Cats and CPAPs just don't mix ...

Argh, the cat stepped on the big round button not once, but twice last night. Took me 10--12 minutes to wake up that first time according to Encore Viewer. Was already mostly awake the second time. But I made hubby feed the cat this morning---don't need the cat to associate "step on that button" with "I get fed faster by the person with the hose on the nose" since our cat's attitude tiowards food is more like a typical dog's than a cat.

Fortunately the cat doesn't manage to step on the button very often---he's done it on maybe three nights out of the last six months. Nonetheless, I spent the first part of my morning rearranging the organization of all the stuff on the end table to make the big button no longer on the obvious path from the bed to the floor. Hubby says, "Why don't you just lock the cat out?" Good question---except:

• shutting the door makes our bedroom extremely hot when the heater comes on in the morning---we have the daytime temp in the house set to 67, but the night time temp setting is 60
  
  cat and hubby are often both soundly asleep with the cat on my hubby's feet when I come to bed---and moving the cat seems unnecessarily cruel to both of them since hubby likes the cat on his feet

Don't need or expect any tips on what to do about the cat. Just needed to vent a bit.

robysue wrote:Don't need or expect any tips on what to do about the cat. Just needed to vent a bit.

Well, I'll give you a few anyway, just to show you what an arrogant SOB I am. What you need is a catwalk. You could put some books or something on either side of the machine, and a board across them to form a bridge and leave a space too small for a cat above the controls. Or put a small box on the machine, over the controls, with weight or rubber bands to keep it in place. Or put a big box over the whole thing, with cutouts for air and the hose. If you do it that way, make sure the box can't shift and smother the intake.

I have a friend who is still untreated for her sleep apnea. But when she quits breathing, her cats will push on her until she wakes up or rolls over.

I'll join your vent. We have two cats. They stay down stairs, far away from the bedroom. I still sometimes see cat hairs inside my mask. In the middle of the night, I'll feel a tickle on my nose that won't go away. When I take off the mask, there it is -- a single tiny cat hair stuck by static to the silicon in the mask. I can't just pick it off. I have to wash the mask because the hairs are too fine for my fat fingers. Okay, I don't have fat fingers, but 'argh'! Cats are not allowed in the bed room.

(Argh!)

Robysue,

Your post made me smile, only because as a cat person myself, I know the frustrations they can bring sometimes. But we love them anyway, don't we?

I have 5 cats. Yes, 5. For some reason, maybe the noise, my cats have all decided that sleeping with someone WITHOUT all that noisy stuff is better. There was a point in time that one of my cats would try to get me on my back so that he could lay on my chest and feel the breeze from the vent of my mask. I guess I started refusing to turn over for him and he gave up!

Seriously, I think you're smart to make the "path" less desirable so that perhaps stepping on the on/off switch isn't quite as likely in the future.

We don't lock our cats out either, mainly because one of them has a door fetish -- no matter what side of it he's on, he wants to be on the other side and will bang it to death if it's closed.

On a side note about feeding -- I used to feed my cats wet food every morning and I had a cat that was a royal PITA about it in the mornings. It used to make me crazy on weekends because that silly animal couldn't differentiate between work days and non work days - never learned to read a calendar.

I switched their feeding to night to stop that problem. Two of our cats now can't eat wet food at all (upsets their tummy's) but the other 3 get their wet food feeding at 7:45 each night. They start circling by around 7:00 at the latest, sometimes even earlier! It's funny because my daughter feeds them and tells them "It's not din din time yet babies. 45 more minutes!" But they don't wake any of us up in the morning trying to get it.

Yes, cpap and cats don't tend to mix well, but hopefully you can get your machine situated so it's less likely to happen again.

My cat is fascinated by the air coming out of the blow hole on my mask. Other than that, she doesn't bother the machine (hope I didn't jinx myself by saying that)!

Debbie

More on the cat and cpap.

The catwalk sounds like a good idea. I'll study the end table a bit more. I'm pretty sure the button is in a less likely to be stepped upon place, but who knows with cats.

Our cat's name is Mr. T. He came from the shelter with that name. He eats dry food twice a day. We swear he must have been raised with dogs: He's the only cat I've ever had that wolfs down dry cat food in about 2 minutes flat. When we first got him, we tried feeding him once a day---like every other cat I've owned. But he'd wolf down the whole day's worth of food in about 2 minutes and then start howling for more 5 or 6 hours after he'd been fed. Just couldn't take it. So we split the food quota in two and he's feed in the morning and evening.

