The cat would wake its owner up every night and force her to go sleep on the sofa. She complained of insomnia, until one day she got tested.
When they left, I thought about how animals have no medical degrees, no vocabulary for diagnoses, no explanations.
But they notice patterns.
They feel irregular rhythms.
They react to danger before we name it.
They don’t wonder whether it’s polite to wake you at three in the morning.
Since then, whenever someone comes into my clinic and says, “My cat is acting strange,” I don’t smile.
I ask something else first.
“And you… how are you sleeping?”
