Night time door duty

[ScrollofDoom]

Hello

I'm not even sure why I'm posting, maybe just to see if I'm the only one but any solutions appreciated.

My cat was a stray and about 2-3 years old when I adopted him from a rescue centre a year ago.

He likes to come in and outside a few times during the night. He is a hunter so I'm not keen on a catflap as he does try and bring his presents inside. (I know there's a type of catflap that senses if they have something in their mouths but it doesn't seem 100% and would need hooked up to electric/wifi which I'm not sure about).

So I'm getting up a couple of times in the night to let him in/out (he yowls). I suppose I would be getting up to use the toilet anyway at least once and I do get back to sleep quickly but it can feel like torture at times.

I live alone in a bungalow and I WFH so luckily can stay in bed a bit later to try and make up a bit of sleep.

I've tried a few times ignoring him but I wonder if he's past training now, given his years as a stray.

If it comes down to it, his welfare comes before mine!

His routine is largely like this:

11pm: meal, goes outside
2am: comes inside and sleeps on my bed
4am: goes outside
7am: wants inside to do zoomies there. I try and ignore him and leave him outside but he yowls
9am: I get up and give him a small meal, he settles down to sleep most of the day.
4pm: meal, sleeps, may go out a bit in the evening

No solution, but we have a firm bedtime curfew and no amount of squawking changes it - in for bed! Cat is then shut in the kitchen overnight. (It’s a big room with all his things, cat tree, water fountain, litter, toys etc.) Nine times out of ten by the time I come back from brushing my teeth to check on him he’s cuddled up in his bed, and if not he’s having some food.

We have audio and visual cues he knows - the radio is always on in the kitchen and it gets switched off about 30 minutes before bed, so he knows we’re on the wind down, and me collecting my electric toothbrush from its charger is the visual sign I am off to bed. Sometimes (more in winter) he’s in his bed by the living room radiator and will get up and go to the kitchen when he knows the knock down routine is starting. If DP goes to bed after me cat still tends to get in his bed when I go.

This possibly sounds cruel but I promise he’s a happy boy - currently napping in his cat tree after a busy day in the garden!

@Judystilldreamsofhorses thanks. He's a handsome, happy looking boy! Mine is below in a similar pose! Did you have him from a kitten to have him that well trained?

I should also say, mine wasn't neutered until he arrived at the rescue so that was 2-3 years of some very wild behaviour!

I don't really want to shut him away at night, even if he would put up with that. As we do have lovely cuddles in bed!

No, he’s not too old to be trained. Neither are you, clearly, as he’s doing a good job of training you!

Our MrCat was 10yo when we adopted him. He used to come and sing to us at 5.30am, requesting his breakfast. After a couple of weeks of us ignoring him (but giving him as much attention as he wanted at other times) his morning opera greatly reduced. It didn’t get much later, he just put on fewer and fewer performances. Now he might give us a hopeful mew at about 6am, but nothing more. Instead he jumps up for a cuddle and waits quietly until we get up.

Haha makes me wonder if I'd actually have been a dreadfully soft parent of human children!

What a handsome panther!

No, we adopted him aged one, he’s three and a half now. He’d been a stray kitten who was born in a woman’s shed, and she eventually took him and his sibling in when it got too cold, neutered them, and actually still has his brother. When he came here he wasn’t especially interested in going out for quite a while, it was like he needed to know this was his home and he would always get back in. The first few weeks he was here he slept wherever he wanted, but once he got settled and started the 4am breakfast campaign he was confined to the kitchen overnight. (We did the same with our previous girl cat who used to trot through at “beddy-bed” as her audio cue!)

It’s just me and him for a couple of weeks as DP’s away - he travels quite often. There is generally a point in a trip where I think, ach, Louie can sleep in with me. He’s ever so sweet, tucked up on my feet, until he’s pawing my face at sunrise. Back in the kitchen the night after.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses haha both of us have former wild-childs then! (Strays)

Mine managed to escape on day 5 after adoption, he'd been eyeing up the outside since he arrived. I was very slightly nervous but seemingly 5 days of sheepskin blankets and Katkin was enough to fix in his mind where home now was!

