Our furry tyrant won’t let us sleep

[Baldrickhasaplan]

We are servants to a cat who likes to sleep on the bed with us (no problem & we feel quite honoured). Recently, he has decided that he would like to have a snack and then go out at about 4.00 a.m.

There’s biscuits in his bowl and he can use the cat flap. Sadly this in not enough and he expects us to escort him downstairs. If we refuse, he attacks the bedroom furniture.

Are we doomed to getting up at 4.00 a.m. for life?

Short answer - yes

Longer answer - don’t let your cat sleep in your room.

one of our cats is such A Royal Pain that we have to leave a small dish of food for him to snack on overnight

Ps and lock the cat flap otherwise he’ll be bringing you mouse presents etc

I know how you feel
Op. But mine just wants cuddles, fine, but she just can't sit still and makes biscuits on my face. Because of the layout of my house it's tricky to shut her out of the bedroom. She just headbutts the door if it's closed.

It’s getting light early. Cats often hunt at dusk and dawn.
I would lock the catflap overnight. Don’t get up and let the cat out until you want to.
How old is cat? How long has it lived with you? Neutered?

We shut ours in the kitchen overnight, otherwise she is a very cute and very persistent pest from about 5am. Initially I felt bad about it but now she trots through to her bed when we say “beddy-bed-time”. She has water and a litter tray there (generally eats her food as soon as it’s down rather than grazes) and a cosy bed.

😁

Mine has a cat flap at the back along with a cozy bed and a cooler settee, however now prefers to stand at the front door from 3am yowling. It's a battle of wills. I can't leave her making that noise, as its not fair on the neighbours, but since I've gone down and let her in, she thinks that's the way to do it. She then decides to go back out after an hour or so. I need sleep. Its worse than when the kids were little.

Yep!! Mine has somehow gotten it into his head that breakfast is now at 1am 3:30am and 5am even when he's fed after 10pm at night when I finish work. Sometimes it's just a cuddle or a bit of a fuss he wants and he's happy and content to go back to sleep till a more reasonable time. I couldn't shut him out of the bedroom. One he'd Yowl and scratch the door and two when he settles down for the night with his head next to mine and his little paw in my hand I definitely don't have the heart to shut him out.

We can lock him out overnight but that seems cruel and he loves cuddles at night. If he’s in the house, he’ll wreck things until we take notice of him (he’s perfectly well behaved during the day).

Mine sleeps in the living room. I put on brown noise to block out any nonsense. He soon learnt that bed time was bed time and nothing got me out of bed.

Oh this is all so familiar. Our furry tyrant refuses to go out through the cat flap. We have lost the battle of wills especially because she's perfected her whine and/or the ability to scratch the side of the bed to make it known what she wants. She'll generally sleep through the night but just loves to choose the other worst possible moments to complain

Oh you appear to live in our house with us and our furry tyrant. I hate this time of year! Obviously there are things you can do about it but you won't same as we don't.

Why would you feel honoured to have a cat sleeping in your bed?,? Make it sleep downstairs and ignore it in the night

Mine have been locked downstairs at night from day one. They have access to food, water and litter trays and if they do shout, I can't hear them

Cats are crepuscular and are most active at dawn and dusk, so it's totally normal for him to want to get up and start his day at 4am. Only you can decide if you want to put up with it or not - personally I don't get why any pet owner would tolerate being woken up at 4am daily (medical reasons aside) but it seems to be weirdly accepted by cat owners on here

Ooh, meow!

I have no way to stop mine coming upstairs at night, or believe me, I really would. She scratches my door incessantly, starting anytime from about 3, while making the most bloody awful racket. If I shut her outside, like a pp's, she yells at the front door and when you live in a terrace, the neighbours really don't thank you for that. Sodding menopause means I can't get back to sleep, so I'm like a zombie all the time at the moment.

Yep, our lady gets shut in the kitchen over night. None of use wish to be washed by her at 5am.

I had a cat like this. Three am was his snack time of choice, but leaving out some dry was food was not enough for him, I had to be awake to rattle the dish, or he would shred anything to hand.
I feel it was good preparation for motherhood.

Mine just likes to wake us up when he comes back onto the bed. He howls at the top of his voice until we wake up and acknowledge him. I don't need an alarm clock anymore!

I'd take this over my cat who keeps trying to push me off the bed.

I got to sleep with plenty of room, she's curled up against my legs. I wake up hanging off the edge of the bed and she's stretched herself out and is taking up 3/4 of the bed.

Is your entire downstairs open plan so there's no room for her to be shut in overnight?

One of my cats is the same. After I stumble downstairs to feed and open the door (trailed by my other cat and two dogs who think they might as well try and get a treat too), about two hours later he's back up howling as no one is downstairs to keep him company! Once I do go down he's happy to mooch about the garden and ground floor.
My daughter doesn't understand why I just don't lock them in the downstairs (it's all open plan with a door to the hallway). I guess I feel it's mean but I will try (they have spent the night out as they wouldn't come in a few times and were fine - there's a weatherproof cathouse and outdoor sofa to snuggle on). No meowing then.

We used to lock the Bengal downstairs, put card under the French doors so he couldn’t rattle the doors all night, do his hot water bottle for his bed and put ear plugs in.