As I mentioned in the post Lifestyle Changes, sometimes it takes me longer to fall asleep because of Dax.  I thought I’d share what has happened.

Normally, Dax sleeps on Corey in the middle of the night, or I should say used to sleep on Corey in the middle of the night.  He enjoyed it because she helped keep him warm.  Sometimes, however, she likes to cuddle up with me under my blanket before she moves (or I push her) over to her usual spot on Corey.

Last Thursday, when I was moving her, she caught a glimpse of something on my blanket and she went crazy. That entire night, she kept trying to get whatever it was that she saw.  I kept pushing her off and she kept coming right back.  We even tried spanking her a few times, but it made no difference (never has).  Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep.

All day Friday, I kept wondering what could’ve happened to make her go crazy like that.  Normally, when I go to bed, Corey lays in bed and works on his computer for about an hour.  Thursday night, however, he was really tired and just went to bed.  I wondered if having no glow from the lap top made a difference.  I also wondered if my sun-bright display on my clock was somehow making a difference.  (Seriously, whoever made the display on that clock forgot the dim or off button! It usually faces away from me at night.  Otherwise, it’s like having a flashlight in my eyes.)

Before we went to bed on Friday, I moved the clock into the other room to see if that would help.  It didn’t.  Corey was even on his computer and it made no difference.  We tried putting her in the back room, but other than her constant meowing to be let out, Cassie and Tigger were really stressed that we locked Dax in the room.  We let her out and since Corey doesn’t mind if Dax’s on him at night, we tried switching sides on the bed.  She followed me to the other side. At that point, we thought that maybe it was my blanket.  (Remember, Corey and I sleep with separate blankets.)  After sharing a blanket and saying a prayer, she finally calmed down for the night. Hallelujah!

On Saturday, Corey and I slept with the same blanket again because I didn’t get to my blanket when I did the laundry.  We still had to deal with her being crazy for a little bit, but not as long as we had the previous two nights. Thanks goodness for small miracles!

I washed my blanket on Sunday to see if there was something on it that she was attracted to.  Nope, she still perched herself on my stomach or back as she had been doing and watched for whatever it was she thought she saw on Thursday.  Before we feel asleep Sunday night, she started running around again and we finally saw what she saw.  Our curtain was cracked just enough to let some light through.  I closed the curtain so that no light came through.  For the most part, she stopped running around on top of me because the light was gone.

As of Sunday night, the light has been gone, but she still stays on me just in case it might come back. After a while, I don’t like to have her on me because I get uncomfortable.  I’ve tried pushing her over to Corey, but she just won’t go! Last night I put the squirt bottle on my nightstand.  When she got on me, I squirted her.  Thankfully, she left.  But, in the wee hours of the morning, she came back.

I guess the most evil part of this whole thing is that until Thursday, she didn’t care.  There was light there before, but something on Thursday changed.  I’m wondering if the “senior” cat food is making the difference.  Cassie has been losing too much weight, so we thought it was time to move him to the senior food.  (He and Tigger have been seniors for about three years now.)  It has helped them, but since Dax is shy of being a senior by a year and a half, I wonder if it’s giving her more energy than usual, which is the last thing she needs.  With more energy, she’ll be like the Energizer Bunny on crack since she already has enough energy to power a small city.

Since Thursday, we’ve been praying for her to be calm, which definitely helps.  Hopefully, however, she’ll calm down for good, go back to her normal self, and let me go to sleep.