My friend Athena mentioned her bedtime rituals with her human yesterday, so I thought it would be fun to tell you a little bit about ours. Since there are three of us, it is somewhat more complicated!
- Bedtime Treats. My human’s boyfriend gives these out, and usually it is just Binga and Boodie. For some reason, he complains when I get involved. Can I really be that much trouble? I just want to make sure I get my fair share!
- Actually Going to Bed. My human’s boyfriend goes to sleep first, and usually he makes us all leave because he shuts the door (since my human’s still up), and if we stay, one of us always wants to leave after he’s asleep. My human usually goes to bed an hour or two later, and we go to bed with her. She leaves the door open so we can come and go as we please.
- Restless Sleeping Humans. These humans don’t stay put when they sleep! They thrash around all the time. My human’s boyfriend is always throwing off his covers, and while my human is a deep sleeper, she is almost as fidgety when she’s sleeping as when she is awake. So the only cat that sleeps next to or on either of them on a regular basis is Binga. She can make herself heavy enough so that she doesn’t go flying when one of the humans is flipping around like a fish out of water. Sometimes Boodie will curl up on one side of my human, but mostly she stays near the foot of the bed. I usually keep my distance from both of them.
- Late Night Activities. Mostly we sleep the night through on the bed with the humans. Sometimes Boodie decides to get up and kill one of her toys. When she does this, she likes to announce with mournful screams. It wakes up my human’s boyfriend when she does this. A few times he has gotten up and taken her toy away. Around dawn, Binga occasionally throws up in the hallway. If she does this more than once in a week, my human gives her part of a Cerenia tablet at breakfast. I’m good and don’t cause any trouble that will wake up the humans.
- Getting the Humans Up. This is Binga’s job. She meows loudly (partly because she is hard of hearing) and gets in my human’s face and tries to lick her. This causes my human to hide under the covers because the next step is to bite her nose if she doesn’t get up. She lies there, hiding and trying to ignore Binga until she wants to get up on her own. Besides, her boyfriend has already been up and let Binga in the kennel to eat whatever was leftover from last night’s dinner. So it’s not like she is starving. Unlike Binga, Boodie and I wait patiently.
- Out of Town Humans. That is when Binga and Boodie fur up the missing human’s pillow. Well, at least it happens with my human’s boyfriend — my human uses a satin pillowcase and that is harder to fur up.
- Hotel Bedtime. When I’m out of town with my human, I have to take over both Binga and Boodie’s rituals, along with doing my own. It’s a lot of work! I’m surprised I get any rest.
What do you guys do for bedtime rituals at your house?
Castiel climbs onto my hip and makes happy paws before he settles down. Springsteen II always gets as close to my face as felinely possible.
Morticia sings “The Song of Her People” at night for no apparent reason. SHE.IS. LOUD! She didn’t use to do that until the last couple of years. MK yells at her to shut up.
MK sleeps in a fetal position and Morticia sleeps in the crook behind her knees EVERY night. Always has done.
Nutmeg tries to sleep in MK’s head.
I come up about 2-something AM. I get between them (I wait until MK gets up to pee before making my entrance). Then I run in front of her suddenly as she comes out of the hooman litter box. I purr VERY loudly when I sit between them and demand attention.
Boudicca FINALLY doesn’t sleep on the bed anymore. She was too fat and took up my space!
Ray and Rachel prefer the living room or the cat tree in the bedroom.
I think that’s all of us!
Purrz!
Selina
It’s a wonder anyone with cats get any sleep at all – MOL!
Kitties sure are creatures of habit 😉
Our bedtime ritual is quite involved and changed over the last year and half. When Guido the Tuxedo was with us Zoee and I slept in the cat/craft room. When Guido got sick I decided it was time to claim my rites to the bedroom. We all get treats before bed, although Zoee has the run of the house now she will only take treats in the cat/craft room. When Zoee runs to the cat room Django decides its potty time. Django and I get treats in the bedroom and the big red dog gets treats in the hallway with the door closed so he doesn’t steal our treats. Django is a very good sleeper and will start the night at the foot of the bed, sometimes he decides to sleep with the big red dog. Uck!! I like to cuddle my hoomin and make bread. I have to check on her several times during the night to make sure she is alive. About 4 Am I start to bounce around on the bed and drive everyone crazy (this is why I was locked in the cat room to begin with). Soon things will change as we adding a new family member. a Somali kitten. Will keep you posted on how that works out.
