Distractibility: ADHD vs. OCD An exhaustive study involving my cats

We have three cats. One cat pees on the carpet so she is an outside cat. The other two are inside cats. We have the new kitten Abby and the old fat cat Tigger. (I realize I have already established this fact, but just wanted to make sure my new readers were "in the know" :-)

(I bet you were surprised that Tigger is orange...weird right?)

Abby the kitten is the epitome of ADHD. She has all three facets of ADHD. She is distracted...I can call her and she starts to come, then she sees a piece of paper on the floor and decides to pounce on that instead.

She is impulsive...She decides at the last minute that it would be a great idea to jump from the table to the top of the bookshelf and falls to the floor instead.

She is hyperactive...she can go up the stairs in less than a second and she finds it amusing to bite your toes and jump around crazily on the bed at 2am.

Tigger on the other hand is OCD. Things have to be just right for him. If you are wearing black he ensures that it is covered in just the right amount of fur.

If you don't make the bed he will not sleep on the sheets. He will find a section of the comforter to sleep on.

If you clean up all the puke he has recently placed strategically on the floor he will work overtime to get it back right where you are sure to step in it when getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

And he is also determined. I have allergies. One of the things I am most allergic to is cats. Why do I have cats you ask? Because I can. And I really like cats...most of the time. I take lots of allergy medicine anyways...so as long as I continue it (by not forgetting to pick up the prescription at the store for a week and wondering why my eyes look like I've been crying for the last 3 days) I'm fine. The one thing I require is for the cats to not sleep by my head. I wake up stuffier if a cat sleeps by my head all night so that is something I will not tolerate.

Tigger is persistent...every single night he tries to sleep on my pillow with me. It's like his OCD is saying, "here is where I must sleep for the universe to keep in balance."

He never ever sleeps on my husbands pillow. Ever. Even though he is welcome there. And he is also immovable. When I try to shoo him off he puts down some electromagnetic force and it is impossible to get him to move. Then I try and lift him. His claws extend and he will bring the pillow with him if I manage to get him up.

This happens every night. You would think he would get the message that I do not want him there. All he is learning is how to be sneaky about it. If I'm awake he will casually walk up to the head of the bed and if I say NO he plops down and gives me a look that says, "what...I was just going to lay down right here, by your side...I had no intention of going up to your pillow." If I say no enough he will eventually give up and go down by my feet. And then I wake up in the middle of the night and there he is curled up around my head.