Hot Pocket for Nami – Keeping My Senior Cat Warm and Happy

Our senior cat, a Bengal named Nami, is almost 18 years old and struggles to maintain her body heat when she sleeps, which is most of the time. Cats normally seek out a warm place to sleep because their body temperature naturally dips a bit when they sleep. If they sleep somewhere warm, they can more easily keep their temperature in the normal range. As cats age, this gets harder.

Sympathetic to Nami’s search for warmth, knowing that she avoids the dogs most of the time, I set up a heating pad for her on the kitchen table, where she could be warm without being lonely. I also have a heating pad in my home office so she can sleep near me when I work.

The heating pads had been working well until we got our first sub-freezing temperatures this year. As the temperature dove, she was restless, whipping around her angry tail and crying to me. The heating pad does a good job of keeping one side of her body warm while the other side is cold. I decided to try something different, and the “hot pocket” was born!

We have cat caves for our cats, and Gracie has normally been the one to sleep in one at home. Whenever we take the cats camping with us, we have one in the truck, and they like to hide there sometimes during the trip. I took one of the cat caves and put a heating pad inside so that it would not only heat the side Nami on the bottom side but also heat up the air temperature inside the cave. Nami has been so grateful! Both sides are warm now. We made one for Gracie, too, just in case, but she uses hers less frequently. As a young cat, she is more capable of managing her body temperature.

Nami is no longer cold and crying during the night. She sleeps well all night and has purred her gratitude every chance she gets! I sent my son a picture of Nami in her blissful sleep, and he immediately deemed her sleeping arrangement a “hot pocket!”

Our senior cat, a Bengal named Nami, is almost 18 years old and struggles to maintain her body heat when she sleeps, which is most of the time. Cats normally seek out a warm place to sleep because their body temperature naturally dips a bit when they sleep. If they sleep somewhere warm, they can more easily keep their temperature in the normal range. As cats age, this gets harder.

Sympathetic to Nami’s search for warmth, knowing that she avoids the dogs most of the time, I set up a heating pad for her on the kitchen table, where she could be warm without being lonely. I also have a heating pad in my home office so she can sleep near me when I work.

The heating pads had been working well until we got our first sub-freezing temperatures this year. As the temperature dove, she was restless, whipping around her angry tail and crying to me. The heating pad does a good job of keeping one side of her body warm while the other side is cold. I decided to try something different, and the “hot pocket” was born!

We have cat caves for our cats, and Gracie is normally the one to sleep in one at home. Whenever we take the cats camping with us, we have one in the truck, and they like to hide there sometimes during the trip. I took one of the cat caves and put a heating pad inside so that it would not only heat the side Nami on the bottom side but also heat up the air temperature inside the cave. Nami has been so grateful! Both sides are warm now. We made one for Gracie, too, just in case, but she uses hers less frequently. As a young cat, she is more capable of managing her body temperature.

Nami is no longer cold and crying during the night. She sleeps well all night and has purred her gratitude every chance she gets! I sent my son a picture of Nami in her blissful sleep, and he immediately deemed her sleeping arrangement a “hot pocket!”