I haven’t said much about Shalimar lately – but by no means has she been keeping a low profile!
Shalimar is one of the few constants in my life. I can’t believe she will be ten years old in December (she has two birthdays – a BIRTHday in December, and her adoption birthday in February – the day before Valentine’s Day!)
It’s been cold cold cold here – well okay. MILD. Like England in the summer. But I have been freezing – so now that Spring is springing up, I’ve been much happier. It’s my favorite season. It’s Shalimar’s favorite too.
I have to admit, Shalimar has been very much in the dog house lately (cat house?). I’ve been out more often during the day – meaning my bored kitty cat SLEEPS. All day long. Ah the life!
It means she wants to PARTY ALL NIGHT!
Being kept awake makes me a right grump. Especially because Shalimar is fascinated with my head and face. She will come up to my face and head bump me over and over, or just lay her face against mine (until I’m gasping and blue). It’s very sweet – but one needs to sleep!
Maybe this will help?
It’s better than my current idea – balancing an old aerosol bottle of deodorant on my head. Shalimar is terrified of aerosol cans and won’t come near me. But I’m not very good at balancing things on my head awake, let alone asleep.
Have you ever done something silly to get a good night’s sleep?
Hi Fi, I love hearing about you and Shalimar. So have you had her since she was a kitten? I can’t remember. She is just about the same age as our beloved cat. It’s hard to think that she is already considered an older cat. I looked up a conversion chart for cat age to human age. At 9 years old a cat is 52 years old in human age.
I totally understand about the kitty on the head in the middle of the night phenomenon. Our cat has a pattern of waking up at 4 AM. Sometimes she lets us know by gently touching our head, or face. Other times she will come sit on my chest and purr near my face. That one is really really sweet even though I usually don’t want to get up.
One strategy I’ve tried for dealing with that is to blow on her or hiss at her. That is better than physically pushing her away or raising the voice at her. The hissing works for daytime communications about stuff I don’t want her to do. But in the early morning scenario it usually doesn’t work. So I end up getting up and giving her some food and then going back to bed, closing the bedroom door. We used to keep her out of the bedroom at night and she’d cry at the door for a long time. And I hated that. She wanted to be with us and I wanted that too. I was so happy when my husband agreed to let her sleep with us. Therefore in gratitude, I usually get up at 4 AM to put her out of the bedroom so she doesn’t bug him. For whatever reason she doesn’t meow at the closed door at that point in the mornings.
The other thing I’ve taken to doing is to just get up early. And then take a nap in the afternoon to make up for the short night of sleep.
Sorry for the long comment. I love to talk about our cat and cats in general.
Hi Gel, oh gosh!! Our cats are so elderly! Yes, I’ve had her from kittenhood – she was eight weeks old. That’s why her two birthdays are two months apart
I love talking about cats too – any cats. Do you find your cat sometimes seems to get cheekier and younger as she grows older, or is that just my crazy kitty? It’s interesting how hissing works. I think that’s why Shalimar is so scared of aerosol cans – they must hiss (I can’t hear them). And what is it about those early morning hours? Shalimar does that at 5am. Always 5am. How on earth do they know it’s that time? Proof, I guess, that ‘body clock’ is a real thing. I live in a studio apartment so the only way I could shut her out of the bedroom would be to shut her in the bathroom and i feel horrible doing that – so I just give her food and go back to sleep, or sleep with the aerosol can haha. I love that you are grateful that your cat wants to be with you, rather than annoyed that she’s woken you – that is a beautiful way to see it indeed – and it is a blessing too. So many times, I think – she loves me. She actually loves me. Such a gift. xxx
I read that about hissing instead of yelling or hitting. Because to our cats we are the parents. So what a mother cat would do to scold her kitten is to hiss. And hearing that about our domesticated cats as staying in a perpetual state of cat childhood makes sense of some of her behavior. I guess in nature when a cat matures it would go off on it’s own and have it’s own hunting territory. Keeping a cat means they don’t ‘grow up’. (But I’m not sure how that works if they do get pregnant and have kittens but are still living with humans). Our cat has always been cheeky. I think it’s her way of keeping things interesting and getting more attention. Sometimes she seems like a typical teenager, she sort of squints when I talk to her with ‘baby talk’ and too much endearments. Kind of like a teenager rolls their eyes at their parents ‘uncool’ behavior. I’ve always felt her love even though she shows it in more indirect ways than a dog. I don’t know why cats got a reputation of being aloof. Again I read that cats are very social but in a much different way than dogs. They use a lot of subtle facial expressions and body language to communicate and I think people might totally miss that. They actually have more facial muscles than humans and have a ton more subtle expressions than we do. After reading that I’ve paid more attention to our cat’s expressions and body language. I see a lot more now than I used to.
