Monday, October 25, 2010


Samsomnia (n) - Sleep deprivation caused by a dieting cat named Sam.

I have a serious case of Samsomnia.  It's making me rather cranky.  When I'm overtired and I hurt, I can be a bit of a bear, although I'm working on it.

Let me explain.

If you read my blog, you know that my very fat cat, Sam, is on a diet.  She gets 7/8 cup of diet food a day.  Through trial and error, I've discovered that she handles it better when she gets 1/8 cup of food at a time.  In fact, most days she leaves a few morsels behind and is fine with as little as 6 feedings.

However, she now insists on being fed twice during the night.  Once at 1 am and again around 5 am.  I read some time ago that you should never let your cat wake you up at night.  If you do wake up, you should pretend to be asleep.  Because once they know they can get you up, they will never give up in the future.  I think that's good advice.  But how do you pretend to be asleep when an almost 18 lb behemoth walks back and forth across your chest, tries to sit on your head and then resumes walking all over your upper body?  I say it's impossible!  And it doesn't matter how many times I push her off, she never gives up.  Until I get up and give her some food that is.

You're probably thinking I should just shut her out.  Good advice.  Except I've tried that to.  This cat will throw herself against the closed door and set up to caterwauling all night long.  I promise that you couldn't sleep through it.

You might suggest leaving food out for her overnight.  Again, I think that's a good idea.  Except for the fact that my other cat, Jack, loves Sam's diet food and would eat it all up before she ever got any.  Which means she would just continue to wake me up.  And at $24 for a 6lb bag, I really don't want to be paying for 2 of them to eat this food.

I've even considered giving her her special happy medicine at night.  She's not as hungry when she's on it.  Except unfortunately, she doesn't sleep at all while she's on it.  If I'm laying down, she has to lay on my chest, purring and head butting my face.  I think she's trying to be affectionate by rubbing her face against mine, but she basically rams her head into my jaw.  I have fibromyalgia and TMJ and my jaw is already very sensitive.  After a night of her hitting it, I feel like I have deep bruises along my entire face that take days to heal.  This is not a viable option.  In fact, she's not allowed to have any happy medicine after 11 am on any given day to prevent this.

So until Sam loses another 4 lbs, I'm afraid I'm going to have to deal with frequent bouts of Samsomnia.  Please forgive me if I'm a little grumpy; I'll try my best not to take it out on you.

P.S.  I forgot to mention the dog also insists on going out between 3 and 4 am.  Of course, they couldn't get me up at the same time!  And neither of them bothers Mr. Quilting Bug.  They know I'm the go to person for food and potty breaks.

Until later...

"This is the reason we never lose heart.  Our body does suffer wear and tear but every day the inward man receives fresh strength."  
2 Corinthians 4:16


  1. oh no...sounds like you have a problem there...I know how that makes you feel the next day too...I dont do well when my sleep is interrupted so much.

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