To also lock cat out of the room?

[JulianBoon]

DD used to have cat in her room. He is an orange cat and she has a desk with built in shelves with lots of trinkets on and he always tries to jump up and knock everything off.

So he's taken to sleeping in my room, but he wakes me up all the time. Jumping up and down off his bed (thick blankets onto of the wardrobe) and coming to make biscuits on my face at 4am.

He can't sleep in the living room (dog)

I was thinking of getting him a big tall cat tree for the upstairs hall, so just outside my bedroom, something with an enclosed bed to keep him warm over winter.

I feel mean locking him out of all the bedrooms at night but he is really naughty and loves to knock things over! Funnily he doesn't do it in the daytime!

One of the reasons I don't have a pet anymore is because I've always put their needs before my own. And found it mentally exhausting.

Well, there's being a good pet owner and there's just being silly - and prioritising the sleep preferences of a cat to the point that you're mentally exhausted definitely falls into the latter category imo.

Caring for animals properly doesn't mean catering to their every whim to the point where the human suffers. In fact, I'd say that doing so is detrimental to the animal involved - they need to be able to be independent and not stuck to you like glue.

Thanks @FoxtrotOscarKindaDay, we are first time cat owners so it would definitely be just one cat for starters and, living where we do, it really wouldn’t make sense for us to have an indoor cat. We have very good access to the outdoors with all sorts of things that a cat would enjoy in our garden and beyond - although I completely get that some cats are homebodies.

I have no issue with getting a timer cat flap and was really meaning, is 7am the right time to let them out? Or 6am? Or should it adjust according to the time of year?

Ours is indoors due to the breed but my dh had outdoor cats and they had the most problems at night- foxes, people driving fast, more fights with cats etc. His cats either died on a night or came back with injuries.

I lock mine downstairs. It’s their routine. I spent too many years of my life being woken by cats as they don’t sleep all night.

@AnonyLonnymouse we let ours out after they've had their breakfast - normally around 7.30 during the week but it can easily be 9 or later at weekends.

We get them in by about 8-9pm as I don't really want them out overnight.

Yes, the rescue that I am looking at says that they should be indoors at night due to these risks?

We've always shut our cats out of the living and sleeping areas of the house at night. They get put into the kitchen, where they've got their food and drink, and they sleep about 3 feet off the ground, on a 'cat sleeping station' we have in there. They've got a cat flap to get out in the night if they want to go out.

I can't be doing with cats wandering around the house, trundling up and down stairs, jumping up at doors, or jumping on my head at 5:00am. I treasure my sleep and I'm really fucking nasty if I don't get it. There's nothing wrong at all with shutting your cat(s) out of the main part of the house at night. Just make a cosy sleeping area for them in your kitchen, and get a cat flap in the door so they can get out.

I understand what you mean. I don’t think I’ll have another pet once this little one toddles off the planet. I’m constantly worried about her!

We had a cat growing up that just turned up one day and my folks decided to keep her. She slept in the garden most of the time. Wasn’t allowed on the beds when she came in, ate crap food, rarely got her injections from the vet (in fact I only remember taking her twice). When we went on holiday she just slept in the shed and the neighbours fed her. We had her for 16 years and as she was an old stray when she adopted us she was probably about 18 when she died. Wish I was as laid back now as I was then.

When you say you constantly worry about her that's exactly how I feel when I have a pet!
That's why I find it lonely not having a cat but the relief of not having to worry about the cat's welfare outstrips any benefit getting another cat would bring.

Ours chooses to sleep on the sofa all night, snuggled up against our Labrador. He prefers to go out during the day when it’s warmer. They’re not all the same in what they like.

To be fair, it depends on the cat and where you live. Mine all stay in at night because a) they're hunters and I don't want to wake up to dead rodents everywhere but also two are black and I worry about their safety crossing roads at night.

What's your bonding activity with your daughter got to do with me finding the spurious rebranding of ginger cats odd @JulianBoon ? I am so tired of aggressively defensive responses to the mildest enquiries on this site - it's killing conversation! And whilst I'm at it, very few things have much importance in the grand scheme of things but it doesn't stop us ruminating on them.

@AnonyLonnymouse It's genuinely not safe for cats out at night. With regard to letting out in the morning, the cat will let you know so just adjust to their time.

Our orange menace is shut in the kitchen at night. He has a cat bed, and a not-cat-bed (Amazon box on top of the fridge with a blanket in), a wicker basket of toys, food, water and litter tray in there. He is fine. What is not fine is him sitting on my head at 5am.

yep.. i am owned by 2 cats! i am their slave... currently the orange one is on walkabout and has not been seen for about 2 months! we know he's about as he pops in from time to time for a feed and then he's off again! we've accepted this is how he is and he appears happy and is living his best life... our old lady (black and white and 11 years old) absolutely only leaves the house for toilet duties and the occasion sunbath if the weather is good enough but now winter is coming she will litterally live on a radiator!

I have 5 of the little shits darlings and they go out at night because 5 cats jumping on your head at 5am is not fun. We have barns and stables so plenty of places for them to be nice and warm. Your cat tree/bed on the landing plan sounds absolutely fine OP.

That's hilarious

And not one bit surprising

I think its fine to leave them in a room that is comfortable but don't expect the cat/s to agree with you

Mine always slept where he wanted because I indulged him

Yanbu
Our cats are always locked downstairs overnight. Too often my toes are seen as prey. I wouldn't just rely on shutting the bedroom door as a cat would get in any time I went to the loo.

Surely there's some way to cordon off some of your downstairs area so it's accessible to the cat but not the dog?

That is exactly why mine are locked in at night. Black and hunters.

We had a black cat that was killed on the road. When I looked into it, statistically black cats are no more likely to be killed at night than any other colour.

Maybe because people keep them in.

coming to make biscuits on my face at 4am.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mine does this too!

Mine screams directly in my ear when I’m sleeping.

Fellow ginger owner here, ours has free reign at night except the lounge or kids bedrooms. Her preference is next to airing cupboard where there's a pipe under the floor or on our bed.

No biscuits made here as she's out for the count all night. When it's deep winter she does bother dh for a cuddle under duvet.

We let her out first thing and she's in by dusk so 7 ISH now and 3.30/4 when clocks change. She stares at the car flap as if to say what on earth do I do with this 😁. We have a GPS tracker on her so we know where she is all the time it's on - which is not far as she's very content in the bushes in the garden or on the shed.

Love a ginger but yes she's a bit like Mog and very forgetful.

@Ohwhatacircusitis

youre quite right, poor cat. Perhaps OP could stay up every night playing with it and keeping it company? Daughter could do the same?
it may mean lose her job due to not being able to perform properly and compromise her daughters education but at least the cat would be ok.