paper scissors bed
Posted on Jun 11th, 2008
by 
tinkonthebrink
tinkonthebrink
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for June 11, 2008:
The picture above is from a while back, just before Krissy's dreads and just after the new puppy. She had some kind of bug thing that day, which is why she was in bed during daylight hours. If I don't post anything for a while after this, someone should probably check to see if she's strangled me for posting this pic. But the point is, it's a great illustration of our sleeping dilemma. Most nights not all four of the dogs sleep in the bed, usually it's two of the dogs and two of the cats. It just seems like more. It seems like, oh, about 500 animals. And almost every night I wake up at some point pinned to the bed by the weight of a dog who during the day weighs fifty pounds but at night weighs as much as a small car parked on the bed next to my legs and tangled in the blankets, which usually doesn't happen with cars. Then too, sometime between three and five am, the cats will start playing some game known only to cats which seems to be a cross between playing tag and working on a demolition crew. It seems like closing them all out of the bedroom would be a really obvious choice here. The other side of this sleeping arrangement though is that during the night I wake up and my hands find soft fur and silky ears and sometimes I wake up to purring sounds, or Lyra grunting and snoring (because she seems to be part piglet), or Willow licking at me, and I curl up against Krissy's warm smooth skin and the fur foks organize themselves around us and it's the warmest, sweetest, most satisfying sleep I've ever had, even if it gets interrupted for the kitty demolition derby a couple of hours later or when the car has to be reparked on the bed. It's like paper-scissors-rock -- the rewards of contact and connection, touch and love beat uninterrupted sleep hands down, every time.
Access: Public
qar
September 2008 
Rapunzel,
I love this blog entry of yours. I usually have a cat RIGHT in my leg area of the bed. She's an old girl, and at 14, I don't fight her on it. I just find a way to sleep around her. I have the same cat game occuring in my house, too! It usually involves some gutteral growling, hissing, running around and a lot of vocalization. They tear-ass around the bedroom and then up and down the stairs. I've tried closing them out of the bedroom, or at least one of them, but then one cat always jams her paws underneath the bedroom door and STILL tries to get the other! I have just learned to ignore the cat brawling. I don't understand why the game has to begin at such a crazy hour of the morning, though. In my house it's always between 3 and 4 am! The cats usually settle down. Taz, my old girl at my feet again and Georgie, my youngster licking my hand. You are right… “touch and love beat uninterrupted sleep hands down, EVERY TIME!”
Hugs!
-Susan
Jeannie, the photo looks delicious. In Colorado I have a narrow single bed with Gnomi and Sticky vying every night for the sharing of my pillow. Gnomi sleeps curled in a ball unmoving but Sticky sprawls his long legs and growls if I push at him to find a place for my legs. They often have a knock down drag out all teeth and claws before they settle on who gets the head of the bed and me underneath the fight, but I love to feel their fur in the night and their wild doggy smell especially if a paw rests on my nose at 2 a.m.. In Utah the double bed feels so grand. I read that in the States the number one reason for insomnia is pets keeping us from our sleep.
what?! the number one reason for insomnia is pets?!! that is the best news I've heard all day. I mean– if that is the worst of our problems……. :-)
and jeannie – I think she should KISS you for posting this pic. what a love fest!
I am too snooty to sleep with dogs and I'm only soft-hearted enough to let the cats in our room if Jordan isn't home and she crys. The dogs have their own bed AND their own couch. and they are really big dogs, so they just have to keep each other company.
my number one reason for insomnia is good books and having to be at work too early. :-)
Great picture and great blog…thank you for the reminder that I'm not alone in the love of fur babies (and happily put up with all kinds of crap for the privilege:-)
this looks like our house any day of the week. When someone is down, the pets rally to give off their healing powers.
Many people are fascinated to know ( if I may slip into my Cliff Clavin persona for a bit ) that pets can actually increase gravity and staple their caregivers in place beneath copious covers.
Chloe preferrs to sleep draped over my head snood-like and will deign herself subservient enough to sleep in the curl of my legs upon occasion. However, never forget that the Fur Folks will always win out, regardless of our mass or desires.
I'm sure if we weighed a sleeping animal, or person for that matter, he/she/it would turn up to weigh approximately 3,5 times more than in the waking state. Why aren't The Scientists looking into this gravity-defying phenomena??
I constantly have little nicks in my nose because my one cat likes to sleep ON MY FACE if at all possible. As if oxygen is not necessary for humans. We are, after all, really only furniture, food bowl-fillers, and poopy-scoopers as far as cats are concerned. At some point in the night I decide I really do need to breathe and then she goes directly betwixt my calves. Since I'm a highly aerobic sleeper, this doesn't usually last too long and she goes airborn over the side of the bed when I turn over. At this point I've outlived my usefulness and she goes elsewhere to sleep and half of me is relieved and the other half heartbroken.