I won't let my cat in my room. Because my cat is insane... she doesn't curl up like every other cat I've had. Instead she crawls all over you- all night. I'm talking nonstop movement of a cat walking back and forth across your torso for upwards of five hours.

The odd thing is she will happily curl up on laps and sleep on the couch with anyone and everyone. It's just bed=wander time for her, for some reason.

My brother learned this lesson the very hard way. He'd always locked his cat out of his room. (I should note that he's not a cat person, and that he came into the cat by circuitous means.) Her health deteriorated rapidly, over the course of a few weeks. After the first few days, he let her sleep with him, thinking that each night would be his last. After five days or so, he got a little more, I don't know, confident? Resolved?

Anyway, he got up one morning and had a hard time opening the door to his room. His cat had died, slumped up against him, trying to get to him.

Sad fucking thing, that.

So I get the point. And I get kellydamnit's too. It's hard to do every single thing right for our pets. We just have to do the most right we can.

We just have to do the most right we can.

True, true. Same goes for children.

The people upstairs had their pitbull out on their porch at 2:30 a.m.- they do that sometimes when they get mad with him, I think, put him outside and let him cry it out. He was barking like crazy, and I know they were awake because I could hear their footsteps. I went out to talk to the dog in hopes they'd hear me talking to him and be ashamed of themselves. It may have worked, they brought the dog in shortly after.

My parents had a solitary cat and he was never allowed in bedrooms at night (not sure why) and never came to any harm. He used to sleep on the sofa until one of us got up, at which point he'd demand breakfast.

We now have a solitary cat who is completely different - he has ninja door-opening skillz and can headbut his way in, and proved to be such a nuisance if we block the door (howling, scratching) that we gave up and keep the door open. If he doesn't start the night with us, at some point he'll wander in and will settle on or among someone's feet.

I always assumed that cats and dogs were different - that dogs were more dependent on their people, more clingy. This cat is making me change my view, though. He just loves being with his people at night. Though I do suspect he's just staking us out to make sure we remember to feed him in the morning.

I had Cassie for 15 years, then George, who is still alive. Both solitary, both inside-outside cats, neither of whom were allowed in the bedroom at night time. They did fine.

A warm whippet curled against your belly under the blanket on a cold winter night is wonderful. Her claws scratching you at 3:00 AM as she runs in her sleep is less so. Either way, the bed feels empty without her now.

I think making universal pronouncements about cats is like making universal pronouncements about children - it's bound to be wrong for at least one family/situation. For example, I was raised in a small town that was still mostly rural farmland. Our cats were indoor/outdoor and I would have said it's criminal to keep a cat locked up inside when its natural instinct is to hunt. Now that I live in the city I can't believe that people keep their cat in high rise apartment buildings! But that's life.

Metachat: A Warm Whippet Curled Against Your Belly

Dogs sleep under the bed; cat sleeps on top. Perfect comfort for everyone but me: the dog farts float up through the mattress and the cat attacks my legs every time I have the temerity to move them.

MGL, your bed should clearly be suspended from the ceiling, upside-down-like. That would solve all your problems.

Everyone sleeps in the same room at our house. When it's cold, the cats join us. Pooches are always on their beds on the floor. Last night they weren't up there with us - it's too warm already for them. They'll be back in October.

And yeah, creatures are as different as people, but I do generally agree that a social solitary animal needs a companion. By the same token, some animals need to be in a one-pet house.

Bailey comes to bed with me, demands I make a fuss of her (she drags my hand off my book with her paw for chin scritches) and then as soon as the light goes off, she jumps off the bed and goes off to sleep somewhere else, or to have night-time adventures or whatever the hell she gets up to.

Lucy never comes to bed with us, but sometimes in the morning one or both cats will be asleep at the foot of the bed when I wake up. If it's just Bailey, Lucy normally wanders in as soon as she hears me stir.

They don't disturb me at all and I hate it if Bailey has a moody and won't come to bed with me.

The only time our older (17+ YO) cat comes into the bedroom is to strategically vomit where you'll put your feet in the morning. The younger one will yowl if he doesn't get to sleep with his momma. The dog sleeps in his crate because if he didn't we would soon have papa-san chair fragments instead of a chair.

serena? Please let us know what happened. I hope everything is okay.

Kaylee, the dog, didn't sleep with us until we moved to the house. She slept in her crate while we're living in the RV. The cats, however, have always had free range. BUT it's been tempting to shut out past cats. A pair of brothers that I had while living on my own drove me nuts in the a.m. I finally figured out that all I had to do was to rattle their food dishes that already had food in them and they'd let me go back to sleep.

Cats is crazy animals.

yeah, I'm OK and it's not gonna happen again.