Conference misery::feline_v1

    E.T. did you read this?  Is this how you look when you are in bed
    with your 16 kitties??  I couldn't stop laughing.
    
    E.T. was and is my favorite movie.
    
    Sandi 
    
    

    
    Re the base note - that was really cute!  Brought a smile to my face as
    I read it :^}
    
    I'm not sure where I read/saw this, but the person who did the
    characterization of E.T. for the movie based it on his Siamese cat. Now
    that I'm owned by three of the little monsters, I have no trouble
    believing it! :^}
    
    	Sandy
    

    re: .1
    
    Wellllll, yeah sort of I guess.  I'm 5 feet tall in a queen-sized
    bed - when 4, 5 or 6 of the group decide to join me for the night,
    I think it's safe to say that not much of me is very visible, 
    except for some dark hair sticking out from under the comforter!
    My hair may not even be seen if either Terror (the Rex) or
    VickiToria (baby Calico) are sleeping on top of my head on
    the part of the pillow that I'm not using (or trying to use).
    
    One of these nights, I'm threatening to close the d&^m bedroom
    door!
    
    E.T.

    E.T.,

    at least they don't kick you out of bed to make more room for
    themselves. Argus is a master at doing this. He'll snuggle closer and
    closer until he's pushed me to the end of the bed, then turn himself 90
    degrees and "stretch". In the course of stretching, he winds up pushing
    me with his hind feet, and boom! I'm on the floor. Grrrr.

    One thing that I've found that helps give me a bit of room on the bed
    is to put 3 of those round cat beds at the foot of the bed.

    Deb

    Just curious...Are thos cat beds you are referring to the same as
    "sleeping cups".  I saw them in a picture but haven't seen them
    for sale anywhere.  The one I saw wasn't much bigger than a cat.
    Putting one at the foot of the bed would sure solve our "bowling
    ball" in the middle of the bed problem.
    
    				Mary

    I've never heard them called "sleeping cups", but your description is
    accurate. They are the same ones that were being refered to during the
    last couple of weeks, available at cat shows for $10 a piece.
    
    Deb

    Re: -1 et al
    
    regional differences I guess.  I've been looking for "kitty cups"
    for about a year now.  See if I can pick some up in Concord...
    
    Mary-Michael

    Gee, I don't know what you are all complaining about :-)  When I
    was a kid, I was always trying to *coax* the kitties to sleep with
    me and they wouldn't.  Now that I have Trouble, she sleeps with
    me and I love it (most of the time anyway).  My hubby isn't too
    thrilled with it though when she tries to push him out of bed. 
    She uses the same technique as described a few notes back.  
    
    Bernice
    Mother _of_Trouble

re. .8
    Not really a complaint.  I actually have a hard time sleeping if
    Malcolm isn't on the bed.  I just figure that if he is in a cup,
    I can move him around easier when my legs start to fall asleep from
    the weight of him.  A bigger bed would help....My husband, myself
    and Malcolm all on a double bed.  Abbey, my semi feral cat has also
    joined us on a couple of occasions.  If this becomes permaneant,
    we will have to get a bigger bed.
    
    					Mary

    Not really a complaint, either. While I enjoy having them on the bed
    while I am trying to fall asleep because the sound of their purring helps
    me relax, their surrounding me while I'm trying to sleep makes my sleep
    less restful (since I can't move or turn over). Thing is, after a few
    nights of sleeping with a minimum of 4 cats (and up to 7), the lack of
    restful sleep catches up to you and you wind up dragging yourself through
    the day.

    Deb  

    re: .9
    
    You think you have problems with 2 adults and 2 cats on a double bed.
    Try two adults, a cat or two, plus a borzoi or two (a tall dog -- ours 
    are 30" and 27" at the shoulder)!  Just try to roll over.  What's really
    hilarious, though, is that we like their company so much we tend not
    to kick them out.  You should see us trying to roll over without
    disturbing anyone.
    
    ;-)
    
    Karen, Tristan, Tenzing and Max (+ Zowie and Aisha) + Ed.

    re: 4
    
    Good Lord, Deb, you are much more patient that I.  I take the
    covers and flap them ALL off when I find that I can't even
    turn over.  Sometimes I feel like I'm plastered to the damn
    mattress - that's the final straw.  And boy, do they KNOW when
    I'm at the end of their tails!!  What's worse, is that it's
    usually the biggest sows in the house.  Argus must be really strong
    to be able to do that!  It's no wonder that I wake up in the
    morning and I'm still tired...zzzz
    
    The "sleep on my bed crew"
    
    Yurii - 16 lbs
    Ivan  - 14.5 lbs
    Timi  - 15 lbs
    Lara  -  9 lbs
    Miyagi   10 lbs
    Terror   10.5 lbs
    SilVee    8 lbs
    Misha     9 lbs
    Niki      8.5
    
    All the lightweights sleep in the livingroom in beds on the couches
    and beds on the floor near the fireplace. (and a few sows)
    
    Lightweights are:
    
    Katenka - 6.75 lbs
    Malinka - 6.5
    Pashenka  7.75
    Vicki     6.00 (she sleeps on my head sometimes)
    Sasha     7.00
    KoKo      7.75    end of lightweight list
    
    Alex     12.0  (he sleeps with the Sasha mother & KoKo in the L.R.)
                                                              
    

    Boy, I thought I was the only crazy with all that stuff on
    the bed at night.  It's a wonder we are awake enough to
    type our notes into feline!!!  Silly cats - Silly owners!!

