Cats that go bump in the night ...

We aren't sure that our guest room is habitable for people who aren't used to things that go bump in the night.  It isn't haunted (we don't believe) but there is definitely an unseen presence in the room.

Our youngest cat, a Himalayan named Nano (because she was so tiny when we got her from the rescue people),

Nano

is a real 'fraidy cat and has a difficult time being around people.  We think she was probably abused as a kitten.  When we lived in Arlington she discovered she could burrow into the box spring under our mattress.  The tear in the cover has widened over time and she now 'lives' in the box spring  when she isn't out and about in the house.  Even during the 2012 derecho that left us without power for six days she still found the box spring a refuge, as hot as it was in July.

The lump in the underside of the box spring, Nano's personal hammock

We have put the mattress and box spring in the guest room here on Norman but  little Nano still burrows into her hiding place every night, emerging for breakfast and retiring to her mattress hideaway at night.

Which is why when you sleep on that bed you might get the sensation that you are not alone in that bed.  And indeed you aren't!  If you think someone else has rolled over in the bed, you're probably right, it was just on a lower level.  And who's to deprive a small scared cat of her safety zone?  It's kind of a princess-and-the-pea situation for people using the bed.  We used the guest bed this week when a guest was using our master bedroom and we could feel Nano moving around in the box spring during the night.

The other cats sometimes venture under the bed but no cat is going to risk nose damage from Nano's claws by trying t o join her in her box spring hammock.  The others get their kicks out of waking up us large mammals at dawn when they climb onto our bed and walk back and forth across us.