My lovely cat is a senior citizen. She doesn't really like to play with her toys or chase things as much these days (she's on anti-seizure meds that make her a little unsteady which I think have made her play less enjoyable for her) so she spends a lot of her time looking out/sleeping in front of windows. But, whenever she realizes I'm about to nap, she gets super excited, jumps on the bed, yowls until everything is juuuuuuuust right (her soft blanket on top of mine but perfectly flat etc) but once we're both lying down, she starts purring the with the fury of a thousand rusty chainsaws, regardless of whether she's getting skritched. More so if she can get one of my arms working as a pillow.
So, even while her former favourite activities are falling off, we're both finding weird moments of happy while I try to avoid thinking about the inevitable. And there's something just so wonderful about hearing how aggressively happy she is just to hang out nearby for an extended period of time.
Don't really have a point but we woke up from a nap and I wanted to share.
Thank you for sharing, it made me smile. My senior citizen cat (he’ll be 18 in less than 2 months) also now wants my arm as his pillow and lets me know, loudly, if he’s ready but my arm isn’t in the right “spot” yet.
Similarly, in the last few of her 20 years of life, my kitty picked up a new ”requirements” on how we slept. It started with her wanting to be in my arms, and she’d paw at me during the night until I woke up and wrapped my arms around her. Given her inability to communicate her desires, it took a couple weeks of significantly disrupted sleep to learn that’s what she wanted!
That continued but she also began pawing for things such as: 1) lifting the blanket so she could go under it, 2) laying on my back so she could rest her head on my hip, and 3) rolling to face her. The last was the funniest as she developed it only in her final two years. She just couldn’t bear me facing away from her even while I slept!
I lost so much sleep meeting that cat’s needs, lol. And it was worth every second of it.
I know how you feel. 20 years of what sounds like a great life for your cat, and you got to share it with her. So far the arm pillow is his only requirement. My cat has no problem waking me up when my arm pillow isn’t available. At this point making room for him and moving my arm to the proper spot is on autopilot and I’m able to quickly fall back to sleep once he settles in.
I was so lucky to share a life with her! I also went on autopilot with her demands and would be asleep within seconds of my adjustments so I barely noticed them.
Don’t be surprised if your little man picks up new needs! I think that’s common as they age, and it sounds like you and I agree that it’s worth giving them everything they demand. I hope you have many more good years being his arm pillow!
Glad it made you smile! Also glad I'm not the only one who gets reprimanded for laying out an arm incorrectly!
Do you also get the loud, drawn out sigh if you take too long to properly arrange your arm? It’s like I can hear him thinking “took you long enough.”