Why Won’t My Cat Let Me Sleep?!
Living with humans has taught me a lot about human behavior (like did you know they *don’t* use their tongues to clean themselves?! WEIRD!) One of the other things I’ve learned is that humans don’t like being woken up in the middle of the night (especially not by sitting on their faces). But as a cat sometimes I have to yowl (sing the song of my people!), or zoom from room to room (you don’t want to know why), or paw my humans, because I have *needs*. What are my needs? Let me fill you in…
Food/Water
While I’m definitely on the dainty side for a cat, I do enjoy eating tasty food (I mean, if I’m gonna eat calories, they might as well be the tastiest ones). But living with six other cats means that sometimes, if one of them is feeling particularly gluttonous (*side eyes Larry*), I might not get as much food as I would like. And that means if it’s 2am and I’m hungry, I’m going to wake up the humans and get fed (if I only had thumbs…).
Water’s also important. I mean, I do get a lot of water from my food, but sometimes I want a drink of water. And that bowl better be clean, and the water better be fresh, or else someone’s face is going to get bapped (admittedly it might be Little Squishie’s face that gets bapped since he’s a messy drinker, but that would mean the humans have to wake up anyways, so yeah!).
Playtime
Even though I’m not a dog (thank goodness!), playtime is still important to me. Spending time playing with me during the day will tucker me out, ensuring you humans get all your beauty rest at night (not that it will help, because you’ll never be as gorgeous as a cat).
Litterbox
Do you know how much poop seven cats create? I can’t count, so I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure it’s a lot. A clean litter box = a happy cat. A dirty litter box = an unhappy cat *and* an unhappy human (and a super smelly house — yuck). Make sure my box is clean.
Bored/Lonely
Sometimes I just wanna hang out with my human. That doesn’t necessarily mean I want my human touching me (I’m kind of weird about being touched), but rather I want to be near her. And while I *sort of* understand with a full-time job and lots of other cats it can be difficult for me to get some human time, the female human needs to understand that I will get my time one way or another — during the daytime when she’s awake (breakfast is my *favorite* time to stick my tail in the human female’s face), or at night when she thinks she’ll get to sleep (my *second* favorite time to stick my tail in the human female’s face).
Medical Issues
Finally, if your cat suddenly has a behavior change and is now waking you up, it’s probably a good idea to call your v-e-t. (Just don’t tell your cat I suggested that.) Since we’re cats and we’re stoic, we hide everything. Until we don’t, and that usually means the problem can’t be hidden, and then it might be too late.
Hmm. All this talk of hanging out with my human made me realize I should go do that. In a couple weeks, I’ll consider writing on ways you can help your cat if it’s keeping you up at night. Maybe.
