We have four furry animals living at our house - that I know of, at least. Two dogs and two cats. And during the daylight hours, I love them all - they're each a little quirky, entertaining, and generally fond of the people in my family.
It's at night that they all become slightly possessed, or something. I do manage to sleep through some of it, so I haven't been able to track down the cause. First, the dogs. As I said, we have two of them: Anneke and Roscoe. Anneke is a 3-1/2 year old Jack-Russell-and-something. She's starting to settle down and behave like a grown up most of the time, but at night, she really likes to sleep with the people, no matter how comfortable a dog bed we contrive. And the house is starting to fill up with dog beds that don't quite meet with her approval, I might add. Anyway, not only does she like to sleep with the people, she prefers to be under the covers. Part of the night, that is. She gets cold (she is a short-haired dog) and dives in, sleeps for a couple of hours, gets too hot, and emerges. Lather, rinse, repeat. I might add that on the too-cold cycle, she generally noses me in the back to raise the blankets enou gh for her to crawl under. It's effective; her nose is very cold.
Roscoe is not quite 2. In many dogs, that would be an adult age. In a Lab-Whippet mix, it appears to be the equivalent of a toddler. And across most of the night, he's actually well-behaved. He likes the dog beds, and will curl up in them until about 4 am most nights. After 4, however, he starts to wander the house. He rises, shakes his head (flap-flap-flap-flap), and trots out of the bedroom door toward the kitchen (click-click-click-click-click). According to my daughter, he shows up at her closed door and scratches to be let in. She's been resisting this lately, so eventually he gives up and heads back to our end of the house (click-click-click-click) and jumps on the bed. He's up and he wants to play. Cute, really, all but for the timing. And his aim - the jumps inevitably land on some organ inadequately protected by my skeleton.
So much for the dogs. The cats really are a little less obtrusive at night, although they pack a wallop when they concentrate on it. Muffin, who is a long-haired gray cat, spends the nights jumping up on our headboard from my side of the bed, sitting there for an indeterminate period, then jumping down on my husband's side. Normally I can sleep through this. Occasionally, though, she does one of two things: launches her jump from my actual face, rather than from the mattress; or falls off, nearly always onto me. Not good - she generally draws blood in either case.
Two, our second cat (hence the name), is an old lady, and was feral for a while before deciding on the soft life and moving in with a friend who couldn't keep her. She appears to retain a fond memory of the taste of field mouse. Caught one in the house the other day (our house is about 50 years old and our yard is just uphill from a farm field). Left it in the hallway near the kitchen, where on Saturday morning, I encountered it with a bare foot.
It's at moments like these that I would gladly trade them all for a pet rock.
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