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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Chunkymonkey217 · 09/01/2018 21:19

I’m sorry but “wakes me with the song of her people” is bloody hilarious 😂
These tiny, furry demons can be such pains at times! My cat likes to sleep directly on my face, if I even try to move she looks at me as if I’ve just shat in her litter Blush

2018mummy · 09/01/2018 21:49

I am going thru exactly the same with my 1 year old cat, other two sleep beautifully thru the night and she will trill and ‘chat’ from 2am onwards. Always finding a toy with a bell that she simply must play with around 4am.
As others have said we have bought feliway and last few weeks have made sure she is kept awak for the hour or so before we go to bed. She also now gets wet food just before we retire to make sure tummy is well and truly full.
We have had a (tough wood) peaceful few nights since.

RandomMess · 09/01/2018 21:55

New routine!!!

Shut in overnight with litter tray in room furthest from you. Give them a little treat - we give ours a small bit of wet food.

Takes a few weeks but ours ask to go to bed now from 9pm!!!

retirednow · 09/01/2018 21:58

They ask to go to bed, that has made me chuckle.

Sparrowlegs248 · 09/01/2018 22:03

I feel your pain OP. I have a 2.5 yr old and 11 month old (human children. .....) and a young cat. Old cat used to sleep on the bed. Not a peep our of him. This one though, bloody hell. She's an idiot. Runs around the house. Walks over your head in bed. When husband was still living here hed leap out of bed like a thing possessed to go and feed her at 3 am I've not had a full nights sleep between babies and pregnancy and the bloody cat started waking the children up. Husband REFUSED to shut her downstairs. We have a door at the bottom of the stairs. If you close that she scratched ms hell out of the carpet. So I put her bed in the kitchen. Litter tray, food, water, cat flap so she can go out but not get back in. Job done . She brings live mice in if you leave the cat flap open. I got totally flamed when I posted on here about it. But the fact of the matter is, the chdress sleep, and mine, comes before the cat. I do love her and she gets plenty of attention.

RandomMess · 09/01/2018 22:12

@retirednow seriously the glowering is the starting point. She moves around the room glowering from different positions.

Cats waking me at night
BalloonDinosaur · 09/01/2018 22:12

You have my sympathies OP, mine would always, without fail, come and wake me up about 4am. Howling, digging up the carpet, pawing me in the face, chewing my hair etc, which was a nightmare when I was up at 5:45.

I put a stop to it when I was pregnant as they used to run and hide under the bed and I got up to try and take them downstairs.

They only do it to me, never DP. When I come home from nights they are both fast asleep on the bed, or come down obviously having just woken up little bastards.

I ended up shutting them downstairs and letting them out as soon as I got up, not so helpful, apologies

Couchpotato3 · 09/01/2018 22:22

Could you set up one of those pet crates around your cat flap so that your cats can get indoors and have access to food/water/comfy bed etc in the night, but not actually be able to get to you? No doubt they would fuss and cry for a week or two, but eventually they would settle down. You could plug in a Feliway nearby too. Surely it's worth a try? Otherwise you just have to accept ongoing zombie status!

Weezol · 09/01/2018 22:26

Chunky For the full story on 'The Song of Her People' go to YouTube and search 'Sad Cat Diaries'.

samscott · 09/01/2018 22:42

One of mine is the same, OP. She scratches the side of the bed to wake me so I’ll stroke her.

So I’ve started ignoring her.

If she jumps on the bed, she can stay there if she sleeps quietly but if she tries to wake me, I push her off.

Being consistent with this has worked. She now only asks for attention while I’m in bed if she sees I’m awake.

BigBaboonBum · 09/01/2018 22:48

My cat did this so he’s now trapped downstairs at night. I close the hallway stairs so he just can’t access the stairs. He meowed for like a month on and off at night and then stopped and now he’s fine

Tinkofhousepan · 09/01/2018 23:10

Thanks for your replies everyone! Mumsnet is not currently giving me the option to post a picture of my little monster. Currently being observed very carefully whilst I'm in the bath. (Think she thinks I'm drowning, she keeps shouting at Me!) As soon as I can have the option of posting a pic I Will! Glad I am not alone in the battle of wills against the sneako babies

OP posts:
retirednow · 09/01/2018 23:21

Random, beautiful if not a little scary😮☺😮

riggitywrecked · 09/01/2018 23:31

Not sure DCat is after love so much as he is spoilt. We have touch lamps on the bedside tables and gorgeous bastard has figured out how to turn them on whenever he feels we should be awake (various ridiculous hours of the early morn).

