Smart… But Not So Smart

There is an animal who lives in our house. We feed it and give it water and take care of it. We named it Raine.

Raine has not only begun to figure out some of our habits, but she has taken steps to undermine them. From her point of view, I’m sure her plans are flawless, but there’s one main point that she fails to grasp.

Every night, we start getting ready for bed. We walk around, brush our teeth, drink some water, etc. Then we make sure Raine is not in the bedroom and close the door, locking her out for the night. We do this for the simple reason that Raine is not a sound sleeper, and tends to prefer to pounce on our heads in the middle of the night. Because of this, we do not allow her to sleep in our room.

So now when we’re getting ready for bed, Raine will realize it, and does not want to get locked out. So she’s taken to hiding. She sneaks into our room and hides behind the door or under the bed. Sometimes she’s really patient and stays in hiding some 15 minutes after the lights are out. But here’s where her plan suffers: She wants to be in the room so she can sleep on our bed. And as soon as she comes up to cuddle, I take her in my arms and escort her out of the room as she whines pitifully. And yet every night we go through this. Granted, sometimes she doesn’t pick up on the going-to-bed routine early enough and we successfully lock her out, and other times she’s just not into hiding. But the pattern always ends in her being outside the room, and us being inside.