Do your cats sleep with you?

Oh yeah, and I wouldn't have it any other way! Katie and Peter are usually come to bed when I do and stay through the night. Gracie comes and goes and by morning is usually on my pillow, wrapped around my head purring.
Claire, my newest addition, has started sleeping on the bed, but not every night.

Chloe sleeps with me when she feels like it but she kept walking over my face when she wanted to go eat or use the litter box or just to play. I compromised. The lady at one of the pet stores told me how much they like to sleep on quilt batting. When I was Christmas shopping I found some of that fake snow that you wrap around under the tree or on a shelf or something that's kind of like the quilt batting. I cleared off a shelf on the bookshelf next to my bed and put that up there with one of my teddy bears she likes and she's slept there ever since! Towards morning she comes and cuddles a little bit but not as early as she used to.

I'm staying with my folks right now, so I have not only my own kitties, Clyde and Pearl, curling up with me at night, but also my folks' two "public" kitties, Dylan and Sassy. (Abby is a semi-reformed feral and lives in my father's room by herself.)

It was so funny the first night: I was half-asleep on the sofabed with Clyde wrapped around my leg and Pearl sprawled on my stomach when Dylan came creeping in and insinuated himself against my side. I was surprised that my two didn't object, but then, Dylan does weigh 18 pounds. :-)

So I started to drift off again, and then I heard a rustling under the sofabed.

"Hello?"

No answer.

"Is that you, Sassy?"

And there she came, plump round longhaired calico Sassy squirming up through the space between the mattress and the back of the sofa to settle in beside my pillow with her tail thumping gently across my neck.

I admit, it is frustrating when you want to reposition yourself -- you hate to disturb all those drowsy little darlins. But oh, it's so nice having them there!

As for your problem with kitties in your face... Clyde and Pearl do that, too, and I don't have the heart to discourage them. They're just treating me like a fellow kittycat! I love being an honorary feline...

Yes, she does. Kitty waits until I get situated then she lays down right by me and goes to sleep. She doesn't always stay there all night, but she's never too far away, either. She's also a pretty good alarm clock. She knows when it's time for me to get up and doesn't let me forget it.

No, my kitties allow US into the bed. It is like playing Twister to go to bed if kitties get there first. I hate to just pick them up and toss them off the bed, it just seems so mean when they are all warm and comfy.

I have anywhere between 2 and 9 cats in bed with me each night. If they make an attempt to play with me, I simply ignore them - they figure out eventually that I don't give in to their night-time antics. And if they decide to snuggle in either on my pillow, on my chest, legs, under covers, whatever, I don't even wake up anymore. I got used to all of them being around and simply don't wake up for them anymore. They all get scritched when we first go to bed and they don't get another scritch until I wake up in the morning - no exceptions.

I wouldn't lock them out of the room. Your babies are young and if you don't encourage the behavior in the middle of the night, they will eventually stop it.

Originally Posted by AmberThe Bobcat

Yes, our cats love to sleep with us. Sometimes we will have so many cats on the bed, that it is hard to move

One suggestion, you may try playing with them for awhile before you go to bed. This will help them sleep through the night. But, you may need to shut them out of the room if they keep you awake. You may eventually just get used to the kittens on your bed purring in your face and sleep through the night as well. Our BIG cats will wake us up around 4-4:30 am for their morning feeding. This is the time we normally get up for work. So, on our days off, we play with them alot before bed time and feed them a little later so they let us sleep in. It works a little, they will try to wake us at 5 or 5:30 am

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You share your bed with bobcats and cougars??? Good Lord...

you guys are lucky. my cat will sometimes sleep on the edge of the bed, and occasionaly sleep close to me. she usually does last the whole night either. she has a kitty bed under mine so every morning i roll over and give it a light shake so she'll come say good morning. durning the day however she has no problem sleeping on my chest or on top of my book, which ever it seems i need more at the time!

Originally Posted by MikeAnderson

You share your bed with bobcats and cougars??? Good Lord...

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You bet When that cougar purrs, the whole bed rumbles

Originally Posted by AmberThe Bobcat

You bet

When that cougar purrs, the whole bed rumbles

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I can just imagine!! And the rest of you sleep well-protected

Originally Posted by AmberThe Bobcat

You bet

When that cougar purrs, the whole bed rumbles

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Wow, the paws on that animal... Do your cats play rough like mine do? That must be quite a site!

I almost feel sorry for any intruder who breaks into your home: "What the... a mountain lion??? Gaaaahhhhhhh!!!!" (Running away at full speed!)

Unfortunately, our bedroom is also a weightlifting room, so it is OFF limits to the kitty. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she got hurt!

I think Seth likes her spot under the futon in the living room better anyway! Plus, she's a night owl and likes pouncing sleeping people!

