Last Friday night I woke up & got out of bed, when I returned I noticed that Parker was in her “spot” (the area at the edge of my side of the bed so when I lay down on my right side we spoon with her in the crook of my arm). I laid down, pet her once and then settled in to try to go to sleep again. After a few minutes Parker let out this odd sigh sound, which was unlike any of her “normal” sleeping sounds. It was like all of the air had left her body.
Slightly concerned I laid my hand on her to feel her breathing and I felt nothing. I start to get more concerned and pressed my hand harder to see if I could feel her breathing better. When I still couldn’t feel anything & I realized that by now she would have normally started to purr (she 99.9% of the time starts purring the moment you touch her), I really started to freak out. So I shook her and called her name. Nothing. Of course, I start hysterically crying & shaking her harder & yelling her name. Nothing. Sobbing now, I’m probably giving her shaken baby syndrome at this point by how hard I’m shaking her with both hands and screaming her name. Not a damn movement from her. So I flip out, jump up and yank the chain to turn the light on above the bed. I’m yelling Parker’s name, uncontrollably sobbing and shaking Parker while she lay eerily still. Then all the sudden her head pops up, eyes as wide as she can manage as she stares into the light in a “what the fuck” manner, she turns her head to me & looks at me all confused & gives me one of her silent meows. Needless to say, I scooped her up, snotting & slobbering all over her.
Honest to God, I have no idea if she was just in an extremely deep sleep or if she had stopped breathing or something, died and I revived her. Who the hell sleeps through all the jostling I did to her?! She was a bit weird the next day but I don’t know if that was because I was imagining it or if she was really a bit out of it. I can’t really put into words how exactly she was being weird but her being out of it is an easy one to say. Plus, for the rest of the night and the whole time we were home Saturday, Parker was walking (sitting and/or standing) around doing her most obnoxious meow, more obnoxious then her normal obnoxious meow. Her normal obnoxious meow is like the one mamma cats do when they’re calling their babies or caring around something like a “baby”, only Parker’s is about 10 times worse. The meow that day was about 10 times worse than “normal”. I kept joking that Parker really had died and she now saw dead people & was talking to them.
After retelling the story to Will’s family I mentioned that maybe Parker had dementia & wondered if cats could even get dementia or Alzheimer’s. Today I looked it up…cats can get dementia. Here’s what I found (I put Parker’s symptoms in bold):
10 Clues that Your Cat Has Dementia
1. Spatial disorientation or confusion - getting trapped in corners or forgetting the location of the litter box. House-soiling is the most common reason for referral of old cats to animal behaviouralists.
2. Altered relationships either with their owners or other pets in the household - increased attention seeking or aggression
3. Increased irritability or anxiety, or decreased response to stimuli
4. Changes in sleeping patterns
5. Inappropriate vocalization such as loud crying at night
6. Loss of memory, such as forgetting commands or breaking house training
7. Changes in activity - aimless wandering or pacing, or reduced activity
8. Lack of interest in food, although some cats actually want more food.
9. Decreased grooming
10. Confusion about time, such as forgetting that they have just been fed
Read more at Suite101: Does Your Cat Have Alzheimer's?: 10 Symptoms of Feline Dementia
It’s hard to tell for sure on some of the listed symptoms or figure the reasoning’s why a cat is acting the way they do sometimes, but in all likelihood, at 16 in human years or 77 to 80 in cat years (there’s a difference in opinions when looking online determining the “real” age of a cat), Parker is experiencing some senior moments and afflictions.
I’ve witnessed what looks like sleep apnea, as well, when Parker is sleeping. It totally seems like she stops breathing when she’s sleeping & snoring and it wakes her up sometimes. It’s the same thing I see Will do some nights. There doesn’t seem to be much information online about sleep apnea in cats but I didn’t look too hard. If she had it what would I do about it anyway? It’s just weird and sometimes scary seeing Parker acting differently or, I guess, acting her age.
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