Locking out my cat (sadly)

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JillBurgh

Sous Chef
Joined
Jan 22, 2008
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597
Location
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I have a 7 year old darling cat that I love to have sleep next to me in bed (even if BF doesn't love it so much:hammer:).

But as he gets older (the cat:cat:) he is getting needier and louder (as cats do). He has this bad habit of jumping all over my head and face and slobbering all over me in the middle of the night. And he'll tromp across our chests and lay down right on my chest and stare in my face purring crazy loud ...like that demon cat from the movie where the cat could suck out your soul... at 1:00 and 4:00 am precisely. And sometimes he paws at my closed eyelids like, "Open your dang eyes, woman."

I had locks installed on my bedroom doors today. They never used to close completely. There are 2 points of entry into the master BR and so I know Buster will try to bang his head against both doors all night. Does anyone have any experience with teaching an old cat new tricks? Advice appreciated for weening the kitty out of the boudoir.
 
Here's proof that he was going to be a mischievous one from his first year:
picture.php

PS There is a pretty wild story that goes with this pic, but I'll save it for after we attend to issue #1!!;)
 
:) Has he had a major change in his regular routine? He must be missing something to need to be so attached. I'm sure he is trying to tell you something.
 
Too funny, my almost two year old kitty can't stand to see me sleep past 6 a.m. or so. She takes her paw the gently taps my face, or nips at any of my exposed skin to get a rise out of me. It drives me bonkers. But if I shut the door she jumps on it making such a racket that I can't sleep either way. She is such a gentle old soul. Very loving and quiet girl. For some reason she just wants me to rise and shine.
 
One of my cats does almost the same thing. He's young but he likes to wake me up in the night to do things for him. He hates it when the boys close their bedroom doors - actually he hates all closed doors. But at night he likes to make the rounds, sleeping for a while in everyone's bed. If someone has closed their door, he will come and jump on me, touch my face with his paw and meow until I open my eyes and the leap off the bed and run madly to the offending closed door. Or if the upstairs water bowl is low or has a piece of catfood in it, he does the same thing. I had to finally start locking him out of my room and it took a while but eventually, he stopped trying to get in if it was closed. But still, if I get up to go to the bathroom, he dashes under my bed and waits for me to go to sleep to start the whole thing again.
 
our maine coon anounces the morning like a rooster. well, a rooster that sounds like a hungry cat. he growls and moans, getting louder and louder until someone gets up and puts out a can or two.

if we don't, then he joins in on the cat races. they stat chasing each other around, purposely jumping up and bounding over the bed, racing into the living room, then back around the circuit into the bedroom again.
if cat nails ripping into your skin doesn't wake you up, i don't know what will.

jill, we've tried to lock the doors, but they have just shredded the door jam and carpet in spots trying to get in. so we've just given in.
no doors are ever closed that long in our house with a furry little inquisitor checking out the situation and complaining about it.
 
my cat, thomas thinks he is an alarm clock. he will leave me alone til about nine. then he tells me to get up. paws my face, climbs over me or gets right in my face and lays down.

i yelled a lot and that did no good. so now i just pet him a bit and he goes back to sleep.

he is very smart. he used to follow everytime i got up. now he seems to know i won't stay up and just sits on bed and waits.

babe:LOL:
 
We often have to lock out cats out of our room at night. Our mischievous cat will knock everything off our dressers, eat anything that will fit in his mouth, and just cause general loud trouble. My good cat will nuzzle up to my face, but that means his butt is right in DW's face. She does not dig that. We end up locking them downstairs ( by their food and litter) because if we just closed our bedroom door they would scratch at the door all night.
 
Buckytom - My labs do that as well. Bear puts his head and front paws on the bed and wags his tail shaking the whole bed. If that doesn't work, he comes and gets you on the bed. When you give up and go to the couch, he and Liam walk or chase around in circles till you get up and feed them. At 85# a throw a lab on your chest will definately get you up.

AC
 
Buckytom - My labs do that as well. Bear puts his head and front paws on the bed and wags his tail shaking the whole bed. If that doesn't work, he comes and gets you on the bed. When you give up and go to the couch, he and Liam walk or chase around in circles till you get up and feed them. At 85# a throw a lab on your chest will definately get you up.

AC
:) Thats what my 100# plus German Shepard does he jumps right on top of me. One of our cats Snoopy like to rub his head on exposed feet and then bite your toes.
 
Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. It sounds like our kitties just love to have our full attention. It's funny to me that they sleep for 18 hours a day but the one time we WANT them to sleep, they're on the prowl! I always feel like Fred Flintstone getting up in the middle of the night to put Buster out on the porch. We locked the bedroom doors last night and he didn't even notice (yet). Buster must have slept through the night for once.

jpmcgrew- We haven't had any major life changes. He has been gradually getting more clingy over the last two years, I'd say. I just think he's growing up. In my experience, cats seem to get more needy the older they get.

buckytom- I know that howl too well. It's so crazy that they make that wild animal sound. What an alarm clock! There's nothing like waking up to that "Rowl, ree-owl, reowl!!" We used to have a neighbor cat "caller" who would sit on our porch and they would howl at each other through the front door.

I'm going to see if I can fix my photo. Can't anyone see it?
 
I have a 7 year old darling cat that I love to have sleep next to me in bed (even if BF doesn't love it so much:hammer:).

But as he gets older (the cat:cat:) he is getting needier and louder (as cats do). He has this bad habit of jumping all over my head and face and slobbering all over me in the middle of the night. And he'll tromp across our chests and lay down right on my chest and stare in my face purring crazy loud ...like that demon cat from the movie where the cat could suck out your soul... at 1:00 and 4:00 am precisely. And sometimes he paws at my closed eyelids like, "Open your dang eyes, woman."

