Crazy Animal Antics

Our little menagerie of animals at home is becoming quite the issue when it comes to good, productive sleep. As you recall from the Fur-Babies' page on the blog, there are three little rascals in our family:  1 Sasser dog and 2 Kerr cats (who were never fully adopted by James, thus retaining our old name.) Until Enda came along, the cats had free reign of the house:  they roamed around freely, sat with us on the couch, cuddled with us in the bed (well, at the foot, they didn't venture further than that), etc...  Now they basically spend 90% of their day curled up in the office on my desk (Lupe) or on her heated window perch (Carmen), to avoid a run in with the dog downstairs.  This does not mean that Enda doesn't take every chance she can to run up and greet her sisters, and seems to think the hissing and swatting is just the kitty girls showing affection.

Maybe it's high tide or full moon or something else like this right now, but everyone is starting to act a little strange.  Particularly at night.  And, it's affecting our sleep.

First, Enda is reverting back to bad behaviors and sleeping in our bed.   She starts out in her bed and stays there until the wee hours of the morning, but finally gets us the nerve to start nudging me around 3AM to "ask" to get in under the covers.  And I let her because 1) I'm a bad pet mom, 2) I'm too groggy to care, and 3) she cuddles under the covers and keeps me warm.  It's not a bad deal, except that we're creating a furry monster.

"What?  You don't like my nose in your face while you sleep?"

Now it seems the kitty girls are also starting to get a little brazen.  The past few nights,  Lupe has insisted on head butting the door until we crack it open.  At first I thought she was doing this to show her disdain for closed doors, but then noticed she was starting to actually enter the room and jump on the foot of the bed.  She then stares at you throughout the night. Everything is fine with this scenario, until Lupe notices Enda (or vice versa).  If Enda happens to be under the covers when this happens, it becomes WWIII on top of the duvet.  Hissing, spitting, swatting. At 4 in the morning.  Lovely.

"I'm watching you..."

And then there's my little explorer, Carmen, who has started to slip out of the screen door (which Enda has learned to open, but can't yet close) and venture into the back yard.  Usually I can find her before she gets too far, but I guess yesterday she made a run for it.  This morning, I heard James open the back door and talk (sweetly) to someone.  I was a little confused as to who he was talking to after I realized Enda was under the covers and Lupe on top of the covers.  I later found out that little Carmen had spent the entire night outside in our yard, and was screaming to get in once she heard James making coffee.  Geez Louise...

"The backyard is scary, Mom"

Honest to goodness, these animals are going to drive me crazy.  For people who say animals are good training for kids, I will say both yes and no:  it might train you to function on less sleep, but I really hope that kids won't wake me up by hissing in my face.   If my child does that, we may have bigger problems than these crazy fur-babies... :)