Last time he did this I decided to ignore him and remain asleep, the little fecker bopped my nose with his paws!

fairylightsdown · 09/01/2018 23:54

I miss sleep; but I would miss their snuggles more. Mine are ruling the roost for 4 years now. I drink more coffee now too.

catmummy1 · 10/01/2018 00:07

I’m 35 weeks pregnant and my 2 cats wake me more on a night than I think my baby will! Least I’ll be prepared!
I’m just a soft touch and give into them! The older one (5) isn’t as bad as my youngest (1) she is just a bloody monkey! I darent have them out on a night time, especially with the cold weather.

PrincessoftheSea · 10/01/2018 00:15

Mine wake me too. I started off trying to lock them away in the living room downstairs during the night, but they soon worked out how to open the door.

Tonight I am sleeping on the sofa in the dining room and my cats are in bed with my DHConfused

Thursdaydreaming · 10/01/2018 00:30

My cat had a bad habit of bringing in her favourite toy (dressing gown tie) in to my bedroom, lying it next to the bed and crying/screeching loudly so I would get up and play with her. She was doing it at 5am so now I keep the tie in a cupboard.

Here's a pic of her handy work and expectant gaze.

Cats waking me at night
CheshireChat · 10/01/2018 00:30

Just remembered my mum's cat (I was still at home though) used to keep us up as a kitten and the best way to stop her was to keep her awake during the day.

So we used to wake her up so she'd be tired at night and she mostly stopped. Appreciate it's hard to do if you're at work though.

melj1213 · 10/01/2018 05:09

Cats are like children - you need to set boundaries or they will run riot and during the boundary setting phase they will push back to see how strong your resolve is, so you just have to remember that you might feel mean by being very strict with them in the short term, but it is worth it for the long term benefits.

I have two cats and a DD9 - all of whom sleep soundly through the night... If anything it's my DD who wakes the cats if she goes to the loo during the night! I currently have both cats on my bed - one is curled at my feet and the other is tucked into the back of my knees and they will most likely stay that way all night, unless they decide to trade places.

It wasn't always this way, both of my cats were rescues, the elder one we had from only a few weeks old as she was a feral kitten found abandoned and was in such a bad state she wasn't expected to last the night, but flourished just to spite everyone who expected her not to make it. But because of this she has a lot of instinctive feral traits (shes 3 and she still covers her food bowl if she has food left when she has finished eating, which is a purely feral trait). The younger one we got at 8months old and she had been in a shelter for 4 months where she had struggled to find a forever home because the shelter environment stressed her out which meant she was often overly needy when anyone showed her attention so potential adopters would pass over her as being too high maintenance and too much work ... which meant she was there longer and perpetuated the cycle. This meant they both had various bad habits that took a while to break them of but it was worth the effort.

My cats don't like closed doors, they will scratch them to hell if they think you are having fun (aka peeing, showering or getting dressed) one the other side of a closed door without them and it is the only bad habit I haven't yet broken them of. They used to race around the house at 4am, but getting shut downstairs meant they couldn't do that and they missed out on cuddles ... once they realised that not doing 4am laps earned them the run of the house (and cuddles) but when they did start it up again they were shut downstairs then they stopped.

One of my cats is always needy with attention - she used to walk out of the room you were in and then cry for someone to come and pet her ... that soon stopped when she learned DD and I would no longer go out to pet her/fetch her back. If she goes off and then cries she will get called by one of us and if she comes to us she will get attention but if she doesnt come when she is called we wont go to her either.

The older of my cats likes to be fed first thing, so at the first signs of movement in the morning she used to get in my face, purring, headbutting me and booping my nose/forehead until I got up and fed her. It took a lot of training - allowing her cuddles and scratches for 5 minutes before i got up to feed her but putting her out of the room and not feeding her immediately if she booped me (especially if she used claws) - but she now knows that when I wake up she will get fed sooner if she gives me a 5 minute "snooze" window than if she comes in and demands food immediately.

sashh · 10/01/2018 05:45

Mine likes to sleep on me. Unless I have a male visitor, if my dad visits she spends the night with him, total floozy.

AccidentallyRunToWindsor · 10/01/2018 06:30

I thought if this thread at 3am when I was woken by boy cat snoring so loudly I initially blamed DH.

Chrisinthemorning · 10/01/2018 06:40

Our boy cat would purr on my head at 4am if I let him, girl cat is fine.
We shut them in a room overnight with food, water, litter tray and cat beds. They are used to it and ask to be put to bed.

ForalltheSaints · 10/01/2018 07:00

They are cats. What did you expect?

Thursdaydreaming it's a lovely cat you have.

BulletFox · 10/01/2018 07:04

Beautiful cats Random and Thursday.

Actually I think there's some sort of aesthetic pleasure with cats or else the little shits wouldn't get away with their numerous cat crimes