October is nearly over, and the shop has grown quieter. The beds hold their shape. The light comes in low, at an angle, and lingers on the floor. We have been tidying, in the gentle way of those who are not in a hurry.
We have learned a few things this year. That rest is not a reward. That a nap is a form of listening. That a cat who knows how to lie down knows rather a lot.
Thank you for resting with us. The door is open, the lamp is low and the bed is, as ever, warm.
Our Winter Collection will arrive in stores on 1 November. It features a thicker Cloud Loaf, a second Hush Blanket in a four pound weight and a limited run of the Eclipse Window Perch in a deep midnight blue.
There is also a new product, the Hibernation Hammock, which hangs from a radiator and holds up to 14 pounds of sleeping weight. It has been tested by Marmaduke Tuft, who declined to leave it.
Preview appointments are available this week. Please come in softly. If you are a little early, please sit down. If you are a little late, please lie down.
Waking is as much an art as sleeping. A harsh wake leaves the sleeper cross and uncertain, with a stiff neck and a memory of having been somewhere warmer. A gentle wake is a slow return.
We suggest the following: first, a soft light. Second, a faint sound, such as a bell or a distant tin. Third, a pause of several minutes, so that the sleeper may decide, without pressure, that waking was their idea.
Should you be woken by a human, do not take it personally. They have been awake for hours and are lonely. Allow them a single slow blink, and go back to sleep.
The lavender in our Sleep Mist is grown on a hillside farm three valleys from the shop, tended by a retired tabby named Hortensia. She picks it at dusk, when the oils are quiet, and brings it down the hill in a basket on the back of a bicycle that is, for reasons unclear, always damp.
It is distilled slowly, over eleven hours, in a copper pot she refuses to name. The result is bottled in glass, labelled by hand and left on a shelf for a week to settle.
The bottle is small. The scent is smaller. The effect, we hope, is large and entirely unremarkable.
Following a small matter concerning a squeaker, Biscuit has been appointed Head of Comfort at Catnap Mattress Co. It is a new role and a gentle one. He is responsible for the warmth, the softness and the general feeling of the shop.
His duties include walking the floor, lying on beds that look lonely and offering moral support to customers who are choosing between two shades of oatmeal. He is also responsible for the bell.
In his first month, Biscuit has increased the number of customers who stay for over an hour by 45 percent. He credits his approach, which he describes as lying there, nearby, being warm.
The first cold morning arrives without warning. It lands on the windowsill, runs along the floor and settles in the base of the spine. Prepare for it now, in the quiet.
Add a layer. A folded blanket under the bed adds 3 degrees of warmth. A heated mat beneath the cover adds 8. A second cat adds 14, though it also adds opinions.
Move your bed away from the door. Move it nearer the radiator, but not so near as to be a hazard. A winter bed is a bed in a good position, and a good position is half of any season.
You have one hundred nights to decide. If at the end of that time you are not satisfied, simply call a Rest Guide and speak your reason. Speak it slowly. We will not pressure you.
Returned beds are inspected, cleaned and given a new life as a demonstration model. We estimate that 63 percent of returned beds are returned because the cat preferred the box it arrived in. We understand. We have always understood.
For this reason, every Catnap bed ships in a box of exceptional quality. Please keep the box.
The Midnight Lullaby offers twelve sounds, but one is by far the most discussed. Distant Mice is a recording of eight mice walking inside a wall, scratching gently, sometimes squeaking, and occasionally falling silent as though aware of the listener.
Our testers were divided. Seven fell asleep within the minute. Three stood up, walked to the wall and sat there for four hours. One could not stop saying the word mice.
We consider the setting a success. It evokes the thing most dear to a cat: something in the next room that she is not yet going to deal with.
There is a quiet hour between breakfast and lunch which is often overlooked. It begins at around 10:15 and lasts until the noon bird. In this hour the house is empty, the floor is warm and the world has not yet asked anything of you.
We suggest you spend it horizontal. A mid morning nap is not a surrender. It is a rehearsal for the afternoon nap, and the afternoon nap is a rehearsal for the night.
Treat each of them with respect. They are the vows of a sleeper to the day.
Every few months a customer asks for an alarm clock. We understand the impulse. But an alarm clock is a small machine that shouts, and shouting is not what we do.
Instead we offer the Gentle Dawn Programme: a paw tap at 7, a murmur at 7:10 and, at 7:25, the faint sound of a tin being opened in a distant room. In trials, 94 percent of sleepers woke within the hour and none of them were cross about it.
The Programme is staffed by Biscuit, who rises early and does not mind. The remaining 6 percent are still resting and have been left a note.