Yup I’d say your Shalimar loves you quit a bit. What a blessing.
A couple other thoughts…..I believe cats are, by nature, nocturnal so it is natural for them to be up at night. And they sleep a ton. I estimate that our cat sleeps 75 to 80 % of the time. I don’t think it’s boredom. I think it’s their natural way. One thing we discovered about playing with our cat is to use a puppet. We have a wolf hand puppet that we put on. That way we can wrestle with her and she can bite a use her claws without hurting us. It seems really satisfying for her. Other than the puppet we play with her with other toys but never allowing direct contact with our bare hands. Have fun with your Shalimar!!
You are true about cats being so much more social – and how it’s more subtle. Also I think because they are so smart (well some of the time, youtube is proof not all the time!) they can come across as aloof because we silly human beings really do the strangest things sometimes. And they are obviously far superior to us!! Haha
gotta love them – they do love us 
xx
Cats are so comforting and they have a way of soothing our souls and making us smile…even if he won’t let you sleep..Diane
Yes haha – they have to keep waking us up to remind us of how blessed we are to have them
they are very comforting indeed – so loving – unconditionally xx
Hihihi! Naughty naughty Shalimar!
Well her bf-cat is no better. When my bf leaves the town for a couple of nights I leave the bedroom door open for my cats. It is always a bad idea! My old one usually cuddles nearby or at my feed when the young one keeps me awake at all his attempts – mostly taping on my face with his paw, or slightly biting my nose and singing Mwahs all night long! So I have no choice but keep them out of bedroom. At least they always have each other for partying.
PS your measures are hilarious! Adore the hat!
Haha Greta, yours must party doubly hard since there are two of them! I am actually feeling a lot better about things reading the comments – I used to think it must be because I was a terrible cat-owner, that poor Shalimar had to sleep all day so she was so bored at night! Now I see it’s cat-behaviour! Don’t cats put the fun into our lives
xxx
So true! So fun! Though lately, as I sped more time at home – the fun is kind of exhausting… Anyways, I can’t imagine my life without those two
and I can’t imagine mine without Shalimar
xx
I am a light sleeper so my dog and cat have to sleep outside our room. We tried to have them in the room but the dog snores and the cat likes to climb under the covers. Now they keep each other company. But they wake up my oldest son when they have their wrestling matches on my new area rug which they think I bought just for them… I enjoyed your post! ~ Wendy
Haha Wendy, a dog and a cat wrestling! And of course you bought that rug for them, pets are the centre of the family! I’m loving everyone’s comments about their pets – really making me smile too
xx
oh ya i sleep with a pillow over my head and a stuffed bear and fan on…years of living in noisy apartments….now i can’t sleep without these things, the bear well, guess i never grew out of that..
Bears are comforting! I find it hard to sleep without cuddling something – now I cuddle a hot water bottle. But I often have grabbed a teddy bear too. I don’t see why not!
The pillow though – I hope you can breathe haha. xx
they are comforting. yes the pillow, yeash i wish i could sleep without it over my head! i’m glad to know i’m not the only one that sleeps with something…lol
far from the only one – we are all human beings when it boils down to it
true xo how did the hat work?
She found it very very fun to play with!!
xxx
silly kitty! lol
This is the one thing I worry about, about getting a kitten, that it will want to play with my nose or something.
My old cat would chase my feet as I moved in my sleep and it was funny, but annoying in those chances I did get sleep. I ended up making her sleep in the living room, but I hated that too, felt like I was ignoring her etc.
I guess when you get few sleep, those times when you actually do are really important.
My kitten comes on Thursday! Yay!
xxx
oh gosh that’s awesome!!!! And guess what? you should totally have a chance to set up a sleeping place for your kitten as soon as you can – perhaps if he or she is used to sleeping in another room from the start then it will be easy to go on that way. Don’t worry about ‘ignoring’ her – believe me they get up to so much mischief and fun that we never see
Enjoy – so excited for you xx
Haha, I was thinking of setting up my camera when I wasn’t in the room to see what my cat gets up to. This guy records his game play, and records his cat.
xx
So funny when he goes out of the room!
Oh wow that would be awesome. I saw on Dr Harry once, they set up cameras to record what one of the vet’s cats got up to at home all day when she was out at work – and it was seriously naughty stuff
Hahaha that cat is naughty!!!!!