If you are a regular reader, you know that sleeping with Chris in the house can be very difficult. It has been a constant tug-o-war with each side having the advantage until the other side figures out a way to counter it. If you are a new reader, I will put links to some earlier stories about this struggle at the end of this post.

Currently, Chris has not only gained the advantage, but I have run out of ideas to get back to a normal night’s sleep. I feel like my sleep bank is overdrawn and if I don’t make a deposit soon I will get sick and perhaps even fired because I feel tired at work all the time. So far, it hasn’t affected my job, but I know mistakes happen when you are over-tired.

On Christmas Eve I couldn’t keep my eyes open in church. Our pastor is a nice guy and I don’t want him to think that I think he is boring. I was also having trouble keeping my eyes open on Christmas Day when my son and his wife were here. I was actually closing my eyes while he was talking to me. I had to struggle to keep them open.

After finally figuring out how to keep Chris out of the bedroom, I had to abandon it, first because Abbey got sick and then because of our new kitten Puck. For a kitten, he is remarkably well-behaved. Of course he plays and does some things he is not supposed to but he never bothers us at night. He also doesn’t scratch on the furniture or force his way into the cabinets or poop on the floor like a certain gold cat that we know. Because of this, Rose feels bad because to keep Chris out of the bedroom, we also have to keep out Puck and Tigger.

So, for now, he has full access to our bedroom at night, and every morning at four o’clock, he wakes me up. It is a mystery to me how he knows when it is four o’clock but somehow he does. He will get up next to me and either bite my nose or start treading on my bare skin. When this starts, I look at the clock and almost without fail, it is within five minutes of four o’clock.

Last night Rose clipped his nails. I thought that might help me tolerate the treading until he got tired and stopped. That didn’t work. I think having short nails just makes him extend them out farther. I try desperately to block his claws with my hands or the sheet but he just moves to another location. I grab his paws but he pulls away. I push him off the bed but he jumps back on it. I hold him down until I annoy him but he just moves to above my head where I can’t do that.

Sometimes I am succesful in keeping him from treading on my neck or back. When that happens, he pulls at my scalp. Sometimes he grabs my nose or the side of my lips with his claws and pulls. He is trying to get me to turn my head so he can bite my nose. I do not know why he must bite my nose but I do know it is very annoying. Out of frustration, I will sometimes bite his nose, hoping he will get the hint, but he doesn’t.

I think soon I will have to start going to bed at eight o’clock. My senior years are starting early.

Related articles: Who Needs Sleep?, Bad Cat Chris Versus Spray Bottle, Another Big Move, Chris’s Door, The Annoyance Strategy