Originally Posted by AmberThe Bobcat

Yes, our cats love to sleep with us. Sometimes we will have so many cats on the bed, that it is hard to move

One suggestion, you may try playing with them for awhile before you go to bed. This will help them sleep through the night. But, you may need to shut them out of the room if they keep you awake. You may eventually just get used to the kittens on your bed purring in your face and sleep through the night as well. Our BIG cats will wake us up around 4-4:30 am for their morning feeding. This is the time we normally get up for work. So, on our days off, we play with them alot before bed time and feed them a little later so they let us sleep in. It works a little, they will try to wake us at 5 or 5:30 am

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omg...what kind of cats are those??? Bobcats? They are HUGE...lol! So they are trying to ban people from owning them? WIll it be like you cant get any after the ban? Or they will make you get rid of the ones you have?

Originally Posted by xpiercedgoddess

omg...what kind of cats are those??? Bobcats? They are HUGE...lol! So they are trying to ban people from owning them? WIll it be like you cant get any after the ban? Or they will make you get rid of the ones you have?

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Judging from their signature, it looks like they have three bobcats and a cougar! Although I'm not sure about the third one.

But a cougar! My god, those cats grow to 140 lbs, and in the wild they are incredibly dangerous animals. The have enormous paws and powerful back legs. They can easily take out a horse or a large deer. They have a vertical leap of 15 feet and at full speed they can cover 45 feet in a single stride.

They are sometimes called pumas, moutain lions, and catamounts, among other things. As you can see from their photos, the cougar kitten has spots, but it outgrows them and becomes a beautiful monochrome brown.

More questions for the owners:

How do you manage a cougar? What's the most stitches you ever had to get? Do you guys still have all your fingers and toes? What do you do when company comes over? How much does it eat? And what kind of litter box does that thing use??

Check it out:



How'd you like to share your bed with one of those guys!

I have found that when my kitties wake me up and are pawing me for attention, they are usually hungry. This sounds silly but I have started to keep a small tupperware bowl of dry cat food on on the headboard (or on a nightstand for others). When she starts driving me nuts I just let her have a couple of bites of food and she cuddles in again and sleeps until dawn She could go down to the basement (where I keep dry food) but I really don't think she wants to make the trip

Originally Posted by MikeAnderson

Wow, the paws on that animal... Do your cats play rough like mine do? That must be quite a site!

I almost feel sorry for any intruder who breaks into your home: "What the... a mountain lion??? Gaaaahhhhhhh!!!!" (Running away at full speed!)

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When they get playing, you would think I had horses in here I have thought about the intruder thing myself, not that I would want that to happen or anything. However, the intruder would more than likely get a big hug and kisses by the cougar

omg...what kind of cats are those??? Bobcats? They are HUGE...lol! So they are trying to ban people from owning them? WIll it be like you cant get any after the ban? Or they will make you get rid of the ones you have?

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Yep, we have 3 bobcats, a 6 month old cougar cub and 5 domestics. As for the ban issue, someone wants to introduce a bill into my state that would ban them, but exotic animal owners have grouped together to fight it. There is no bill yet and we hope to stop it before there is one. If it does go through, I will be able to keep them, but would not be able to get any more. If you go to my thread, "Say hello to Boris part 2", I can explain more of it there. I don't want to change the direction of this thread

More questions for the owners:

How do you manage a cougar? What's the most stitches you ever had to get? Do you guys still have all your fingers and toes? What do you do when company comes over? How much does it eat? And what kind of litter box does that thing use??

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All of our exotics, the 3 bobcats and the cougar, did not come from the wild. They all came from breeders. Yes, they are the real thing, but they have been born and raised in captivity with constant human contact. Carmelo, the cougar, will live inside our home with us for about a year, maybe a little more. After that, he will need to live outside in an enclosure. This inside living will form the bond between us and him. The bobcats live inside with us, however they do get to go outside as well in a very secure enclosure. Stitches? None. The last time I looked, all our fingers and toes are accounted for If company comes by, the bobcats can go outside in their enclosure and the cougar would go into his room if needed. They get supervised all the time anyone new comes over. If we suspect that any of the exotics are uncomfortable with who is here, they go outside or in their room. As for the food, they all eat an all raw meat diet supplemented by vitamins designed for wild/exotic felines. You feed them, as adults, approx 2% of their body weight. Carmelo weighs 36 pounds now, so he would get approx 3/4 pound of food per day. However, since he is a growing cub, he gets a lot more. They all use a regular litter box, but I have the largest ones you can find. When raised right and most important, responsibly, these cats can and do form a strong loving bond with their human companions

Your cats are beautiful, my boyfriend and I had a look at your website the other day and were absolutely amazed by how friendly they seem. They are absolute knock outs I bet you are so proud of them.

Sleeves and Nismo sleep with us for quite a lot of the night. Usually when we go to bed they are hyper and spend a while running around but then we wake up at about 4am and Nismo is under the covers usually, or on top of the covers at ours feet or on our tummy's. Sleeves sleeps on our chests, backs, hips, heads, whatevers going! He likes to make me move off my pillow too, I'll wake up and find that my head is on the mattress and theres a ginger cat spread eagle on my pillow.
Lauren

Harley sleeps with us every night! On his own feather pillow at the top of our bed, haha...he's so spoiled! I love it tho, cuz then I know he's not getting into everything while we're sleeping!