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??

The troublemaker on my her blanket

Tink, what a sweetie

Thanks retired she gets away with it because she is very cute. I tried the felloway suggestion and it sort of helped. She only woke me twice last night!

Cats are very good at wrapping us around their paws and why is it that pretty much every cat pic shows them either sitting on something fluffy and warm or inside something cosy🤔

Haha Too true retired they know which way their bread is buttered that's for sure! Though I did go outside once to find her perched on the roof! Nearly had a heart atrack

I have two of these! One has to be on me...like on my shoulder as I sleep. If I roll over, she just walks over me like I'm some kind of log roll then settles back down. He other needs to be near the shoulder dweller so I end up sleeping sideways to make room for them and my husband. They've pulled carpets up and like yours just cry if ignored at night.

I remember being told when I was pregnant that when the baby arrived it will be really hard because of all the night wakings. Ha! They did not know that I had already spent 9 years pandering to two fur balls every night. No advice really, you just get used to it I'm afraid.

Thanks sew fortunately for me I tend to sleep on my side anyway so that's not such an issue. I think I just need to accept that she is just clingy haha

TINK, as long as they are comfortable that's all that matters, it doesn't matter that we freeze our butts off getting up and down all night just in case they get lonely😐

I am pleased to report that my cat, who is a polite, gentlemanly type, has changed the time of his bowel movement (0530 and you could set your clock by him) to 2300, which as meant two nights of undisturbed sleep. Because as soon as he has had his poo, he calls to me, then jumps on top of me to show me his clean bum. There was an unpleasant morning last year when he still had a bodgie but attached to his furry trousers...

Clean boy!

i shut my bedroom door and wear earplugs.
Apparently they sometimes still wake up the kids, but it doesnt bother them as much.

If they start waking me up with miaowing, i will do what i had to do a couple of years ago, and lock them in the kitchen at night downstairs

I'm glad it's not just Me! I have my boyfriend over tonight so she will hopefully wake him up instead traitor. She is currently peacefully napping on the bed. I may go and wake her up with a head boop and see how she likes it!

haha so funny, my feral gave me a good old bite earlier when I dared to wake her with a nice stroke. She is clearly very unhappy about having her beauty sleep disturbed.

All four of mine, for different reasons every single night.
I'm kinda used to it, mainly they just want to gallop around on my bed for a bit which I can doze through, then they want to get in which is fine, they generally wriggle for a bit then go to sleep.
They snore and smell of fish but I've had worse bfs.

I don’t understand why people indulge cats as if they’re children. It would be unthinkable to me to allow a cat to have that much control over anything I did. She sits on you in the bath? Why don’t you put her out of the bathroom?

Can’t you just put them out at night OP? They’re not children, they’ll be fine. Our cat started waking us up at 2-3am from a very young age. There was no way we were going to put up with that so out he went. He still goes out every night and he’s fine.

Our eldest cat woke up at 2:30am this morning he was outraged that the food bowls were empty so of course I got up and fed him. The kitten has recently been banned from our room for weeing on the duvet WHILE WE WERE IN THE BED I didn't jump out of bed fast enough to attend to her needs!

I think most posters here are pretty well able to distinguish between a cat, and a human child, there are some marked differences I've noticed in my time- I see precious few human children shit in litter boxes. However for a wide variety of reasons, people do indulge their pets.

Why does what others do bother you so much @HappyLabrador ? tilts head

Well in answer to your question happy I don't think of her as a human child, but I do love her dearly and I want to make sure she is happy and having a good time in life. I would never lock her outside for a number of reasons, but the main ones are 1)foxes 2) I live on a main road and would worry too much 3) I have no shelter for her outside and 4) I've never shut her outside, especially at night, she is 3 and that would really confuse her.

We accidently shut our cat out once, she was freezing and miserable . Ita not just cats that get pampered, people buy clothes for their hamsters🤔 we wouldn't have it any other way.

Our cat - looks just like yours Tinks.

Mine have to be locked downstairs or they scratch the bed/the furniture/run up and down the stairs about 4am and if ignore and pretend I'm asleep, big cat oh so delicately taps my face with a bit of claw or no nibbles my nose. I too was knackered so they had to be locked away with. Plate of dry food, water and litter tray. They are quite used to it now. I try not to let them stay out all night as I think the birds and bats need some respite.

It doesn’t bother me Windsor, I couldn’t give a shit what people do with their pets. But when someone hasn’t had undisturbed sleep in 3 years because of an over-indulged cat and goes onto a public forum to complain about it, I’m allowed to give my opinion too, no?

I think it’s ridiculous when people allow their pets so much control to the point where the pet’s behaviour starts to negatively impact the owner’s life. I suspect people who treat their pets like spoiled children are doing it more for themselves than the pet tbh.

It's not a good idea to lock cats outside at night: they're so vulnerable to road accidents in the dark, and are vulnerable to foxes too, which tend to be out and about in the dark hours.

Better to shut them into one room with food and water and a litter tray than to risk them getting killed.

(The RSPCA and Cat's Protection both advise people not to shut their cats out at night for this reason, just in case you were wondering.)

Sorry, posted too soon.

I think it’s ridiculous when people allow their pets so much control to the point where the pet’s behaviour starts to negatively impact the owner’s life. I suspect people who treat their pets like spoiled children are doing it more for themselves than the pet tbh.

Me too. Pets are meant to enhance our lives, not control them. My mother (I'm NC with her) does this: she indulges her dogs until they're nasty to spend time with, then insists she's the only person they understand because she is so close to them. It's really odd.

I think it's crazy too.

Why allow a pet to have such a negative impact on your life?

Sleep is hugely important to everyone, it allows us to function well, to care for our family, no way would I have an animal interrupting my sleep.

Pets are supposed to enhance our lives, not have a negative impact on them.