He OCCASIONALLY still tips over the kitchen bin at night and rifles through it, old habits die hard I guess! (He used to do it nightly when I first got him - had to put a brick in the bottom of each one!)

It's a sweet story actually - a homeless couple had been feeding him regularly but noticed he had got an eye and ear infection so they wrapped him up and took him to a vet which is how he eventually ended up in a rescue.

@ScrollofDoom how kind of that couple to take him under their wing. I still wonder about the amount of time these kittens were living in the lady’s garden. They were born in January and it wasn’t until November she brought them inside. We’re in Scotland so they must have been absolutely frozen, although I assume she was feeding them and keeping an eye on them, as she got them neutered much sooner.

We had some issues with the kitchen waste caddy being tipped over during the night in the initial weeks, but I think the actual bin is too big and heavy. He’s an absolute bugger of a food thief still, and my Google search history could tell a few tales of things he’s eaten and I’ve wondered if he needs a dash to the vet. Finding him with his head in a pot of chilli on the hob was a surprise, he loves prawn crackers, and we shall never speak again of that tray of pigs in blankets that never fulfilled their festive destiny 😔 The reason the woman relinquished him to Cats Protection was that he was the “dominant cat” and eating all the food, while his poor brother was being starved! (Weirdly he can be pretty fussy about actual cat food, the little diva.)

@Judystilldreamsofhorses I'm in Scotland too!

Yeah mine will eat cake and bread if you leave it out! I think there's a part of him that still wonders where his next meal will come from!

He brought me a large dead rat shortly after being adopted. Took me DAYS to recover. I learned NOT to leave the door open, even when he's coming in and out and in and out.

He's also partial to woodpigeon - it's nearly as big as him! Trying to get those feathers out of the doormat is a pest!

He's a vicious killer but he LOVES his mummy - lies on his back with his 4 paws in the air to get his tummy tickled like a puppy.

@ScrollofDoom this boy loves a tummy too - he also dances. We adopted him indecently quickly after we had to have our lovely girl pts with cancer, and he was a hissy little thing to begin with, but he’s now such a cuddly wee lad. He was a real project for me at the start, we adopted him in April and DP was away an awful lot of the summer - I teach so am off - and I spent a lot of time trying to win him over.

I honestly believe our girl sent me the cat I needed when I was so, so sad.

Both cats are absolutely gorgeous 😍

We have always locked our cats in once they've had their evening meal around 7pm. Then let out after the school run/work traffic has gone in the morning (because I'm over anxious about RTAs), which also gives the birds a chance of eating so win-win.

First cat was a CP rescue who was found on the streets. She adapted quite easily once we realised to give a handful of biscuits at supper time. Rarely woke us up in the morning. Second cat was a starving injured stray that we ended up keeping as all rescues were full. Same routine as previous cat and she settled into it within a month. This one wakes DD up at 5.30am for breakfast (she's DD's cat) but when DD stays with her friends The Stray waits until I wake up... between 8 and 9. I keep telling DD she's such a good cat 😂

Our cats are rescues. They stay indoors once they’ve had their evening feed at 7pm and do not get to go out until after their breakfast at 7am. They’re more than happy with staying indoors all night - after their initial begging to go out at silly o’clock when they’ve all night first arrived.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses love the wee "hands together" pose!

Well mine stayed out almost all last night. I got a good sleep. Woke up at 8am with him miaowing to be let in. And what do I find? What used to be a blackbird at the back door. He's now slept peacefully for hours.

He must be celebrating that we met 1 year ago today! (I adopted him a few days later when he'd had his final vet checks). He will be expecting me to cook that blackbird for a lovely dinner I presume!