Bodacious
Summer,
When mine Lady is on bacations, we stay up late. But when mine Lady goes to work, we go to bed at ten. I can tell what time it is and I wakes mine Lady before the vibrations box plays noise. I sleeps on mine Lady’s side.
Toffee
Oh Summer mew had us MOLing so much, especially at the LATE NIGHT ACTIVITIES with Boodie and her mournful wails – has she been talking with Pandora? Pandora sounds like she’s in terrific pain when she’s murdering a toy at 3am, maybe because it JUST WON’T DIE!!! The furst time this happened the P.A. was dialing the vet emergency services as she thought something terrible had happened, it had but only to the toy!!! MOL MOL MOL
This is a fantastic post! I think we may do one as well. We do have rituals, but they don’t include snacks. I think I have to have a talk with our secretary about that one! Lexy is just like Boodie! Last night she brought FIVE toys into the bedroom! MOL
I don’t sleep with my humans…..I tried it a couple of times and camped out at the bottom of the bed and got accidentally kicked so I quickly abandoned ship. Now I will come in and watch a little “before bed” TV with my humans on the bed, but the minute the TV goes off, I hop down and politely ask my Mom to get up and escort me to my favorite sleeping area – the basement! But I INSIST on a little red laser dot fun before I go down those stairs. Yeah, it’s a little complicated but it’s a ritual I’ve managed to maintain for a year now so I guess you could say “I’m in charge of bedtime” around here! Mom wakes me up when she gets up in the morning and we start our (MY) routine all over again!
Hugs, Teddy
Binga sitting in the Queen Pose!
Our nights aren’t quite as complicated as yours. I go to bed early and take the dog with me, and after the dog is shut up in the bedroom the cats get a little snack upstairs. Sometimes Webster will come down and want to get in bed with me & the dog, and occasionally he will stay all night, but usually he just stays for a little bit and then wants to leave. After that, it’s just me and Layla jostling for bed space all night!
Mum tosses about sometimes too. But she sleeps best when I sleep with her, lying just in front of her and then she hugs me lightly. When I know she is sleeping soundly I take off to spend the rest of the night someplace else.
fun! we always love to read how other kitties manage their household 🙂 the furred up pillow is great ! so Summer, do you get Binga’s and Boodie’s bedtime treats too when you are traveling? 🙂
we wish bedtime treat time could become more of a ritual here!
pip, minnie, hollie, sharpie, ditto, TL
We don’t sleep with our mom, and believe us, we’re glad for that or we’d never get any rest! William was the alarm clock among us but now all of us just patiently wait near her door. She’s a pretty early riser anyway.
Sounds like you guys each have a role in these rituals. I once tried to bite TW’s eye out of the socket when she didn’t get up when I expected breakfast.
This is a fun topic! Our nights are busy, too. There are bedtime treats, followed by various shifts on the bed with the head peep, often with a big, orange cat running interference to prevent other cats getting to the bed. Then there are special rules about what a human can do when they get up in the middle of the night if they have to use the human litterbox. If they don’t turn on the light, we know they are going right back to bed. If they turn on the light, we expect breakfast!
Wow, a lot goes on at your house overnight! We’re pretty boring and go to bed together at the same time, usually around 1AM. Mudpie used to sleep in one of the 2 cat beds in our room, one next to my bed and the other on a bookcase in front of the window, but this winter she’s been sleeping snuggled up as close as she can get to me on the bed. She usually gets up for a snack or potty break around 6 and then comes back to bed until I get up. (Love your human’s Hello Kitty clock!)
It sounds as though you all have the humans well trained and organized! ;p
the critters in the cottage xo
That is quite the routine, glad you all get involved. I have a Hello Kitty alarm clock too 🙂 My cats all expect treats before bed and if I try to skip it, they won’t let me sleep.
WE don’t have many rituals, just a case to see how many cats can get on the bed at once and most of the time it is six or seven and so no room for the Mom. But she just moves us over and climbs in, then more climb in if they can. That is in the winter and during the summer, Mom gets the bed to herself.
We get bed treats and a night meal, and after that our humans go to bed at 10PM and close the door of the bedroom. We know they will get up at 5:30 AM to feed us ! Purrs
What a fantastic post. We will tell you about our rituals with a post.
Our bedtime ritual starts at about 10:15pm when Cody starts whining for treats. He gets some, then at 11 he starts whining again because he knows he gets some kibble……..then…my husband goes to bed around 11:30, I stay up til around 1:30am (Cody sits with me on the couch while I watch TV), then Cody comes back starting at about 3am (into the bedroom) to start waking my husband up for breakfast………..my husband feeds them around 4am………..I then get up around 7.
