Cats waking me at night

[Tinkofhousepan]

Firstly I know IABU, as it is my furry overlords every right to bend me to their wills... however, I haven't had a night of undisturbed sleep in over 3 years. My big girl (5) has always been quite good and slept in her own bed, but the little one will not sleep anywhere other than with me! Every morning at 5 she wakes me with the song of her people, to let me know she has safely returned from her morning poo. She will also wake me 2-4 times in the night for no apparent reason other than she is lonely and wants strokes. I love her to death, (found her when she was 2 weeks old in a box in the street) but I'm actually feeling like the zombies from the walking dead are livelier than me now. Can't shut her out otherwise she cries for hours outside my door. I know nothing can really be done about this but I needed a vent! Do any of yours do the same? And how do you combat It??

Wait til if/when you have kids. I have 2 house cats and now a baby too and the sleep is never ending. Our cats don't wake us though they tend to both sleep on the end of our bed all night with us. Maybe all the telling off has trained them that way!

*lack of sleep is never ending!!

intotheflood I have tried playing dead lol, that's when she headbutts me!

I love the 'she's out of love' comment .

My car managed to make so much noise last night that she woke me through the baby cam which is behind a closed door .

I genuinely thought it was a burglar when I realised it wasn't DS.

Don't own a car, just a cat elephant.

It's amazing how loud they can be isn't it cheshirecat? But sometimes they're so silent and sneaky!

Probably trying to wake DS as she's bored- little sod.

Just thought you could use something like gradual retreat, but gor cats. So gradually increase the amount of time she has to stay on her own, but not to the point of distressing her.

She is on her own with Indi whilst I am at work. I just think she wants love. Which I am happy to give, just not when I'm asleep! I can't find how to attach a picture of my gorgeous little menace. Can't resist her little face. She has the puss in boots look down pat!

Lock them downstairs so as they can't get to sleeping areas?

I would try the feliway too.

Can't hurt to try it

tabbymumz I don't have a door I can close between the cat flap and my bedroom door :(

Ear plugs and something outside the door to stop them pulling at the carpet. Eventually they get over it and find somewhere else to sleep! Much to my chagrin as now when my husband is away and I want them to sleep on the bed they look at me as if I am insane and saunter off to their own room....

Two 10 year old resuce cats run the Pen household. Pengirl prefers our bed with sleeping on DH's head being a favourite position along with waking us up a couple of a time for cuddles. Penboy hogs the sofa come bedtime, currently I have a cough and he has taken to 'singing the song of his people' when I wake him up coughing. We are, indeed, slaves to them.

I have 2 who do this. The third is older and sleeps happily at the bottom of which ever bed he favours for the night.
The younger 2 wake about 3 am and want to play. They will stick their wet noses into my face, play with my hair, run across the pillows chasing each other and crawl up the bottom of the duvet to play with my toes.
They are only young so I am hoping once they have had their bits done and been chipped so they can go out during the day they might calm down a bit. Don’t want to put them out at night as they are deaf so I will just have to wait and see.

bojangles I love that she snuggles up to me, I think I'd be gutted if she didn't want to anymore! The carpet is already fucked . penfold we are slaves indeed! I've even forked out for the gourmet cat soup because they love it.. and they have Christmas stockings from Santa paws all things considered I think I'm lucky to have found a man who loves cats as much as me lol!

I just got home from work late (trains) and was greeted by two very unimpressed faces. Giving the overlords salmon for dinner to make up for my tardiness

Aww cantspell I'd be super worried about them being outside at night too. How old are the younger ones?

My cat is like this with DH. If he does it too me I cuddle him and he rarely does it to me.

They are only 6 months so still babies. I am spending a small fortune on new fences to secure the garden for them and am quite happy for them to go out during the day but nighttime the foxes are out in force and I don’t want to risk it.

When she disturbs you in the light, pick her up and put her outside your room. Shut door. Put in ear plugs. Put down a mat if you think she will scratch.

Aw, I’ve got two like this, can I just say my daughter has been a breeze in comparison. She never wakes me for nighttime smooching (thankfully 😂). Just give into it I’m afraid.

chaosofcalm I end up cuddling her too. It encourages her I think!

cantspell I worry about the foxes around here too. If they were deaf they definitely wouldn't be out at night! My girls do tend to team up on local 'enemies' though so I do feel a bit better about that! miaowmix I love your name! I'm hoping that when I have children they will be less clingy than my tink!

I have the same issue with my 11 yr old rescue who I've had for 2 years.

We sleep together in the bed without incident until she batters me about 5am for attention so I end up chucking her out of the bedroom at that point. She buggers off until about 7 when she starts scratching the door.

I've tried covering my bedroom door in tinfoil...she still scratches to get in.

I tried the autofeeder things - she works out what time it goes off then starts harassing me for about 20-30 mins beforehand.

Meh. Given up tbh. I'm only in a 2 bed flat so not many places to hide away from her.

One day you will miss those little wake-up calls!

Our cats used to wake us up scratching to get under the covers with us. We realised they were cold, and so a few months ago I bought them a heated pad which they loved, but they wanted to be UNDER something. So I bought a length of plastic pipe from B&Q, and a pack of four right-angle bends, and have made a sort of framework for them which fits over the heated pad. We drape a towel or blanket over it and voila! They have a tent to sleep in at night, with a heated pad underneath it. THEY LOVE IT. They haven't bothered us since and spend most of the night and day in there.

The heated pad is one which is safe to be left on 24 hours a day, intended for pets at the vets. So they're not going to catch fire while they sleep.