    We usually have three of the four on the bed.  Of course, they
    all sleep on my side!  (they love the waterbed).  Jack fidgets
    too much in his sleep.  Now I could deal with three cats except
    that I can't get Isis and Dundee to understand that cats sleep
    on the corners and edges, not right in the MIDDLE of my half.
    They sleep facing each other like this --> ()  so there's this
    big spot of felines in the middle.  I end up sleeping curled up
    like a cat too!
      Of course, last night when Jack was away on business I was
    awfully happy to have Mao settle down on my left shoulder and
    purr me to sleep. 
      Love those bittens!
      Nancy DC
    

    
    If I let them, all three will sleep on my bed.  But Cinamon is a
    problem because he insists on sleeping on me (I get clautrophobic
    just thinking about it!).  Therefore, I always shut Cinamon out
    of my bedroom.  The other two, T.K. and Bandit, know better than
    to sleep on me, in fact they generally sleep somewhere near my
    feet.  But the other night, I had one heck of a nightmare and when
    I woke up, those two were curled up on the floor!  I must have
    really been rolling about!
    
    I feel a bit guilty locking Cinamon out at night, although T.K.
    invariably gets thrown out in the middle of the night.  Cinamon
    is the one that would most like to sleep on my bed, the other
    two don't care much.  I hope Cinamon doesn't think I'm mean.
    
    Karen

    
    All three of our Siamese sleep with us - Smudge is more comfortable on
    her own, I guess.  Tas is our bowling ball, sleeping on top of the
    duvet right between us at knee level.  C.C. often sleeps with him, but
    at times fights with Jenny over who gets to sleep around my neck!  The
    cutest thing is how Jenny snuggles up for the night - I sleep on my
    side, and she curls up under my chin with her little face on mine -
    luckily, she's still a tiny cat :^}
    
    Sandy
    

    Mine can't sleep with me during the night because of my asthma,
    but if I'm home sick I'll let them lounge around with me and I'll
    let them up if I'm reading in bed in the morning or evening. Dream
    *has* to be under the covers next to me.  She's always cold. Of
    course, I don't mind this until she sneezes....Yeech!  Charm,
    aka Heavycat, sleeps on my chest.  Boogie curls up between
    my head and my shoulder and kneads my earlobe and the side
    of my face.  Niniane sleeps on my legs and occasionally bats
    Charm in the behind, which makes Charm growl, which makes me
    nervous since I don't want to be that personally involved in
    a kitty-conflict. Then Dream moves underneath the covers, and Boogie
    pounces on her, which annoys Charm since Boogie jumped over
    her to get there, which makes Niniane bat Charm in the behind, which
    makes Charm whap Niniane in the face, which makes Dream poke her
    head out to see what's going on, which makes.....
    
    Rest is a euphemism....
    
    Mary-Michael 

    
    		.17 sounds like the nightmare-version of what I
    	go through with my two! :) Rosie wakes me up every morning
    	at, oh, about five am, to get me to pick up the blankets
    	enough for her to dive underneath them. Then Missy jumps 
    	up, sees a moving object under the covers (must be a
    	Monster attacking Mommy!!), and the fun begins... :)
    

    We too have two of the three cats who *MUST* sleep on the bed with
    us.  Ada (Dowager cat, 15 years and very skinny) has to sleep on
    my wife's head and gives her maybe, 1/4 of the pillow. Ada likes
    the heat rising out of the top of the head. Doobie, 13 lbs takes
    up the foot.  What surprises me, in all of the previous replys,
    I haven't see anyone refer to midnight washing.
    
    Ada, every so often, decides that my hand, sticking out of the covers
    is just filthy and must be immediately washed, even if is IS 3:00
    AM.  Once in awhile it's not the hand but the forehead.  Now that's
    a real experience when you're sound asleep and have a cat's rough
    tongue scrapping across your forehead!.
    
    Chuck

    I have this life-long condition that dictates that some portion
    of my foot must protrude from under the bedcovers or I cannot breathe.
    [climate does not have a effect, I have lived everywhere from Guam
    to Fairbanks, Alaska and it's all the same].  Anyway, Milo has been
    known to perform midnight foot-washings.  While I'm a world-class
    sleeper that actual earthquakes have failed to disturb, that little
    pink sand-paper tongue across the arch of my foot gets quite a response.
    
    If I don't braid it before going to bed, The Girls [Maggie & Cardigan]
    have a race to curl up on the pillow and comb out my hair.  I can
    _usually_ sleep through this.
    
    Rick has a picture of us on his desk -- the wife and kids, ya know?
    -- where the three cats and I are blissfully comatose...Milo stretched
    out along my leg with his head on my foot and arms around my ankle;
    Cardigan stretched out on her back on the pillow clutching my braid
    to her chest; and Maggie almost nose to nose with me with a foot
    on my left cheek [the one on my face].  Me? I'm the bump under the
    comforter that's not being at all cute.
    
      Ann
    
    
    
    

    Well, Mao likes to groom my eyebrows!  That's probably the only
    part of my body that bears any resemblence to what they must
    consider normal hair!  At least that's the only part they can
    get at!
      N