Cat prayers

I talked to the vet this morning and she is ordering some anti-anxiety meds for Sundance. Nothing we have tried thus far has had any lasting effect. We have tried all of the over-the-counter options and tried what the vet has suggested: bought extra lights to put around the apartment so that she has more light at night (in case part of the problem is failing eyesight), changed the time of day we give her the thyroid meds, fed her right before bedtime, bought her a toy to try to tire her out playing (she slapped at it twice and walked away), tried ignoring her when she tries to get me up -- pretty much like trying to ignore an alarm clock that doesn't have a snooze button -- and so on. Nothing works.

There is a funny list of things people have tried in order to stop drinking. My favorite part of the list is: "Taking a trip. Not taking a trip." This feels like "Feeding the cat. Not feeding the cat."

The last couple of nights, she woke me up almost every hour, vocalizing (a much nicer veterinarian term than the one I would use myself), walking across me in the bed and (last night) pushing things off the tables and shelves in the bedroom. Yesterday when I went to the gym, Tom said she was almost frantic for the hour or so I was gone. She lies on top of Tom all the time, and I don't know where this new obsession with me came from. She follows me into the bathroom and then back out. 

I did some research on feline dementia, and she displays a number -- not all -- of the symptoms. "Night time abandonment issues" is among the symptoms, perhaps exacerbated by the move, but that was two months ago. And we have made a point of not both being gone for more than an hour or so at a time. And we are always here at night. She starts the night sleeping with Tom but then leaves his room and comes into mine to start her routine.

Here's hoping that this new prescription will help. It won't arrive until Thursday or Friday and will take a few days to have any effect. Worse comes to worst, I will check into a motel in order to get a decent night's sleep a couple of times while we wait for it to start working. Tom sleeps the sleep of the (un)just and she leaves him alone. So he will manage. 

Unless my absence at night throws her into another dither.

Seriously. Love the cats but I am not a happy camper after several weeks of nightly disrupted sleep.