Mindful Monday – The Cat Nap

The weather is starting to cool a bit, which makes it more comfortable to sleep. Although I’m not sure cats ever lose any sleep no matter the weather. They seem to be able to catnap or snooze soundly under any conditions, and in some of the most interesting positions.

Do you ever photograph your cat asleep? How can you resist when she or he is curled up or sprawled out in pure relaxation or in a laughable position?

It’s widely known that cats sleep approximately sixteen hours out of every twenty-four. Some experts say a cat might sleep twelve to fifteen hours a day and some cats sleep as much as twenty hours every day. Generally this is the very young cat and the aging cat.

While a cat might not have trouble sleeping when the temperatures soar, their sleep patterns can be affected by the weather. When Fluffy wakes up in the morning, looks out the window and sees that it’s cold and rainy, she might go right back to bed, just like you wish you could do, right?

Why do cats sleep so much? Is it that they’re lazy? Actually just the opposite. It’s because they’re so active. When they’re awake, they expend a lot of energy. Plus they’re hardwired to sleep a lot in order to be ready for the next hunt.

Cats are considered crepuscular. This means they’re most active at dawn and dusk. This, too, is influenced by their wild ancestors. Our domestic cats don’t hunt to survive and the only things the house cat fears are maybe the vacuum cleaner, the sound of the garbage truck outside, and maybe small grandchildren visiting. But she still has a busy day—begging for her meals, giving herself a complete bath after eating, investigating packages and boxes brought in from outside, giving chase when a toy mouse is flipped in front of them, leaping after a fly or moth that makes its way into the house, worrying about whether you’re going to leave and when and if you’re coming back, keeping an eye on what’s going through the windows, examining bits of sunlight shining on the floor, looking forward to the next meal, and so forth. When you consider all that they do, you can clearly see why a cat sleeps so much during the day. It’s exhausting being a cat. But you can be sure that a cat nap is just the thing to re-energize your fur-pal.

 

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