Cats are both nocturnal and diurnal? What am I talking about, in the wild, relatives to our domesticated pets, are nocturnal, meaning they are awake and active during the night. Domesticity has transformed our four legged friends to coincide their sleeping patterns with their human housemates, developing a diurnal pattern of being more active during the daylight hours. The average cat sleeps 16 to 20 hours a day, yup, that sounds about right for my guy. He curled up on the dog’s bed yesterday and didn’t move for 7 hours, basking in the sunlight coming in the front window. He was so cute and I kept remarking to him what a handsome creature he was sprawled out there, tummy exposed for the tickling. At three a.m. I didn’t find him quite as endearing as he stood beside my face purring, and if you have ever met Romeo you know his purr is like a V12 engine, it’s loud. To make a long story short, due to his health issues, my guy has to eat every couple of hours to combat his acidic stomach and vomiting issues. I have learned to cope with this, before bed every night I get his dry and wet food ready, I have a neat little system I have devised and I set it up on the night stand so I just have to reach over and cater to his needs. It works for us, but some nights he decides he needs more than just a late night snack, he needs to love me for my attentive care. I appreciate being loved, really I do, I just wish the loving would allow me to continue to get some REM sleep. And the difficult part of his late night cuddle sessions, once I am awake I start thinking of the to do list, he’s purring and I lay there listening to him. Eventually he either feels he has bestowed enough TLC to me and wanders off down the hall to do whatever it is he does or he makes his way to the foot of the bed and falls asleep. And there I lay, wide awake, wondering who is the nocturnal creature now and who has adapted to whose behaviours.
No Time To Paws 