Do your cats have a routine? If so, what is it?

[SunnyAgain]

Just trying to envisage how life with 2 cats will be. Do you put food out at the same times every day? Do they go to sleep at the same time each evening and get up in the morning around the same time? Do they sleep all night once they go to sleep in the evening? I just can't remember what it was like in our household when we had cats, when I was a child!

An approximate routine. They start bothering us for food when they sense someone might be awake, 6.30ish onward, can get away with 8.30 if you are very good at pretending to be asleep. Have breakfast, go out for a bit, then come in and snooze all morning. Reappear in the afternoon, go in and out, sunbathe, chase things, start badgering for food about 4.30. Get fed about 6. Evenings tend to be a lot of snoozing. Start badgering for food again around 11. They get sone wet food morning and evening and a scoop of dry last thing at night.

Oh and I have no idea what they do between midnight and 6am, but they are shut in the house.

Sparklingcat sleeps through the night on her bed in our bedroom, We go up to bed and she races up the stairs and gets into bed, then she gets up when I do for breakfast.

Days are spent following me about if I am around or sleeping in three possible places. Cats sleep up to 16 hours a day.

She's a sweetie.

Our cat has dry food out all day, and a pouch of wet food in the morning when we get up.

He potters around the house and garden for a few hours in the morning, in and out the cat flap, and sleeps most of the afternoon in the lounge. He's very playful late afternoon/early evening, and then sleeps from about 8pm for a couple of hours next to us on the settee.

He wakes up when we're going to bed about 11pm because he knows I give him his treat (dreamies). He heads out for the night, I suspect he's in and out a few times a night and has some sleep, he's usually back in and waiting at the kitchen door for breakfast in the morning.

5am - jump on human's bed and meow for food
5:15am - dangerously weave around worn out human's legs as she walks down the stairs in order to get me my food
5:20am - decide I don't really want food after all. Meow underneath window until I'm let out.
5:22 - cold outside! Meow outside window until I'm let back in.
6am - human went back to bed. Time to stand on her face!

6:30am to 7:30pm - be lovely and civilized.

7:31pm - meow for food at human approaching door!
8pm - jump on table and sample human dinner
10:30pm - take up entire pillow so that there is no space for human head. Occasionally insist on lying on human's face instead!

I love him to bits and totally recommend having cats!

Boycat (4) starts waking me up anytime from 6am, sometimes I can get him to cuddle for another hour.
Has breakfast, goes out the backdoor about 7.30am
Comes in front door about 9am (if back door is shut due to bad weather) has treats.
Goes out back door, comes in front door, has treats, goes out back door and so on until about 4pm when its teatime.
Goes out again until cat curfew about 7-8pm
Sits on my knee for all of two minutes and loves up.
Goes to sleep on our bed till we go to bed about 10.30pm
Has supper and spends the night asleep on DHs office chair unless its really cold then he'll come and get under the duvet.
We are semi rural and he likes being outside but has got into the routine of a curfew quite easily.

Fat old cat (20) gets woken up for breakfast as above.
Has breakfast and toilet, goes back to sleep.
Gets woken up for tea and toilet at 4pm, goes back to sleep.
Wakes up for supper as above, goes back to sleep.
Sleeps all night.

He gets up with DP about 6 and is fed and let out. Then when I get up he makes out like he hasn't been fed.

Then he potters about in the garden if the conditions are right for him. No wind or rain. If he deems it too cold to go out he sits on the kitchen windowsill.

Then mega afternoon sleep. When I get home from work he is fed again, then he has another potter about the garden.

He sleeps in DSs bedroom at night, but sometimes has an early hours of the morning lairy about the house.

Cat 1: up at 5, gets fed at 6, goes outside to prove he is the best cat, decides it is too cold cold, sleeps in the study most of day, fed again at 7, sleeps at 9pm.

Cat 2: as above for food, but vanishes the whole day and only returns for food.

