Things are pretty quiet in the Fister household at the moment. He's over 8 years old now and we've had him over 7 years, so he's usually a pretty laid back cool old guy, and satisfied with his lot. But suddenly one day an unexpected problem turned up!
THE PROBLEM. (It's even got a remote control!)
The good old days when it all was HIS bed!
In Fisters world, life follows it's normal lazy pattern and there are rarely any dramas nowadays. A typical day seems to consist of 1/2 hour eating, 1/2 hour washing, 2 hours gazing out of windows, 2 hours quality time with his humans, and about 19 hours of sleeping. (Plus of course periodic complaints and comments on our behavior!)
Anything you can do I can do better!
But recently something happened which REALLY upset him. We had finally decided to get the new expensive luxury beds that we had discussed for so long. We knew this would give Fister problems as I had insisted on an adjustable bed, resulting in his very favorite spot between our pillows disappearing due to the gap between the beds. And on top of that, his favorite night time sleeping spot under my bed disappeared. He was, to put it mildly, not amused!
Please, put those mattresses back on, I need them for cover!
I was lucky on the day they came to set up the beds, I managed to creep up on Fister in his window and quickly bundle him into the bathroom before he realised what was happening. Then his temperament began to show, and he started getting very restless. He doesn't like any interference in his peaceful days, and dislikes anybody else being in the flat at all really, though he will just about tolerate it. So two workmen, new beds and a lot of moving about made him very nervous. I foolishly went into the bathroom to try and console him, but he obviously thought that it was time for the dreaded "House of Cages" and he really freaked out, so I had to leave him alone.
When the deed was done, I let him out again and sat back to study his reactions.
After looking nervously around and making sure that everything was OK in the living room, he went racing into the bedroom and jumped up on the new beds. Incredibly enough, he didn't even notice the difference, even if they are considerably higher! After that, he retired again to his favorite window sill as if nothing had happened.
It's just not the same anymore
Later in the evening when we retired to the bedroom, he followed as usual, but stopped in front of the bed as if he had hit a brick wall when he finally realized what had happened. He was aghast! Absolutely flabbergasted! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE! Where had the gap under the bed gone? Where was his favorite hidey hole? He instantly went on full alert, sniffing carefully around and trying to work out what on earth had happened. First one side, then the other, again and again, he just could not believe his own eyes.
So that night, for the first time in years, we had no Fister in bed to purr us to sleep. He was extremely offended and went off in a big sulk and slept in his armchair. How COULD we do this to him? The rest of the next day he completely ignored the bed, even though he normally spends most of the day sleeping on it.
The next night, he came cautiously up to the bed and sat staring at me for a long time, then finally plucked up courage and jumped up with us. It was only then that he realized the full extent of the catastrophe. What had happened to his sleeping spot between our pillows? The most important place in his universe. The gap between the beds meant that he couldn't chill out there, and it also interfered with his favorite parade ground between us, where he would often march proudly backwards and forwards before settling down to sleep. It was altogether a CALAMITY. It was just not good enough, a disaster, an affront to his pride. So, for the second night he retired, offended, to his faithful armchair.
The next evening, plucking up courage, he noticed the triangular gap that appears when the bed is up, and being a curious beast, he just HAD to crawl in and check out the mechanism of course. This worried me a bit, so I'm always careful to check where he is before I lower it again, we don't want him squashed in there with the electric motors and stuff all night!
I might as well accept it I suppose, at least it's still comfortable
Things are fine again now, the humming of the electric motor doesn't send him scuttling off anymore, he just regards it with a disdainful stare, and sometimes even seems to enjoy being lifted up by it.
It does mean that he won't spread himself out between our pillows now though, so we don't get so many purring concertos to send us to sleep, but at least he seems to have got used to the new situation. The gap is still a bit of a problem, he keeps treading in it and nearly falling over, and he has found it necessary to sleep halfway up on Randis pillow now, so poor Randi has had to move over and surrender even more of her pillow space!
But I'm sure we'll all get used to it, we usually do in the end.
How could you do this to someone like ME!
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. And no hiding hole anymore either??? Oh my, my cats would be offended too! They LOVE to get under the bed, and purr happily... .
Be happy there at the Rainbow Bridge 
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