Pet lovers - have you ever done this?

dss62467

dss62467

Cathlete
When I broke up with my husband, I bought a new bed. A queen-sized (ours had been a double), because I had one less dresser and more room for a bigger bed. But it's not big enough! The other night, my boyfriend was over and he and I were trying to sleep. But big old Duke was at my feet, Cricket was on one side of my BF and all the cats were in various locations around the empty space. It was amusing, but I couldn't roll over! I got a bigger bed, and have less room! If Buster had been there, I would have had to sleep on the couch. Funny, they don't seem to do this when my BF isn't there. They really dig him.

So I was thinking about converting my daughter's play room (aka - the pile of toys that she never plays with room) into a pet bedroom. Put down a mattress that they can all share and maybe put a cat tower in it. Has anyone done that?

I love cuddling with them, but not all at once!
 
Yes. I go on another site that is cat talk and many there have pet rooms. Some of them are really nice and I would be ready to move right in. But a mattress, toys and a cat tree sound great. My cats sleep with me but not the dogs. They have their own beds. It doesn't matter how big your bed is they just think it is more room for them.
 
I'd be interested to hear how you TRAIN them to USE that room. I only have 2 cats, and I sleep with my door CLOSED! If I didn't, I'd have one cat sleeping around my head licking my hair (he did that until I started closing the door) and the other one (the one with claws) sleeping in between my legs. I've thought about getting them each a cat bed and the one with claws a scratching post, but I wonder if they'd actually USE EITHER of those items. How do you even train them to use it?

Gayle

p.s. I got a good laugh at the mental picture of your bed at night! LOL
 
We have 2 boxers in our king size bed. They both hover over me because I sleep with a twin size heating blanket and they want a piece of that. They have me pinned in almost every night. Some nights can be a real circus in our bed.
Oh my, let's not talk about getting out of bed to go to the bathroom when all of a sudden you step on a squeaker toy:eek: Heads raise up thinking it's playtime. I freeze hoping they don't jump up to play! I swear, my boxer girl sets her toys as traps.:p
 
Well, I'm not so much concerned about the cats sleeping with me. They don't take up a lot of room. I can't close the door, because they will scratch on it and keep me awake. I'm planning to put a gate across the room door and sleeping with earplugs in so I can't hear their whining. :D
 
banslug said:
I'd be interested to hear how you TRAIN them to USE that room. ?

Gayle
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That was MY first thought. Training cats is something I didn't think was even remotely possible! They are sometimes in their designated (by them, certainly not by me) spots on the bed before I even get in the bed myself. DH will gently put them on the floor if they are getting in the way but I feel WAY too guilty to do it, particularly when it's cold and they are so soft, warm, cute and cuddly. :rolleyes:

I would love to hear some success stories, particularly as it's getting colder and DH & I are becoming increasingly popular for warmth.
 
I don't have a specific cat room (they sleep with me), but if I had a spare bedroom, I would. I've often thought of turning my front porch into an enclosed one and putting in some cat furniture so they can hang out there in the summer. I do have several (3) cat trees around the house for them.
 
dss62467 said:
Well, I'm not so much concerned about the cats sleeping with me. They don't take up a lot of room. I can't close the door, because they will scratch on it and keep me awake. I'm planning to put a gate across the room door and sleeping with earplugs in so I can't hear their whining. :D
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Definitely put the softest, most tempting blanket possible on the bed (my cats love some of these fluffy thermal blankets (they are polyester, I think). I'll often find them hanging out on my bed during the daytime, especially in the winter (I'll bet if I looked right now, there would be one or two cats on the bed).

Also, having some cat beds elevated, like on a chair. I have several cat beds, and while Rascal likes them on the floor, Bobsie prefers to have them on a chair.
 
DH won't allow the dog in our bed, so we keep him in our daughter's bedroom with a baby gate across the doorway. He has a bed and blankies, and my daughter always tucks him in at night.

