Bedtime Routine

Our friend Summer wrote about the bedtime rituals at her house, and it inspired us kitties to tell you about ours, too.

Bedtime Treats

Bedtime treats started as a time for Pierre to get a make-up meal for the ones he didn’t finish during the day. He is a fussy, slow eater and almost never finishes his meals, and giving him a third, small meal lets him spread his food out during the day a little more.

The rest of us cats get treats during this time because if we don’t get treats, we bother Pierre too much! It is also a chance for us to all practice our tricks. Cupcake fist bumps. Ashton waves. Newton says he is too handsome for tricks and steals the treats while the head peep tries to get him to do anything.

Tooth Brushing

Pierre is so slow that we finish our treats way before he is done. This is when the head peep goes to brush her teeth. This is a huge distraction for Cupcake, who would otherwise bother Pierre.

Cupcake likes to observe the whole tooth brushing routine because she knows that at the end, the head peep will pour out a cup of water for her into the sink. She loves to play in the stream of water.

After this, Cupcake needs to be toweled off. She doesn’t like anything touching her paws, but they are usually soaked, so it turns into a nightly wrestling match with Baron Von Bath Towel. She shows Baron Von Bath Towel who is boss every time!

Bedtime Treat Cleanup

By the time Cupcake is done kicking bath towels into submission, Pierre is finally done eating. Ashton is in charge of making sure he didn’t leave any crumbs.

When Ashton finishes, the head peep washes the bowl and sets it out to dry for the next night. The silicon bowl is only used for Pierre’s bedtime treats because our usual bowls make a distinctive sound when they are set on the counter. The head peep thought having a bowl that didn’t make that would would make it so we didn’t associate bedtime treats with food from a bowl. Sometimes she doesn’t give us enough credit.

Human Bedtime

The manpeep usually goes to bed before we do. He sleeps in the other bedroom because he sleeps so loudly that the head peep would never be able to sleep. So when the head peep is headed to bed, she can hear the squeak of the hinges as Cupcake goes to visit him for a while.

If the head peep has the bedroom light on for a while reading, Pierre comes back to sit on her chest.

Once the lights are out, it’s time for Ashton to take up her spot on the bed between the head peep and the edge of the bed. This is Ashton’s spot, and only Pierre tries to take it, and only occasionally. When he does, Ashton huffs a big sigh and squeezes in next to him.

Pierre’s self-assigned spot on the bed is the other pillow. It’s the softest place on the bed, so it makes sense that a senior cat like him deserves such a comfy place to sleep.

Cupcake usually comes to bed later during the night and sleeps between the pillows. The head peep knows when this happens, because Pierre hisses at her for being so close to him, but Cupcake does it anyhow. Once she is cozy between the pillows, Cupcake likes to stretch out and often sticks her feet into the head peep’s face as she is sleeping.

Litter Box Trips

For many years, the manpeep got up at irregular hours. This means that anyone getting up at any hour of the night might mean breakfast, and we don’t want to miss out.

The head peep lets us know that she is going to the human litter box and not getting up to feed us by not turning on the light when she leaves the room. If she turns on the light for any reason, we know it must be time for breakfast.

The Alarm

Our humans get up at early hours, so they have alarms. When the alarm goes off, we all run into the manpeep’s room to be sure he wakes up. Cupcake comes running back to help make the bed, then she goes back to supervise the manpeep, since he usually dishes out our breakfast.

Is your bedtime routine complicated, too?

Helping Make the Bed

Newton: Humans do a lot of things we can’t help with. We can’t open cat food cans because we don’t have thumbs. I keep hoping. But we can help make the bed.

Newton: This sheet is not smooth. Humans really like their sheets smooth, so you have to do something about the lumps.

Newton: You can use your paws for this. Just start poking whatever is causing the lumps.

Newton: Poke those lumps really hard.

Lump: HEY!

Newton: Did you hear that?

Newton: If you do this right, the lump will move right off the bed. There it goes.

Cupcake: Who are you calling a lump, Mr. Newton?

Cupcake: I was helping make the bed from the inside.

Professionals and Uncooperative Cats

Cupcake recently went for her first professional photo shoot. I made the mistake of thinking that since she is good at handling new situations, a photo shoot would be no problem. She wasn’t quite convinced about the whole process.

The photo shoot was set up in an empty storefront next door to the local cat cafe. Who knows how many cats Cupcake smelled nearby but couldn’t see.

On top of that, I kept trying to get her to sit in the props provided by the photographer. Those props were usually used by dogs, who are most of the photographer’s clients. The props had been used by many dogs in a big photo shoot the previous day. Cupcake didn’t like being asked to sit in a basket that smelled like strange animals in a strange-smelling place.

She spent most of the photo shoot on the alert for the other animals to appear. I suspect she would have done better if she could have seen them the way she does other dogs at the coffee shop.

Some of the props seemed to be less offensive to Cupcake’s sensitive nose than others. This might have had to do with the material they are made of. Metal is less porous and would retain less odor than a wicker basket.

Cupcake eventually relaxed a little bit. She didn’t relax as much as she does when she is in a familiar location, but she relaxed enough to at least look like a cat who didn’t think she was being stalked by unseen creatures.

Cupcake was a good sport about the whole thing, though. As soon as she was allowed to step off of the photo backdrop, she gave me a fist bump. The photographer had never seen a cat do that before! She’s still a star, even if her best moments aren’t captured on camera.