my cat (1 year and 9 months old, adopted in october) keeps peeing on the couch for attention! the reason why i know it is for attention is because when something doesn't go her way (usually in the morning), it always happens. for example, if my family isn't downstairs by 6-7am, she will pee on the couch most often than not. she will also pee if one of us wakes up and goes back to sleep or if someone has alarms that go off at that time, but the person sleeps through it. she also pees on the couch if one of us goes to bed too late (after 4am). she will also pee on the couch (anytime) if she feels that she has been wronged (in an irrational sense as she always has all her needs met...food, water, litterboxes, play (all the doors in the house opened)). she never pees on the couch while we are not home, it is always when at least one person is home, so that is how i know she wants someone to notice. but it is mostly if we do not wake up at around 6-7am. i do think she does it sometimes when she is hungry, but her breakfast isn't until 8am and i'm afraid if we move the time for breakfast, we will have to wake up earlier so she doesn't pee on the couch at 4am instead. to combat this problem, we also give her some dry food at around 1am, so she isn't as hungry (this means she has 2 main meals with wet food and one small meal with dry food a day).
while i do feel a bit of responsibility as there are clear reasons to why she pees on the couch, i feel that it is irrational as we aren't neglecting her in anyway. so, i am unsure on what to do as my family and i aren't always able to wake up that early. how do i retrain her not to pee on the couch or how do we prevent her from doing so? it is usually me who wakes up early for her and i fear that if im not here, she will just pee on the couch every morning...
i hope i don't come off as selfish as i know this is the responsibilty you have to take on with a new cat, i am just unsure of what to do as waking up this early means my family and i get minimal sleep.
thank you!