PowderCat usually appears at the top of the stairs around 6am, she'll pop into my room to say hello when DH goes into the bathroom then she waits on the landing until someone opens DD2's door so she can go in for her morning cuddle. She is then around whilst we are getting up, will help with make up application or helpfully climb on the ironing board. Then we all go out the door together at 8am, she has to stand behind the car so I can see her in the reversing camera, eventually she will move off to the flower bed and we can go to school/work. She then after her flower bed visit goes back indoors for her morning sleep. Somedays she gets up during the day especially if someone is home, but generally she sleeps. At 4pm she goes outside to wait for the DC to come home and feed her, she doesn't eat the food, just checks it is there and goes outside to play cat wars with the neighbors, unless it is windy or wet when she just sits on the windowsill and stares them out. 8pm is our tea time and she always appears in the lounge when we sit down to relax for a play and a cuddle, before settling down to sleep on the sofa.
Bedtime - she is shut out of DD2 room so starts by sitting on my windowsill watching the outside world then waits in the landing for DD1 to go to bed where she joins her for the night.
She doesn't cope well if either of the DC are away and she loves school holidays and weekends when there are people around.

Thank you all, very interesting! Slightly worried about these early starts that seem to be common. I hope the ones we're getting are on the lazy side and enjoy a lie in!

Boys are still under a year old so guess it might change. This is the current routine:
Get up between 5 and 6 when I wake up. Watch me get ready.
Meow until I feed them.
Have a nap. Cuddle DD.
After school run go out for a couple of hours.
Have some food then sleep. Preferably on my lap.
Midday they go out for an hour or so.
More sleep. Usually in the sun on the windowledge.
Play and go out.
Curfew is before 7pm. Then they have flying frenzy.
8pm eat.
9pm sit on my lap or in bed with me cuddling me under covers.
11pm-12am shut in dining room when DH comes up.

My girl comes in at about 4 or 5am, shouts to let us know she is back and either goes for a nap on her sofa or, if she is cold or wet, she comes into bed to be cuddled warm. She will often give us a kiss or a wash if she comes for a warm up.

At about 6 she gets up with us and demands breakfast and a cuddle. We can't have a coffee or anything until she has been held and cuddled.

Then she stays in the living room for a couple of hours, just to be sociable. She makes my eldest lay on the floor with her and she rolls about with him.

Then she goes to our bed and sleeps until about 4. She then comes down, gets a drink and a snack and goes back up to bed. My husband comes home and watches the news in the bedroom and she has a cuddle with him.

She comes downstairs between 8 and 830, eats, has a cuddle (this one is upside down in my arms, cradled like a baby) then she goes out, does a small patrol of the garden and comes back in. She then goes out at about 10pm, we go to bed and that's it until 4 or 5 the following morning when it starts all over again.

I assume she is in and out overnight, but I'm not there so I don't know exactly what she does.

Sometimes, before or after cuddles, she brings one of her toys over and we have to play with her.

I have a video of her repeatedly fetching her stick (little plastic thing she likes to chase after) and dropping it at my husband's feet

DCat1 sleeps on our bed and wakes me up at about 4.30am by patting my face, meowing, clawing the duvet or (extreme measure) licking my face. I evict him and go back to sleep. He has breakfast at 7am when I get up. He goes out for a bit, sometimes fights the neighbour's cat, and then spends the rest of the day asleep on an armchair. If he is feeling especially energetic, he will go out in the afternoon and bring me a present (a bird, a frog, a rat or a squirrel, depending on the season). Then it's tea time and we shut the cat flap over night. He comes to bed with us and then the whole thing starts again at 4am.

DCat2 sleeps in his basket till I wake home at 7 for breakfast. He runs around excitedly and then goes outside to go to the loo. In and out for most of the day. In the summer, from about 3pm onwards he sits on our garden wall receiving his adoring public. Some of them just stop forms chat, others stay for ten minutes of strokes and cuddles, others may bring gifts (Dreamies). He receives them all graciously until I call him in for tea. After tea he spends the evening purring on a lap and then goes to bed.

I have a friend whose cat smacks her round the face if she wants to wake her up

Fenella, are you attachment parenting your DCat? Have you considered a sling?

I may as well.

She rules us! The entire household revolves around the demands of the cat!

Mine (4) start shouting for food when they hear my feet out of the bed. They sleep downstairs with cat flap locked. I feed them and they all go out the cat flap, round the side of the house and shout at the front to be let in! They have free reign to play in the garden and house until tea at 6 when cat flap is locked again. They all have a mad half hour around 10 when they charge up and down the stairs and around their cat tree like nutters. They like fetching ping pong balls and straws. They go to bed when I do after another meal! Generally don't hear from them during the night.

It depends what time I get up, sometimes she is awake before me but usually I'm awake early. I get my coffee and check emails and she then tries to help an has food.

If she thinks I'm late getting up she will sit on my head and mew loudly in my ear.

If it's warm my bedroom window is open as long as I am in the house, in winter I let her out for p and p.

