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4:57am March 29, 2012

I think this is composure grooming. Or at least started out that way. It became much less sharp and vigorous by the time I got my camera turned on. She woke up out of a dead sleep and immediately began washing herself. Which usually seems to mean that something in the dream embarrassed or unsettled her. She’s still at it but is getting calmer by the minute.

Composure grooming is a term Diane Duane uses for the way cats wash themselves (with a particular emotional edge to the washing that had already faded a bit before I could get the camera on) when they get embarrassed about something. Watch a cat miss a jump sometime and suddenly start washing. (But watch discreetly if you don’t want them even more unsettled.) It’s that.

Now she’s going back to sleep again. That happens sometimes. At least this was only embarrassment. Sometimes she wakes up hissing, growling, and swatting with her ears plastered to the side of her head. I am not sure I want to know what dreams are behind the waking up hissing.

Notes:
  1. withasmoothroundstone posted this