Lumia the night terror

Lumia has this habit of letting us know if she isn't getting what she wants. I wrote in an earlier post (Unintentionally teaching cats some funny habits) about her habit of annoying us on the computer.

Most of the nights Lumia sleeps like us. She might move around a bit and she usually starts the night laying on my thigh and then she moves between our pillows. She might at some point come lay on top of me again, but luckily she's so light that I rarely even wake up to it. But sometimes she requires that I wake up. She taps me or my blanket with her paw to let me know she wants under the blanket. Except sometimes she doesn't want to go there. She just looks below the covers and then at me. I put the blanket down and she taps me again. Again, I lift the blanket... nope. Then I pat my thigh and tell her she can hop there. And often she only then walks on my thigh. Weird little princess, no?

But then there are the times she most likely is hungry (the food she has isn't good enough or she is hungry one or two hours after getting food... which she never really is). These are the fun times. There are a few variations she does. But the focus of hers is to annoy at least one human.

Meowing

She has a few places she will meow at night. One is while sitting on my chest. She stares at me and meows. Kind of like yelling "Wake up!" at me. Another good place is between us humans and meow straight into my ear. My fiancé has seen this many times, she actually meows into my ear. She sometimes also meows while she is on top of a basket near our window, the so-called curtain position. There she can yell as much as she wants to, if the human wants to shoo her, that means they are up and can come to feed her or give her attention.

Hanging from the curtains

One of the most annoying things she's come up with is hanging from the curtains. This happens always in the curtain position. The sound when her claw goes through the curtain is something that wakes me up for sure. And she knows this. If I don't react, she'll do it again, and again, and again. She does nothing else to the curtain. And she never does this while we are awake. This is only for night use. And between each time she gets ready to sprint if I do get up.

Scratching the metal doors of our closets

Another annoying habit of hers is to scratch a metal door in our bedroom. My goodness, the sound is horrible! Also, the doors are sliding doors, so when she picks the outer one, there is also a nice little clonk sound every time she leans with her paw. Even more perfect! This technique she uses rarely these days, we've been able to ignore this one well enough that she just doesn't see enough results to continue with it. But on some rare occasions, we still do get to enjoy this little technique as well.

A combination of these techniques is quite effective

She picks one or more of these techniques and repeats them until she gets what she wants. Seriously, she doesn't stop! We've tested this multiple times!

Often she starts with a meow or two. Then she hops to the curtain position, meows to let me know she is there. If I don't react, then the claw hits the curtain. Maybe a few times to check if I would react. If not, then she might go visit the metal doors and start making a lot of noise. If she still gets no reaction, she might hop onto the bed and walk all over us to see if we are awake. Maybe accompany this with a meow or two to see if any eyes open. And then the circle begins again.

When our communicating door wasn't yet properly sealed, the door made a clanking sound. This is where Lumia first picked up the habit of annoying us. We first were confused that why would she want to go outside, when she never was outside... but then it hit us. It was the noise! After the door was properly sealed, Lumia has never touched the door again after noticing the sound went away. Poor thing. But fortunately, she is a clever little meanie and has thought of many other ways to annoy us to get what she wants.

And even though I say these things, Lumia really is a fantastic cat, she isn't mischievous. I love her to bits. If we immediately would give into her terrorizations, we could sleep better. But I've been trying not to teach her that 2-3 AM is a good time to be asking for things.

Daylight attention seeking

During the daytime, she has also realized a new way to try to get attention from us while we are on the computer. She stares. For me, she usually comes to sit between my arms in front of the keyboard, scoffs, and stares. Maybe she might give me a kiss or two if my face is close enough. But if I continue writing, she starts to get annoyed because I touch her tail, which she herself put on my arm... but I should not touch it because it is her tail and she can put it wherever she wants to. I find this quite funny most of the time. Sometimes she goes behind the keyboard and steps her front paws between my arms. It appears she tries to block the ability to write without stepping on the keyboard. She knows she isn't supposed to touch the keyboard and knows that if she steps on the keys, she cannot stay on the table. I find this incredibly cute. And when she wants something, she usually lets me hug her without getting annoyed. I usually end up hugging and kissing her for a while just because she lets me. She even purrs, so she likes it, even if she is trying to act like she doesn't! Afterward I reward her with treats and often milk or food, depending on what she seems to want at that time. I consider this a win-win for us.

The thumbnail image of this post has Lumia standing on my eReader while I was trying to study accessibility. The book I was reading at the time is by the way Laura Kalbag's book Accessibility for Everyone, I recommend checking it out! But the image proves Lumia knows what I'm looking at and blocks that. The main image has Lumia blocking the notes I'm making from an accessibility course. That time she can't block everything I'm looking at, but she does a pretty good job of being in the way.

She also meows during the daytime, but she usually meows at my fiancé. Lumia has taken part in his meetings as well, hopefully, his coworkers don't mind. I hope her unique and weird vocals amuse the people who hear her meows. At least my coworkers enjoy both her and stories of her.

And I think it's great that she demands things, even if it is sometimes very annoying. Cats are supposed to have character. And Lumia definitely does, there's no denying that. She's my little queen.