Something disturbing has emerged in the last couple of weeks. Buttons has always been a happy cat, even when he sleeps; he’s been known to sleep-purr for hours on end. But recently he’s started having nightmares, complete with twitching, facial expressions that look terrified, and some fairly loud vocalizations that sound like fear or pain. Worse: he’s difficult to wake. Today he started having a nightmare and he didn’t even wake up when I picked him up; he kept crying for another dozen seconds or so as I tried to wake him up. When he does wake, it’s usually pretty much instantly with a jerk. When he sees me, he fires up the purr motor full blast and becomes very, very affectionate (makes me think that maybe in those first moments after waking, he’s still remembering whatever monster it was, seeing me, realizes there’s no more monster, and assumes I dealt with it).
The not-waking-up-thing has me a bit on edge. A friend suggests that this sounds like seizures more than nightmares.
Does this sort of thing sound familiar to anyone?
