Oh yeah. They are also cruel, vicious predators. During what is termed the "Midnight Crazies" — more accurately from about 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., the time of early morning when people have their most calm, restful, deep sleep, and hence also the time when stormtroopers are most likely to burst in your room to drag you off to interrogation — these nocturnal animals revert to the jungle.
Their howling, screeching, fighting, and full-speed running doesn't happen every night. Just most nights. Last night was the worst — besides the howling and screeching, they also were pounding hard on the windows, attempting to get at a cat in the back yard, who dared to trespass on THEIR territory.
A typical cat race starts in the basement, on top of the ventilation ducts — you can tell by the loud noise of flexing metal heard throughout the house (I suppose they are fighting over the best warm spots) — goes up the stairs to the main floor, into my bedroom and over my formerly blissfully sleeping body, into the living room (where something invariably falls over with a thud, and occasional shattering noise), and finally upstairs where there is more banging and bouncing. Particularly amusing (at least for someone who has just been woken up by all this) is when the cats, at full speed, race over the linoleum floor: the chase ends with the noise of cat claws, desperately attempting to grab into the hard, smooth surface and finding no hold, the creature then helplessly sliding until it hits the wall with a loud thump.
You have to admire the cats' athleticism. My smallest cat, only six pounds in size, has discovered that she can leap from my bedroom closet shelf, over an amazing distance of nine feet, to my blissfully sleeping body. Yes, I'm sure she is happy to see me. I hope the bigger ones don't pick up on that special trick.
Around six in the morning, the cats send a delegation to my bed (led by the biggest and most intimidating cat, who easily draws plenty of blood when he feels like it), to let me know that their food bowls are empty. I dutifully get up and feed them, and remind myself to refill the bowls before going to bed that evening.
This is why I like to take a nap in the afternoon. I am joined in my nap by wonderful, warm, fuzzy, and completely silent little kitties.
I think I know now why the monks of old decided that 3 a.m. was a good time to get up and pray.
ReplyDeleteMy cat Miles has woken me up at about 4:30am almost everyday for the past 9 years to give him "pre-breakfast snack". Usually I can fall asleep again, but not always. Of couse I must obey him - he punishes me if I don't. The other 2 cats want a snack too, but Miles is the bossy one who wakes me up.
ReplyDeleteMy parents just dropped off one of their cats for a "play-date" to see how he gets along with mine. They're going on vacation in a couple weeks and can't leave him alone with their 2 girl cats, and since boarding him gets expensive, we're trying to see if my cats will put up with him. I'd rather just take him in for a week and let them all sort it out. Keeping him for just one night won't be that useful, since they'll hiss all night and then he'll go home. I guess if it'll make my parents feel better...