I swear he knows what "F-O-O-D" means too. At one point hubby and I resorted to spelling the word with Greek letters.

And Mr. T plays fetch!

And at least the rest of the night was a double good one: AHI = 0.9 and slept for about 5:30 hours out of my allotted 6:05 time in bed. (I'm entitled to stay in bed for 6:15, but got to bed 5 minutes late and the cat woke me up five minutes early. *sigh*). So I'm feeling really pretty good this morning in spite of the cat. And we're off to go skiing one last time ..

One queen size bed, 1 hubby, 1 wife, 1 dog (spaniel size), 1- 4 cats. We all sleep nicely together. Other than the "triplets" (3 sisters, just moved in from somewhere) no one bothers anyone else. The triplets are still learning that they can NOT sleep ON the chest or belly. NEXT TO is okay. But that "discussion" just occurs at bedtime and no more problems the rest of the night.

robysue wrote:Our cat's name is Mr. T. He came from the shelter with that name. He eats dry food twice a day. We swear he must have been raised with dogs: He's the only cat I've ever had that wolfs down dry cat food in about 2 minutes flat. When we first got him, we tried feeding him once a day---like every other cat I've owned. But he'd wolf down the whole day's worth of food in about 2 minutes and then start howling for more 5 or 6 hours after he'd been fed. Just couldn't take it. So we split the food quota in two and he's feed in the morning and evening.

Three of our five came from the local shelter -- I'm a big fan of people that adopt from shelters to give animals a home. Our local shelter puts cats that are more personable in Petsmart so more people see them. The last cat we got from there, Billy, spent over 4 months in Petsmart not being adopted. I was shocked because he is adorable, but the Director of the Humane Society said they turned down many potential owners because in Billy's case, he NEEDS to be in a home with other cats, not something that everybody has. The Humane Society felt that Billy would not do well as the only cat in a home, especially if the owners worked and he would be alone a lot. So when I came along with 4 other cats, we were a good place for him!

I see why you have to feed Mr. T differently from a typical cat. Does make you wonder what happened to him before you got him that he eats that way. But bless your heart for giving him a loving home and adjusting the feeding so it works for him.

Madalot wrote:

robysue wrote:Our cat's name is Mr. T. He came from the shelter with that name. He eats dry food twice a day. We swear he must have been raised with dogs: He's the only cat I've ever had that wolfs down dry cat food in about 2 minutes flat. When we first got him, we tried feeding him once a day---like every other cat I've owned. But he'd wolf down the whole day's worth of food in about 2 minutes and then start howling for more 5 or 6 hours after he'd been fed. Just couldn't take it. So we split the food quota in two and he's feed in the morning and evening.

I see why you have to feed Mr. T differently from a typical cat. Does make you wonder what happened to him before you got him that he eats that way. But bless your heart for giving him a loving home and adjusting the feeding so it works for him.

Both of our cats were adopted from the shelter. They were in the same crate and offered as a 'sister' pair, even though they are obviously different breeds. The things shelter managers find themselves doing to make adoptees more appealing... They too have this habit of eating like it's the end of the world. We think they were crated for their entire lives and then road-dumped because they didn't meet show standards. They both have some minor medical issues. They were each about two years old when we got them. Neither of them knew how to play, run or jump. We had to teach them how to be cats. It took them months, but thereafter, their instincts kicked in and they were playing like kittens. They are the favorite pair every time we bring them to kitty camp because they are always so friendly and never hiss. They're kind of stand outs because we taught them to sit. Since we got them, we've learned just how lucky we are to be adopted by two such loving cats.

Up until last year, when we had to have Pumpkin put to sleep, we had 2 cats. We now have just the one.

We had them from kittens and they always slept (or spent the night) in the laundry room. We have a spacious main floor laundry room and the litter box, food, water and a cat bed are in there. They are put in there every night when we go to bed. Pepper, our remaining cat, has never liked it but became accustomed to it --mostly. She is whinning to get out when she hears us up in the morning.

I realize it may be hard, if not impossible to do that with cats who are older and have established habits. We did that because I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and falling over them during the night, if I was up, would not be good for either of us!

Hey Robysue,
Well I guess there are worse ways your cat could wake you up than stepping on the CPAP button.

(Posted below is a link on Youtube to Simon's Cat, In 'Cat-Man-Do'. A non-offensive, very cute (in my opion) film))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q

I'm so glad you posted the Cat-Man-Du link, Jordy. I first saw that when Jules posted it once.

Funny to watch again.

Simon's Cat is a funny series! The artist obviously lives with a cat.

