has happened. No slumber is deep enough for me to sleep through her less-than-quiet wretching. The honest-to-goodness reason I am writing this today is that this happened last night and I reacted too slowly to get her onto the floor. Shame. It’s a bit embarrassing, but I left the mess until the morning, and wow. Never again. I'll spare the details but as a fellow cat owner, I know you know.

So, Where Do We Go From Here?

The biggest takeaway from this experience is that it is probably a growing pain. Once she understands the boundaries of the bed and we become a little more open to her joining our bedtime routine, I think this will become a very beautiful thing for her and our family.