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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Cats waking me at night

150 replies

Tinkofhousepan · 09/01/2018 17:59

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??

OP posts:

speakout · 09/01/2018 19:53

No idea why you do it.

My sleep is far too important to be woken by cats.

mrssunshinexxx · 09/01/2018 19:56

Mines a year old we rescued him he wakes me most nights atleast once I've just got used to it but I feel your tiredness !

CheshireChat · 09/01/2018 20:00

One of my cats when I was still a teen used to love the heaviest books she could find at my head.
After getting hit by the fifth Harry Potter (hardcover and it's bloody massive) and narrowly avoiding a dictionary, I stopped using that bookcase!

She then took to staring- just staring the creepy little fucker.

CheshireChat · 09/01/2018 20:01

Used to lob

problembottom · 09/01/2018 20:02

My cat used to do this but a few torturous weeks of me playing dead to any yowling, headbutting or attention seeking as early as 5am - and I mean don’t even open your eyes they’ll be watching - means I don’t hear a peep until 8.30am, or 10am on a weekend.

MrsSchadenfreude · 09/01/2018 20:06

Mmm, mine has a poo at 5.30 every morning. He will then sing to alert me to the fact, in case all the bashing, scraping, crashing and stench hadn’t alerted me to the fact. He will then come and sit on top of me and wash his arse, slurpily and noisily, until I give up, get up and feed him. He then curls up on his blankie, where he remains until I come home from work.

NewBrian · 09/01/2018 20:10

*No idea why you do it.

My sleep is far too important to be woken by cats*
^this .

retirednow · 09/01/2018 20:15

We do it because they expect this level of service😐 we used to open and close the bedroom window in all weather's just so she could enjoy the fresh air, we will be rewarded in heaven.

LuluJakey1 · 09/01/2018 20:18

One of ours is like this. We have broken the habit by just persisting in shutting her out of our bedroom. She would sit at the door tapping on it and shrieking and wailing for 2 hours at first , she brought all of her catnip mouses up to the door and lined them up outside as gifts every night, but has given in after 2-3 weeks. We plugged a Feliway in on the landing which made a difference and put a little cat bed in a corner of the landing. She hops in there now of her own accord. The other one - the big lad, just fling himself on a sofa in the sitting room.

Original poster

Tinkofhousepan · 09/01/2018 20:20

Haha thanks everyone for your comments!!! I too feel I will be rewarded I heaven. I just think I am going to have to accept that I have encouraged a monster! A really really cute teeny monster.

OP posts:

TheZeppo · 09/01/2018 20:20

I loved your Post!

Mine sleeps on my head. I'm not allowed to move. She cries.

strangerhoes · 09/01/2018 20:21

LuluJakey1 · 09/01/2018 20:22

In the summer when they go out at night (big gardens at the back and no roads) they climb up the bay window roofs of the ground floor and first floor and onto our tiny balcony outside our bedroom on the second floor and tap and shriek until we let them in.

retirednow · 09/01/2018 20:22

We'd all be more upset if they ignored us, we'd be lying awake all night wondering what we'd done wrong 🤐

RecalibratedMilkshake · 09/01/2018 20:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lizzie48 · 09/01/2018 20:25

I've had cats ever since I bought my first property as an adult, back in 2001. My first cat was from a rescue centre, a lovely 3 year old black and white cat. She became so attached to me and I still miss her now, I had to have her PTS in 2011. When I first had her, I lived in my own one bedroom flat and she wouldn't let me go to bed on my own. She would miaow at the door until I let her come onto my bed with me. I had to give in.

When I married my DH, he didn't want her in our bed, but by then she could be kept downstairs in our 3 bed house. But in the morning she used to bound upstairs to me.

Mightybanhammer · 09/01/2018 20:30

don't even open your eyes- they'll be watching.
So very true!

Chipsahoy82 · 09/01/2018 20:32

I had this same problem with my 7 year old fur baby when she was small. It carried on for about 18 months, but during that time I literally buried my head under the duvet and completely ignored her. It took some time (and patience!) but now she understands not to bother me as she won’t get any food or strokes, so she pretty much leaves me alone. And if she does want to wake me up, I’m so used to ignoring her miaows that I just sleep right through it! (DH on the other hand can’t cope with the noise at all! )

Beamur · 09/01/2018 20:38

One of our cats does this too! My DH who is usually extremely soppy with this cat shows him tough love at bedtime. He is allowed to come in for a snuggle with me, but when he leaves (to share his love with DD and the DSC's if they're home) then DP shuts him out. Luckily he doesn't yowl or scratch but goes and sleeps elsewhere. Often with DD who he never wakes up.

Original poster

Tinkofhousepan · 09/01/2018 20:47

Thanks to everyone who has responded! If I could I would show you all bubatinks and you'd understand how we got to the position we are in. If I could lock her Down stairs I would try it. But I can hear her little meow from ages away. For now until we move I think I am going to have to accept that she is spoilt and utterly In control. Cannot wait till I have a conservatory!

OP posts:

Ilovefoodtoomuch · 09/01/2018 20:50

OMG I can so relate to this, except our cat goes round the whole house waking everyone up - not just me ! I can even hear the kids telling her to bigger off at 2am !! So I let her out, she does her business then rattles the back door handle until the dogs bark, and she keeps the bastards barking until I go downstairs and let her in. 2 hours later we have a repeat performance of the whole thing. Then when we all get up for work and school she settles herself down on one of the beds to sleep the day away !!! Every bloody night. I can't shut her out becasue she knows how to make the dogs bark until one of us has to get up and let her in. if I shut her in the kitchen she wails and trashes it by pushing everything off the worktops. If I shut her in the living room she stands on the fish tank and the lids a bit flimsy so I could expect to come down to her swimming in it, catching all my big expensive fish. (She is not afraid of water and regularly launches herself into my lovely freshly run bath especially if it has a Lish bomb in it) We have resorted to shutting her in the bathroom, until a kids goes in there half asleep for a wee becaue they've consumed their body weight in Vimto just before bed - the cat seizes that opportunity to make a dash for freedom.
She also demands her biscuit bowl be topped up regularly and refuses to eat out of it unless it's full to the brim. Any less and she sees it as a poor offering.
So we all suffer from sleep deprivation while the cat parties all night and sleeps all day.

Ilovefoodtoomuch · 09/01/2018 20:51

*Lush not Lish !

IntoTheFloodAgain · 09/01/2018 20:51

How have we to page 4 without a photo of this little kitty! She sounds precious

ChaircatMiaow · 09/01/2018 20:55

YY to PP’s Feliway suggestion.

Lock her downstairs in a snuggly bed with a Feliway plug in. And then lie awake all night anyway with the guilt.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 09/01/2018 21:12

My pusscat soldier has decided to have his mad 10 minutes (usually after a poo but not always) at about 4am. He is so noisy races around like he is on something

Then around 530am he will come for a cuddle and has taken to biting my fingers

He is 14 this year so getting on though still fit and showing no signs of aging he has always been lazy but I think he knows I feel more guilty if I tell him off and taking advantage of that

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