No rituals here – BB and Frankie sleep at the foot on the bed, who ever gets into the bed first gets to sleep draped over my husband’s ankles. Usually Frankie gets up in the middle of the night to drag her stick toy around and kill it and yell in triumph. Hubby gets up around 3:30-4 and everyone decamps to the kitchen for breakfast (well NOT me, of course). That’s it around here.
Glad to know we’re not the only ones with complicated rituals. Happy to learn a new a new verb “fur up”!
Summer, we are still adapting our sleeping routines, but mainly I go to bed first, and when The Hubby comes upstairs, he brings Manny and CB with him, and they jump on me to snuggle for a minute then off they go to explore. Again, in the morning, they jump on me again!
Oh I like this! I may do a post on this, too…although we don’t really have a ritual.
Sleeping, though… Jake and I have been together for so long that when one of us moves, the other moves along with so the sleeping positions stay the same. Neither of us moves much, but I do get hot and throw off the comforter…sometimes onto him!
We sleep on our peeps. All night long. Except in the summer because our daddy is a chili pepper so it’s too hot. If mommy stirs even a little we expect treats from the bags in the nightstand. Angel brings her deaded mousies with an announcement of course. She gets praised because she’s spoilt.
Purrs,
Isabella
mom leaves the bedroom door closed during the day, so when she opens it, there is a rush to check out the entire room – just in case something has changed
KInda sounds like our household. The boys put dad to bed, after he falls asleep everyone joins mom in watching tv and running around crazy. We girls take turns sitting on mom’s lap during tv time. We all go to bed with mom. About 20 min. later Mr. Chivers starts singing the song of his people. The humans mostly ignore him. Sometimes mom calls his name and he comes to bed. We do like to burrito mom. She’s warm and cozy. MC wakes up the humans with a paw to the nose for breakfast if not served in time. When mom gets up we want serving 2 of breakfast, MOL. We rule the house. Purrs
I’m the only one that likes to sleep with our humans. I like to sleep right on the mom’s feet. ~Wally
Our rituals are really complicated with so many of us but we get some playtime, a snack, those of us on meds get our evening meds, dishes get cleaned up and then lights out. Happy snoozy sweet Summer!
I make her go to bed by pacing back and forth at the threshold of whichever room she’s in…and sitting and staring. When we go in, she says every time that it is very hard for her to get settled in with the covers and pillow because I am already walking up and on to get on her chest to roost. If she can’t do it all instantly, that’s her problem, and not any of my own.
OMCs I am not at all surprise that it takes 3 cats to handle 2 humans.
We like your kitty clock too. Binga that cerenia is B I T T E R…does your human use a pill popper?
Hugs madi your bfff
Georgia and JJ are the big bed sleepers. Mum often has to fight her way into the bed as those two manage to leave no room for mum. MOL
They are pretty quiet all night.In the morning,I(Julie) come into the room and walk all over mum to wake her up.
The alarm does too , but I have to be sure.After all, I want my breakfast!
Purrs Georgia,Julie and JJ
We always get a last-at-night meal. TBT doesnt like growley tummies annymore than we do. We all go to bed at the same time, it is just TBT and us. Iza usually gets on the bed first. She likes to sleep on the corners where the waterbed doesn’t move much. Ayla usually gets up on the shoe rack where the folded towels are. Marley likes the tree huts.
Toward dawn, Iza wants to get unner the covers, Ayla wants ta sit top of TBT, and Marley joins us. HE sometimes gets unner the covers even if Iza has nosed in there, but he curls up away a bit.
On rare occasions, we are all unner the covers an TBT cant move. He tells us he has to move and we give way a bit ta give him room. Well, he IS bigger. But sometimes he sleeps OK and we all just stay close. Purring helps.
We stay there until we know there are serious sunpuddles by the deck door. On cloudy days, we just stay near against him until he gets up fer real.
First my human puts down fresh water. Then I get brushed while I roll around, sometimes I let her give hugs and kisses. She puts treats out on an old dresser in front of the window. (We live in a ground floor apartment). I don’t eat all the treats at once (they taste like my dry food).
Human goes to bed and I go to bed on the couch or the chair in the living room.
A half hour before the noisy thing that wakes the human, I go and look outside and check the weather. Eat some treats, go lay on the human and purr. Sometimes I have to jump on her to wake her. Then it is breakfast, one of my favorite times of the day!
Mol. Jonah cries some for treats at night…… he could eat 24/7.