About 8 AM she goes to visit Norman, where she usually meets up with sooty or hopalong (don't know hopalong's real name but has 3 legs).

She sleeps on Norman's bins or his doormat and occasionally does some kitty business such as checking who is visiting.

Norman feeds all the local cats at about 11 am, wet food goes straight on to the lawn and he makes sure they all have a fair chance at some food.

If my carer is due she will follow him down the road, running in front and rolling around so he has to stop and tickle her belly. He then carries on 3 paces and she does it again.

She follows him home, if it is raining she comes in, otherwise she then splits her time between Norman's house, Ginger's house and sitting under my next door neighbor's car with Sooty and the other 4 cats who live there.

If it's a warm evening and I'm out or in with the door open she will sit in the back garden and chase any cat who dares come in, except one who she quite likes. Sooty is not allowed in the back garden, nor are the other 4 (her rule not mine).

At about 6.30 she will come in, try to help with any cooking or TV watching. If my carer is still here she will jump up on him and then proceed to clean his beard. Strangely he finds this cute.

When I go to bed she will follow me, if I'm reading then she likes to be between me and my kindle, otherwise either on me or on the pillow next to me.

DH thinks I pamper Dudley terribly, but he does have a routine of sorts.

5am approx: wake resident humans up by sharpening claws on lovely stripped pine chest of drawers (this is attention-seeking in order to get someone out of bed to feed him). If no one wakes up, meow loudly at DH.

6.30-7ish I get up & give him his official breakfast. Duds goes out for a check of his territory, if it's dry he sits on the shed roof for a bit.

8am comes back to check that I really have given him breakfast

9am the DCs are at school so Duds pops in & out for a few hours depending on weather. If wet he sleeps under DH's office chair.

11am-ish Asleep on our bed for most of the day. Does get out of bed if I am at home or if it's sunny. If DCs are at home he sleeps behind a chair in the bedroom as he doesn't like the noise.

5pm-ish he starts looking for me, if I'm at work he tends to stay upstairs until I get home.

6pm more wet food & top up dry food

7pm patrol territory again

8pm sleep on our bed again

9pm come downstairs to sleep on my lap

10pm-midnight in and out of the cat flap every 30-60 mins, lots of miaowing on every return trip. Occasionally presenting us with a mouse.

Midnight - comes to bed, kneads me for a bit then falls asleep on my chest. Jumps off when DH goes out for late night stroll, joins him. Then another patrol or 2 before having a snooze til 5am ish. (I have tried to introduce a curfew but it has proved impossible, as he claws the house to pieces if the cat flap is locked at night)

MadAngryCat usually jumps on the bed and makes his presence known about 6am, purring loudly and kneading the duvet.

He eats half his breakfast when we get up at about 7am, then has the door opened for him to wander outside for a wee, rushing back inside afterwards for the rest of his biscuits.

By this time someone will have had a shower. He makes a point of going in and inspecting it all over getting muddy pawprints everywhere in the process. Then he's off outside for the day. Duties mostly involve sitting in a bush keeping an eye on the garden. Occasionally he'll jump over the fence and have a go at beating up the neighbour's cat.

By 4pm he's rolling about wantonly by the back door hoping upon hope that someone will take pity on him and feed him. This usually works fairly quickly and once he's been fed ALL DOORS ARE CLOSED, as he can't be trusted to stay out all night fighting. He selects a suitable resting place for the evening (ironing board, bed and beneath the dining table are all current favourites) and curls up for the night. He accepts cuddles and strokes but is generally very busy being asleep from this time onwards.

Cat's like routine. You feed them at the same time each morning and they will adapt to that, be it six or eight am. However, be aware that if you one day feed them earlier than usual then this will be the 'new' routine and, for several days they will expect you to be available earlier. It will take a few days to re-establish previous, later breakfast time.

My two come in bathroom window at six and head straight down for breakfast. After breakfast Osc heads back upstairs, noses the door of our bedroom open (woe betide it is closed, lots of scratching and yowling ensues) and settles down next to dh, who is still asleep. There he stays. Jumps settles on my chair downstairs. Neither cat moves significantly all day, until I return home from work (3:30). Then they walk to bowls (trying it on) and when that doesn't elicit the desired response, they follow me around and purr hopefully. At five thirty I give them tea and they settle down to sleep after. At eleven, they go out for the night.

Get two cats, double fun . There's a programme on Wednesday about a woman with over fifty cats , I will watch with awe .