Monday, March 26, 2007

Sleep, cats and Rugby

Yeah, I completely forgot to take a photo of my sock-in-progress this weekend. It's a Jaywalker in the Rugby colorway over at HelloYarn.com

This weekend was all about sleepy-mini. Now, many of you who “know” me know that I am an early girl. Early bird. Up with the birds. Morning person. All these phrases describe me up until this past weekend. I was utterly exhausted. There was an emotional component there (see last week’s posts) but there was also just a lot of physical exhaustion.

I used to be very proud of the fact that I needed very little sleep. I would be asleep at 12 or 1am and up at 4:30am or 5am. Until I moved in with PC. The dime-store psychiatrist in me will tell you that the change is for a number of reasons: safety and security, I feel like I am being protected and therefore can relax enough to sleep. But, I have to say, on the ride into work today, the radio voices were talking about something that finally made it “real” to me why I sleep better. White.Noise.

When I was in high school, I slept with a white noise machine. It produced background noise and helped me sleep. So, when I was in college, my roommated hated this machine and I, subsequently, learned to sleep without it. And now, PC IS my white noise machine. PC is a great guy (ask anyone who has met him), but he snores. It doesn’t bother me in the least. But, this weekend, I fell asleep on my own very fast and then I gave PC a run for his money. He claims I scared the cat.

Also, I need some advice from all you cat-people out there. Some of you may know that Pumpkin is my first foray into cat-ownership. So far, so good. She doesn’t hide, love vanilla pudding and plays with toys. So, here’s the questions:

1) which flowers will she NOT eat?

2) Why does she follow us from room to room? Am I supposed to pick her up and carry her with me??

3) The meowing… this is relatively new. VERY vocal. If PC and I move to the office to look at something on the computer, she will wake up in the living room and meow incessantly into the office and then require a snuggle and a butt rub. (don’t ask.)

4) 3a.m. Everyday I wake up at 3am to hot fishy breath in my face. She is standing on her back paws, with her front paws on the mattress, breathing on me. When I open my eyes, she swats my nose. Then if I move the sheets, she pops in under the covers for an hour or so. Why is this?? Is she cold???

Most of you didn’t like the new font, so I changed it back. Today is a new one too. Let me know if you can 1) see it and 2) how it looks. I use Mozilla when I write these, so I can’t always tell what it’ll be like on IE.


Mini, exhausted.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:13 AM

    The font looks better but not sure what the sing line is on the bullets. Glad you got some sleep. Can't halpwitht he cat, just another thing I'm alergic to. Boy is that list getting long as I get older.
    Tami

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  2. I think you're kitty is just looking for some love and attention. Enjoy it!

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  3. Anonymous11:23 AM

    I think Pumpkin is showing good signs of attachment. She wants to be with you. She loves you.
    The font looks fine to me but you have some code showing at your bullet points.
    Karen
    http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/

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  4. Mini, It's great that you got some sleep. It always helps improve the mood. Here are some answers to your cat questions.

    Cat's (and animals in general) won't eat something that will harm them. It's part of their instinct.

    She is following you because, like a small child, she don't like to be alone. Some are loners and some are social. You have been blessed with a social cat.

    And that brings us to the meowing. She is talking to you and calling out to you when you leave the room. Do you call to her when she is looking for you? I had a very vocal cat. She loved to carry on and tell me all about things. I even taught her to whisper early in the morning when everyone else was asleep because she could be very loud.

    And the 3 a.m. wake up call is partly wanting to snuggle and partly cold. She has learned how to wake you up to get what she wants. LOL

    Cat's are very smart animals and a joy to have a good one in your life. Congrats on the addition and enjoy.

    Cory

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  5. The following you around is a sign she loves you and wants to be with you. My cat's the same way (currently lying in my lap, actually).

    I'm guessing that Pumpkin is still a kitten/young cat (my memory holds on to odd things, but not that.) She may grow out of the waking you up stage - Carolina used to bite my toes to wake me up as a kitten, and now just lets me sleep and drapes herself on me and sleeps too.

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  6. Anonymous8:06 PM

    I would never get a wink of sleep if I allowed my cats to have the run of the house at night. My cats have their own room, and they go there every night about 9:30. They know when it's bed time. I close the door and they don't get the opportunity to bother me until morning.

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  7. The font and everything else looks fine with the Firefox version of Mozilla.

    I agree with the previous comments -- Pumpkin just likes to be around you and, so, wants to be wherever you are. But cats WILL eat things that are poisonous, and chewing on plants is a very bad habit. I have a couple of cats who do that, and I have to spray the plants with something to discourage it. You can buy Bitter Apple or Bitter Yuck (really!), or you can dilute some hot sauce and spray that on. Anything that Pumpkin will find nasty-tasting will work.

    And she will grow out of the waking-you-up stage. In the meantime, enjoy that social, affectionate cat you're lucky enough to have!

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  8. My cat has no interest in any of my houseplants. If you have plants, I'd just see what your kitty does with them. Some cats do eat plants. Most plants aren't poisonous, but if you're worried, consult a botanist about the individual plants you have in your house.

    My cat follows us all around, to the point where we trip on him. I concur with the other voices, it's a sign of bonding. And we also lock our cat in the garage at night - he has his food, water, and litter and a soft bed - to prevent that kind of awakening.

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