17 years old, obese and arthritic. She limped slowly down the hallway to the bedroom. Hesitated before getting into bed; should she just jump in? Once in bed , she wriggled down under the covers and curled up, waiting for the bed to get warmed with her body heat. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep - she was so weary , and it seemed all she wanted to do nowadays was sleep. She hated disappointing people, but she found it very easy to nod off, even when they were talking to her. Was it her latest medication? Green-lipped mussel extract was supposed to help the arthritis. Or was it her body's reaction to the diet they'd put her on? Loosing weight was also meant to help relieve arthritic joints . Oh, but she was hungry all the time as well! She felt their eyes on her, watching to make sure she did not overstep the boundaries of her diet, and eat anything else. She could eat whenever she wanted, but it was only from her diet food; and she was always so hungry, that she tended to eat most of it for breakfast, leaving little for the rest of the day.
She woke - what was that noise? Oh, only the wind getting up. Now she couldn't get back to sleep. She was hungry again. Should she go into the kitchen and see what there was in the way of food? Midnight snacks... But that would mean she'd have to get herself out of bed. It was warm in bed, and her joints tended to be stiffer after a period of non-activity. She sighed, and eased herself from the bedclothes. She had discovered that getting out of bed was the most painful. Nothing for it, but to get it over with quickly. She threw herself from the bed.
The geriatric cat.
For what it's worth... probably not much above high school level prose, but I also woke in the night when my cat jumped/fell off the bed. Poor suffering thing; aren't I mean, not feeding her?
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