Here's a gem. We have this mangy tortoise shell cat who is about 300 years old. We'll, maybe not quite. But as good as. We found her abandoned some time around 1997/98 and she was already an adult cat then. So she's got to be at least 15, 16 years old. Overall she holds pretty good health. On the occasions when she does feel a bit poorly, it's usually around 10pm on a Saturday night when it costs about 4 000 SEK for a trip to the vet. I'd rather that she was sick more often, but at a more reasonable hour. Naturally, with her advancing years, her mind isn't as sharp as it was. She was never exactly the smartest cat to begin with, so you can picture her current status. With a decrease in mental sharpness has come a corresponding increase in vocal activity. She has developed a delightful habit of letting fly with a stomach churning, blood curling howl whenever the feeling takes her. We've had her checked on a number of Saturday nights and there doesn't appear to be any physical cause as to why she does this. I've watched her do it a few times and she seems to get herself into a bit of a trance. Even more vacant than usually. And in to the mix her yelling out whenever she has had a meal, had a drink, been to the toilet, can't find the sun, can't find us, and you've got a very chirpy house. Often she's looking for us, so a quick yell to her and she stops calling out and comes to find us.
Every once in a while, she'll have a bit of a singalong in the apartment during the middle of the night. A raised whisper usually puts an end to it and, if that fails, a carefully aimed toss of a spare pillow tends to get the message through. And we can all sleep in peace.
Until last night, that is.
She started around midnight. Not the real "from the gut", more of the "I've just woken up, where the hell are you ?" call. I gave a bit of a muffled yell back to her, and that seemed to keep her happy. For about 15 minutes. Then she started again. I tried the same ploy. Another 15 minutes of peace. After about an hour and a half, the time interval had dropped from 15 minutes to about 10 minutes. Time for Phase Two. From the top of the stairs by our bedroom, I can get a good curve on a tossed pillow so that it lands in the middle of the corridor below. Her usual haunt when she's in that mood. So I let rip and it landed right on the money. Did the trick too as there was total silence.
For about 30 minutes.
It was now just after 2am. And away we went. At this point I decided that there was going to be no way to shut her up, and I'd just have to try and sleep through her madness. Which didn't work. Around 4:30am she finally gave up, and I basked in 90 minutes of dozing before it was time to get up.
Dragging ourselves out of bed in a sleep deprived stupor we stumbled over to get dressed. Opened the closed wardrobe door and
...... out shot the cat.
We didn't say much over breakfast.
Very funny! Much sympathy - but I think your cat is in the first stages of dementia. When she also starts pooing and weeing all over the place, that is it.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine and her husband once had one of those studio apartments where the bed fols back up against the wall. You can guess where the cat spent the whole day, and what state the bed was in when they went to get in it...