Two things put me off getting a cat again...

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Our last cat lived to a grand old age, died a few years ago now. In many ways I'd love to have a furry little dude to hang out with again. However. Two things.

You either leave your doors ajar and spend the long winter evenings sitting in a draft or you get up to open the door for them on demand, like an unpaid footman.

Night time. Do you shut them in the kitchen and possibly wake up to them crying in the small hours. Or you don't and you're woken by them marching around the bed, nuzzling your face in the small hours.

Am I missing some easy fixes, or just fixes, to cat ownership?

Is a cat flap an option? Re the second concern just feed them before bed, however 5am is a very normal time for a cat to be awake, have breakfast and then go back to bed or patrol their garden.

We have a cat flap on the side of the utility roof.... Up high! A shelf on each side to reach it!! Locked in at night.

Unpaid footman here 👋🏻
Our last car purred so loud he kept us awake so we had to shut him downstairs. I feel guilty now, he must have been really happy on our bed to purr like that.
Consequently this cat has the whole house. Sleeps on my chair in summer, on my chest in winter. She’s very vocal and drives me nuts and I wake with a sore back on winter mornings, but I wouldn’t be with out her. Oh and I have to get up to let her out 4:30-5am in summer!

Yes. And?

Last cat was poorly for a while towards the end. Maybe that's colouring my view. She used to get me up at the crack of dawn, I'd put food down and she would just look at me. Why did you get me up little dude?

Ours died last year and lived to a good age. Putting me off another is the smell. The house smells so much better without cat food. Also he got a bit smelly himself towards the end as he got older and iller. Also all the dead birds and rodents - urgh. Do not miss that. We always had a cat flap and kept the kitchen door closed though so no disturbing us in the early hours!

'Marching around the bed.' I gave a hollow laugh at that, it perfectly describes my beloved's morning routine. I do give a gruff 'NO' when the nuzzling / licking of arm starts but sometimes she is not to be deterred, as it is now 5am and we should be up and active.

I tend to just go to bed really early to accommodate the early wake-up. Or briefly wake to give the required 10 minute cuddle, chuck food in the bowl as added precaution (she's not usually hungry, it's more the cuddle), and go back to sleep.

My cats go to sleep with me and wake up with my alarm. They may be unusual though but they’ve done it ever since they were kittens. If I have to set an earlier one for whatever reason they look very miffed that I’ve woken them.

It’s a massive gamble - you never know what kind of cat you’re gonna get! My current cat comes inside when called, sleeps through the night, and doesn’t like smelly jelly types of cat food. My last cat howled all night and pissed on the carpet. Roll the dice! 😂

My cats all sleep downstairs at night and don't make a peep until they hear us stirring or talking. That could be 6am or 9am - they just "know".

We leave the window open for them in summer but we're installing a cat flap for the winter months.

Ours come in at night even though the catflap is available 24/7, never bring any other creatures in and one sleeps on our bed but quietly, the other on the floor in our room or on the landing. You never know though.

Two things put me off, the smell, and the cost. I hope you can hear this moggy. YOU SMELL AND YOU COST TOO MUCH! Like you care, just carry on sitting there shedding fur on my clean trousers without a care in the world

Catflap, or get an indoor only cat.

We sit in a draught. I don't mind them marching round my bed. My girlie has such a soothing little snore when she finally settles down and seems to have a velcro-like quality of managing to stay in the same place on the duvet despite menopausal old me tossing and turning and playing the hokey-cokey with it!

I wake early for work so mine is used to that but I leave dry down on a night. He has the run of the house at night and rarely wakes me. I dont even wake to him dive bombing of his tree onto the bed unless he lands on me 😂. I think I just got used to it so sleep through now.

Nothing really, they just don’t stay with us long enough is my only complaint.

I assume you mean your internal doors being kept ajar?

We have all our internal doors open, unless we're cooking something smelly in the kitchen

However she has 3 cat flaps and still sits there at the back doors looking through them until we open it.

The gamble of a cat is -
will they go missing
will they scratch the furniture to buggery (yes)
will they have awful toilet habits in the house

We don't miss the return to the warm human bed at 5am, well-coated with dew, dead leaves, and with cold wet muddy paws. And the occasional attached slug. Also the methodical but unobserved shredding of soft furniture and the underside of dining chairs.

Cat flap to solve the night time noise. No solutions for having to serve as a butler unfortunately!

My last cat lived to 20.

My current cat is 12. We have front and back catflaps, he comes and goes. We had no choice really as he howled and chewed the doors until we did so.

We don't shut any inner doors, again no point as he'd eat and claw them. It's annoying sometimes to be woken up at 5am to him breathing minging fish breath into your face and headbutting you, but it's worth it.

Each cat is different, you pretty much have to to as they say and then you'll have a peaceful life.

What could be nicer than a cat marching round your bed? I just kiss him and go back to sleep. He hits me for a bit and goes back to sleep.
We've no cat flap. He sits at the door to go out and comes back when called...more or less.

And yes you're still required to sometimes be a doorman slave even with catflaps. But if we're not around he uses them.

We don’t have a catflap, and cat is always in at bedtime. I wouldn’t like him out during the night.

We keep him in the kitchen overnight - he has a litter tray, dry food, water, and a choice of sleeping spots - to avoid the 5am paw in face.

It is a gamble! My little girl cat sleeps downstairs all night long, never, ever wakes me. She did this as a kitten and just stayed in that routine. Never meows or anything. In fact she sort of puts herself to bed by 9pm most evenings in the winter and stays in her bed all night. I don't know if this is because we did it from day one, or whether it's just her personality - my guess is that she just likes her independence and time alone! If she had cried as a kitten I would've had her in my bedroom for sure. But I wanted to see if it'd be possible for her to stay downstairs so that I could get a proper night's kip, and it worked fine.

She's not very food orientated, she will only eat dry food which means I can leave food down for her, so there's no smell and nothing much to clean. She doesn't hunt so no mice or birds here thankfully! On the downside she does scratch the furniture to pieces (aswell as her scratching posts) but I just accept that as part of having a cat. Oh and ocasionally she'll puke up a furball, which is a bit gross.

In my experience the hardest bit is when they are a kitten, and when they are elderly.

Cat flap. I lock them downstairs overnight (open plan, access to food and cat flap) as otherwise they'd wake me before 5am. One lives outside 85% of the time anyway but the male is big and LOUD. They seem totally content with this arrangement (don't rush the door to hallway when I open it for example).