What do you do when...

[NoahsMommy]

What do you all do when your kitty's are being little jerks? Like when you are first waking up and have to press the snooz button 5 times and the little furball starts to attack?

The water bottle isn't working all that much anymore and when I keep the door shut, he cries and throws himself against it! AND, when I raise my voice and look mad, he just stares at me!!!

Any thoughts?

[purrley]

This is so funny - I have the same problems with my 4 kitties. I don't know - I've tried shutting the door - they cry and cry. This is really madening on the weekend when I want to sleep in. I just kinda ride it out and hope they get tired and settle down. I usually end up getting up and feeding them and then maybe I'll go back to bed.

[Former User]

The main thing is NOT to give up. No matter how much he cries or does other stuff to wake you up, don't show you're up! Keep strong and keep the door closed.

Casper and Kitty had a habit of waking us early too, but we didn't accept that, and didn't give them food. Now they know they're not getting it, until it suits US, and they are fine with it now. Was hard at first though, but it has paid off, nice to sleep longer now and even Casper and Kitty are sleeping longer now

[catwoman]

It's probably not food they want ... it's YOU!

[NoahsMommy]

I agree, he DOESN'T want food....He could care less about it, especially in the mornings. That's his itme to be with us!

He only cries when my hubby leaves for work and he knows I am in the bedroom, ready for him to atack!!

Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the attacks stop while I am still waking up? It really is the worst way to wake up...having a kitten hanging off your arm!

[yorkster]

Have you thought about getting another cat/kitten? I know it helped my cat a lot to have the companionship of another kitty, and what entertainment for us! Aside from that, what I did was shoo them out of the room and shut the door- and then at first while they were meowing and carrying-on, earplugs did the trick for me. Took about a week, then they learned that I was NOT going to get up and open the door or feed them. (well, I do get up and feed them on the weekends because I sleep later and try and stay on their regular feeding schedule).

[NoahsMommy]

One is actually enough!

We live in an apartment and there really isn't enough space for another cat with the rabbit we already have.

I bet that would help a lot though...

[AvaJoy]

Alarmingly, Debra cried and cried the other night while confined to our bedroom as she has been since bringing her home from the vet a week ago. I was somewhat relieved because it was a good sign that she was finally feeling better from her spay surgery.

To determine the cause, we ran down the check list: She was not in pain, she had food, water, toys, a clean litter box, etc. so we thought maybe she was trying to awaken us because she sensed something was wrong in the house or with our other cats (nope - all checked out fine). We brought her up on the bed for cuddles (nope - she jumped down). We have mirrored closet doors so thought maybe she had a bad dream about an intruder-cat, although it would be just her own reflection. So we allowed here access to the master bathroom and she went into a corner and was quiet for a while, but later woke us again with her persistant cries/bahs (she doesn't yet meow).

Sleep deprived and at wits end, we opened the bedroom door (praying that nothing will come crashing to the floor during her explorations) and out she dashed on her merry little way! We never heard another peep and all of our collectibles were still intact come sunrise!

Maybe the bedroom holds reminders of her recuperation and how poorly she felt, so now that she is better it is time to move on to more pleasant surroundings. Since cats are hardwired nocturnal creatures, I suppose it was simply her instinctive timeclock ticking.

[ October 20, 2001: Message edited by: AvaJoy ]

[Efrat]

Getting another Kitten is a great solution, but not all the time... Guci used to wake us up early, and when we got Tsoomi- he stopped- BUT they were both going crazy at 4:00am on our bed running after each other! If we trued to shut the door they would play even harder and it sound like they are going to kill each other so we had to leave it open.

Now they don't care anymore... and the 2 new kitten we have are pretty fine... they sleep with us and purr all night next to my ears- but that is it... we got lucky this time around!