Saturday, January 26, 2008

I love this cat, but

I have to find a way to get some sleep at night! In a modern home (one with central heat and air, duct work, and vents in all the rooms), this would be a piece of cake - just close the bedroom doors. We live in an old (circa 1910) farmhouse, though, and aside from the plumbing and electricity it's never been modernized. Until a year ago, we heated with propane - an "early warming" stove with blower upstairs and a floor furnace downstairs. The floor furnace has no blower - the heat just rises and spreads through the house, sort of, if you have a good imagination. Now we heat with a Country Flame Harvester corn stove and use the propane to supplement. The corn stove has a blower and does an amazing job of heating the house, but - like the floor furnace - it requires that the door between the living room and our bedroom stay open for heat distribution.

And so we arrive at Lucy, the lovely Barada Bengal kitty who thinks we are her litter mates and should carouse with her at night. What would be funny in daylight is traumatic in sleep - she pounces on us, nibbles our toes (she's teething), grooms us (no kidding, I have woken up to find her licking my hair in mother cat fashion), and races from one end of the room to the other via the bed and occasionally our heads. Multiple attempts to block her out of the bedroom while still getting heat have failed, so today we're going to try screen door material tacked to the door frame. Without her front claws, she should find this a formidable barrier, but I'm not holding my breath.

P.S. We nicknamed Lucy the Barada Bengal because she comes from Barada and her color and striping reminds us of a Bengal tiger - at the time, we didn't realize there is actually a Bengal cat breed (now we know better).

P.P.S. If Lucy ever held still long enough, the picture above would be her. Unfortunately, I've never found her standing still yet, so the picture is a reasonable facsimile, maybe without all her personality.

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