We're cat co-dependents here too with 5 of them (and two dogs). Three were strays picked up/rescued from various places, and two are in "payment" for a big bill from a former client who couldn't afford to pay...they're Norwegian Forest Cats and totally cool and oddly dog-like in their behavior. Four of them sleep with us, and the fifth one is a one-person cat and won't even talk to anyone but my step-son--it's his cat through and through--he found her as a tiny baby in the woods near our house (a lot of people dump cats around here) and took incredible care of her. She sleeps draped across his head/face most nights.

I've been lucky in my cpap journey and the cats. One early incident where Sammy clawed my climateline hose led to a hose cover. No one is interested in the hose now, I think because it doesn't move the same way and isn't shiny with a cover on it. The other incident occurred when I wasn't home and one of the cats turned my machine on--it ran for a couple of hours before it shut itself off (I don't use the auto off feature). Now I keep it in a drawer of the nightstand and keep the drawer closed far enough that no one can walk on the machine or get a paw into it.

Cats are in and out of the bedroom all night because we have a kitty door in the bedroom door, and a doggy door that leads outside. The only problem with that is when they bring squeaky critters inside in the middle of the night. Ugh! But during cold or wet weather, three of them pretty much just snuggle somewhere on the bed and sleep with us. The fourth one, Hannah Banana, likes to snuggle up to one of the dogs and sleep with there. The dogs are on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Gee, did I mention that we're animal co-dependents?

One cat I had developed a never-fail method of waking me up in the AM----stand on my bladder and start kneading.

*sigh* We live in a rural area. When we lost our white Mitten Kitten at 14 years of age we were catless about 12 hours. A tiny kitten was seen flying out of our little garage the very next morning and several mornings and evenings after that. Eventually she cottoned up to my husband who named her Tigger. She's terrified of our Border Collie/Spaniel mix so she does NOT socialize w/anyone except hubby and me to some extent.

Then we were asked to take a "ghetto cat" from the Detroit area that had been live-trapped, fostered, and was quite affectionate but did not like being picked up nor held and didn't like being in the house. She was supposed to be a barn cat. Yeah, right! Her name is Trubble for good reason. She's the computer cat. *sigh*

Fortunately, our local humane society assists Seniors w/spaying/neutering because w/in a week after accepting the "ghetto cat" a white cat showed up in the little garage and presented us w/4 kittens. *sigh* We thought we had found a good home for one of the kittens. Unfortunately, it wasn't. So, the other 3 ended up spayed/neutered and living here. Eventually my daughter took one of the males home. There we were up to 5 cats. Momma cat we call Momma, the daughter is Cracker and the son is Hershey.

A grey and white long hair moved in. She's a great mouser and moler. She and the Border Collie/Spaniel mix tag team the moles in the yard. She finds them, he digs, she catches and brings them up to the front porch as a present for us. *sigh* Her name is Fiesta. She's the "talker" of the bunch, very explicit about telling you what she wants.

A neighbor died, his wife moved, and a sweet grey spayed female decided to join our menagerie. (Did I mention we also have 3 horses and a rescue Shetland Sheepdog?). Her name is Gray-C for grey cat. She's a great one for whispering sweet nothings in your ear.

Three yellow tiger kittens showed up in the big garage a couple of months ago. *sigh* We call them "the Triplets". Three sisters, Faith, Hope and Charity. Thank goodness for the humane society's spay program!!!!

All the cats are indoor/outdoor cats except Tigger who prefers the little garage as her home. Hershey and Cracker prefer to spend the night outside regardless of the weather. Fiesta prefers to sleep on the furnace duct in the basement during the winter and on top of the gun safe in the basement in the summer. Gray-C sleeps in the middle between my husband's and my pillows. The Sheltie sleeps on the floor on my side of the bed. The Border Collie/Spaniel sleeps on the floor on hubby's side of the bed or on the bed at the foot between our feet. The Triplets sleep snuggled up to our legs, feet or sides. They don't object when we roll over or change positions, they just quietly rearrange their sleep positions to accomodate us. Momma prefers the bed in the guest room. Trubble prefers to sleep in my 'puter chair.

In the morning they all take their turns eating some canned cat food and a few laps of milk - except Momma, she doesn't like canned food (nor does Tigger who eats and drinks out in the little garage). The rest of the day there is dry food out for them to feast on as they like. Tigger and the Triplets will eat together. The rest insist on eating separately and occasionally get in a bit of a tiff about whose turn it is at the food pan. Hershey thinks he rules the roost so every now and then the girls have to put him in his place and banish him to the barn.