New arrival

As if life wasn't busy or full of enough stuff, we have taken the ridiculous decision to foster a cat. Our cat was killed when Charlie was 3 weeks old and we've never really gotten over him. Sammy, our temporary cat, was left homeless when his owner passed away a few months ago and we figured that we're mourning a cat, he's mourning a human, perhaps we can shuffle along together.

The effect on Charlie has been electric. You would think we had rustled up all the boobs in the world and given him free access 24/7. All Sammy has to do is to enter the room and Charlie is waving his little hands around, laughing and reaching for him. As an older cat (Sammy is 16), we figured he wouldn't want anything to do with a baby but he seems as fascinated by the baby as the baby is by the cat. Charlie has had his fingers, head and face licked and a sleepy head pressed up against his back while Sammy has had his whiskers, tail, face, back, ears and... well anything within reach... yanked, pulled and pinched. His response, thankfully, is to purr and proffer another piece of his anatomy for consideration by tiny fingers. It hardly seems a fair swap.

All rosy and gay, it seems. The problem is that old cats, like young babies, have small bladders and are easily woken. While Charlie is beginning to sleep through, Sammy has taken over where he left off by waking up at 4am and crying for attention. This is not endearing him to my ever-patient other half who has put up with small bladders, night wakings, babies in the bed and attention-seeking tantrums since... oooh... since I was about 5 weeks pregnant I guess.

He has been looking forward to sleeping an entire night without anyone or anyTHING in the bed other, hopefully, than me. The problem is that with a 16-year-old wanna-be lion prowling around in the wee hours and digging noisily in his box, Charlie, who hates to think that he might be missing a party, is now waking faithfully at 4 in hopes of a boob, the parental bed, a feel of some whiskers, or preferably (and frequently), all three.

Since I've been hoping that Charlie sleeping through will mean that he eats more which means that he will sleep more, which means that we fall into a happy cycle of good sleeps, big eats and fewer boobs and that eventually I can move back into lacey lingerie in something realistic like a 'D' cup, the advent of a high-decibel insomniac feline is a considerable set back.

This is not endearing Sammy to my frog prince and resultantly his tenure is still under discussion (Sammy's, not D's, for clarity). We've got him for another 3 weeks before we have to decide for or against him.

I'm wondering if some sort of routine will help him sleep through...

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