I used to wish we could have Snoopy in bed with us, but then I tried it when DH was out of town. For a 30lb dog, he takes up a lot of room, and he snores like a grown man. That cured me. :)

Cynthia, your boxers crack me up!
 
Even if I did have an extra room and put a mattress down I know my dogs wouldn't care about it and still want to be with me at night.

I have woke up in the middle of the night many times and stepped on a squeeky toy and I tell ya what it scares the daylights out of me.
 
My cats have a climbing cat tree that is about 6 feet tall and they love it. They scatch on it and run up and down and sleep on the shelves. They know it is theirs. But at night they sleep with me. There is no way I am having the 2 dogs sleep in my bed. They have been told from day one that their bed is on the floor in the bedroom and they both respect that and I have no issues with them about it.
 
I have a huge climbing tree for the cats...I think it's about 7' tall and has 3 beds on it. They love it and sleep on it all the time, but at night...they want to cuddle. Still, I would probably put another smaller one in the pet room, they're surprising cheap on Overstock.com.

I don't think they'd sleep in there on their own...which is why I'd put the gate up. The cats, of course, can jump over it... so c'est la vie on that, eh?
 
Wow - that's alot of furbabys in bed with you. My Princess sleeps with me and I love it - I wouldn't have her anywhere else. She sleeps between my legs but the other morning I woke up and she was curled up between my arm and my head... it was awesome! Not so awesome is when she starts pawing at my face or pulls the covers off me at 5 a.m. on a non-work day because she wants to eat!
 
Beanie said:
Even if I did have an extra room and put a mattress down I know my dogs wouldn't care about it and still want to be with me at night.
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Beanie, you are soo right. It wouldn't matter what I set up for them. They would want to be with me! I love/hate it at the same time. I love their presence but it can be annoying when i want to move! My DH doesn't like ti a t all! He wont' hesitate to push my kitty off the bed. It doesn't matter though - back up she comes!
 
We are very lucky... our furbaby will sleep on the couch next to us, but she is not allowed to sleep on the bed (i should edit this to add that she is not allowed to SLEEP on the bed when we GO to bed, but she comes to 'put mama to bed' and wake up daddy every morning, and once DH goes to work at 4am each morning, she does confiscate his warm spot and pillow!)... not that she would anyway as it is always too hot for her on all those blankets... so SHE is the "squeeky" toy I step on or trip over in the middle of the night! I do remember long ago, when we had cats, that no matter where you would put a bed for them, they always ended up on our bed... we could have had a 5000 sq. ft. bedroom with their own beds and they would all be on our 5X7 mattress! :) Dogs are easier to train to stay off the bed than cats... in my opinion :)
 
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I am loving this thread because everyone with pets in the bedroom (or whining outside the door) has a fun story. Everyone's already heard mine.

I just want to say I think your boyfriend is a keeper. Pets know who the righteous dudes are and it's a great indicator that they all love him so much. Besides, I LOVE men who dig cats. All the men in my family love cats and it's been strange to find out that that's not typical of men (at least the anti-cat types at work).
 
I always wanted my cats to sleep in the bed with me, but they prefer their own cat beds, that is until about 4:30am, when it's time to wake up mommy. Then Sid starts fussing about the room, and Simon just crawls all over me purring, and drooling, yes drooling, it's gross but funny. And any exposed hands or arms, if I'm not petting him, he will lick me until I do.

Oddly enough, they did not bother me today, it's like they knew I had a day off! I've started calling Simon my personal trainer, since he wakes me up so early, sometimes I figure I might as well go workout before work.
 
So, I talked to my daughter about this last night and with some very fake tears, she said it was OK. She was laughing with the fake tears too, so it's no biggy. I'm going to convert her crib mattress into a dog bed...but I won't tell her that. She doesn't want to grow up.

Now comes the hard part...cleaning all the crap out of it.

And I don't know what my ex did with Buster this last week, but he's come back a rather bad dog. He's jumping up on my dining table! My chairs are higher than your average chairs too - sort of like bar stool height. Maybe he grew this past week and was just waiting...but I've never had a dog do that!
 
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