4 a.m. routine

Every morning between 4:15-4:30 a.m. I am awoken by my cat.  First there are the licks.  And Jetty is not a gentle licker.  Her licks hurt!  She licks anything that is not covered by a blanket so usually arms first and then my face.

Once I am completely hidden under the covers she tries another tactic which she knows will be sure to get my attention.  She climbs on every piece of furniture and knocks everything off.  I have found ways to cat proof my night stand, but the bookshelves and tv stand are her favorite 4 a.m. stomping grounds.  If there is anything breakable there, she is sure to break it.  This means a 4 a.m. glass cleaning session for me.  I am soooo fond of those.  We've already had one this week.  She is also good at spilling juice on my bed.  I love cleaning cranberry juice off the wall, floor, bed frame and sheets at 4 a.m. in order to prevent the inevitable ant invasion which would come if I waited until a decent hour to clean.

Once everything has been knocked off the shelves and tables she moves on to her third and final favorite 4 a.m. game.  She thumps her metal food bowl on the tile floor.  Depending how deeply I am sleeping at that point I either yell at her, or lie there and hope she will stop.  But it never does.

I realized a while ago that the noise comes from her using her paw to rake at the floor around her food, as if she were in her litter box and trying to cover her food with kitty litter.  The thumping is her lifting the food dish and it clacking onto the floor as she rakes, rakes, rakes at the floor.  I've tried putting towels under the bowl.  Doesn't help.  Last night before bed I got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the floor around the cat food dish.  It was clean at 10 p.m.  At 4:22 there was the daily clack, clack, clack of the food dish.

Recently I discovered that if I get out of bed and move the dish to a different location she will usually calm down and eat.  So this morning after a couple of minutes of yelling (I don't know why I still think after months of this that yelling is going to do anything) I finally dragged myself out of bed and moved the dish 2 feet from its original location.  Then I climbed back into bed and heard her happily smacking away at the food.  Why it is inedible in the first location and fine in the second, I have no clue.

Some night I will just get up and move the food as soon as the licking begins.  Maybe tonight.  But for now I am lying here awake and Jetty is next to me, with a full belly, content and sound asleep.