Shitty Kitty

I thought cats were supposed to be the low-maintenance pets?  Dogs are needy and demanding, but cats are just supposed to stay aloof and impervious.  Well, someone forgot to tell our little orange cat, Winston.   Actually, during daylight hours he is aloof and impervious.  At 3:30 a.m. he is Mr. Needypants.  Here is a recent video of his night-time activities:

You can try to ignore him, but then your sleep pattern looks like this:

It turns out…he only does his 3 am wakeup routine when I’m home.  So he’s not opposed to ALL sleep – just my sleep.  Or more accurately, he’s just opposed to me being home and infringing on his one-on-one time with his mommy.  I don’t remember requesting a nocturnal cat with an oedipal complex during the adoption process, but here we are.

Rita and I now have an on-going contest to see who can pretend to remain asleep longer than the other. On more than one occasion, we have each caught the other squinting out of a half-open eye checking to see if the other is awake.  For Winston’s sake – he better hope it’s me who gets up.  Because the first step in Rita’s wakeup routine is to loft a pillow at his head.  Now keep in mind, the cat is 6 lbs. and the pillow is 2 lbs., so Rita is bringing some serious heat (if she were able to aim at 4 o’clock in the morning, that is).  

But of course the little orange guy has anger issues.  Here he is, this perfect 6-lb killing machine and we just keep picking him up and kissing him all day long.