I had locks installed on my bedroom doors today. They never used to close completely. There are 2 points of entry into the master BR and so I know Buster will try to bang his head against both doors all night. Does anyone have any experience with teaching an old cat new tricks? Advice appreciated for weening the kitty out of the boudoir.

You should go to TheCatSit.com and post this in the Behavior section. It is a great site! I'm going to the Cat Lounge now.
BTW, I have a 3 year-old (I think - we got her at the shelter) tortuos shell tabby with white markings named Butzie. ;) When I wake up in the night to go the bathroom, she is ready for some lovin'. When DH and I were on vacation and 21 year-old daughter was watching the cat, the cat came into her bedroom at 2:30 am for lovin'. She sleeps through the night and was not amused. :LOL:
 
You should go to TheCatSit.com and post this in the Behavior section. It is a great site! I'm going to the Cat Lounge now.
BTW, I have a 3 year-old (I think - we got her at the shelter) tortuos shell tabby with white markings named Butzie. ;) When I wake up in the night to go the bathroom, she is ready for some lovin'. When DH and I were on vacation and 21 year-old daughter was watching the cat, the cat came into her bedroom at 2:30 am for lovin'. She sleeps through the night and was not amused. :LOL:

I'll check that site, thanks for the tip. It's the same here with the night-lovin... I think it's darling most of the time but BF just wants to sleep through the night. It's impossible to humor Buster's "lovin" without waking up BF. So sometimes I go sleep in the spare room with Buster!!! I love my kitty:wub:

When we moved 3 yrs ago, Buster would run and jump all over the (new leather) furniture so I did try this stuff I heard about that is a cat pheromone that's supposed to mellow him out. You can get it in a plug-in diffuser and the reviews on Amazon were almost too good to be true, plus it seemed safe at it was simply supposed to mimic the presence of a mother cat or something witht he pheromone smell. But it didn't make any difference. This waking s up issue, though, I don't tink it's really a problem with his behavior, just a normal cat thing that is unforetunately making us lose precious sleepy time.

I have tried to reset my album where the photo is stored, can anyone tell me if they see my photo in post #2?
 
Our cats sleep through the night thank goodness! We have 'trained' them to sleep on a sheepskin that is usually next to my pillow. Its handy because when we travel wih them whereever the sheppskin comes out they know is where and when they sleep. we call the sheepskin 'Mamma Rug' because they knead it and its they only thing they do that too. In the evening we say to them 'Time for bed now girls time for mamma rug' and they skip up infront of us to bed. The worst they do in waking us up is when its cool and they want to come under the covers some times the scratching disturbs us a bit.

I think that locking your cat out might risk ruining your doors and cause him to try other destructive behaviours, but he might just settle down. Good luck!
 
My cat Liono wakes us up everyone more between 6 and 6:30, bashing his face into our body and walking all over us until we wake up and pet him. If we ignore that, he cries this high pitched little whine. All he wants to do is snuggle into a little ball right next to our bodies and get pet. Once he is happy with the pets he has received, him and our other two cats, Bojangles and Lurkey, go through the obstacle course, aka the entire house, as fast as possible, jumping on every piece of furniture and human in the house. It must be a cat thing!!!
As far as locking him out, I think buckytom is right...he may shred and tear your carpet, if you have it right outside your bedroom door, to pieces. They are very persistent animals and will do anything to get what they want!!:rolleyes:

P.S. I can't see the pics at all...how come some people can and others can't?

Nevermind...I see it now!! Beautiful cat!!
 
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I'll check that site, thanks for the tip. It's the same here with the night-lovin... I think it's darling most of the time but BF just wants to sleep through the night. It's impossible to humor Buster's "lovin" without waking up BF. So sometimes I go sleep in the spare room with Buster!!! I love my kitty:wub:

When we moved 3 yrs ago, Buster would run and jump all over the (new leather) furniture so I did try this stuff I heard about that is a cat pheromone that's supposed to mellow him out. You can get it in a plug-in diffuser and the reviews on Amazon were almost too good to be true, plus it seemed safe at it was simply supposed to mimic the presence of a mother cat or something witht he pheromone smell. But it didn't make any difference. This waking s up issue, though, I don't tink it's really a problem with his behavior, just a normal cat thing that is unforetunately making us lose precious sleepy time.

I have tried to reset my album where the photo is stored, can anyone tell me if they see my photo in post #2?

I think you mean Fellway. There are lots of posts about this on TCS, too.
 
Thanks everyone! That picture was from the first few months I had Buster. I thought he was so cute when he jumped onto that coat rack from the landing... WELL...

I lived in a duplex where I had the upstairs and there was a shared basement with the downstairs lady where we did our laundry. It was a dirty old cellar so you had to just do your wash and get out of dodge without letting anything clean touch anything in the dirty old cellar. One morning, I went down to do the wash and closed the door behind me. Well, cute little Buster jumped onto that coat rack and down it tumbled, wedging itself between the cellar door and the chair on the landing.
:ohmy::angry:

It was wedged in so tightly that there was no way to open the cellar door from where I was! There was nowhere for me to sit and certainly no phone down there. I didn't know when or if my neighbor might get home to help me. I stayed in that cellar from 10 am til 6:30 pm, crying and laying in the fetal position on top of the dryer- the only "clean" spot I could find. I could hear the phone ringing upstairs and I'd start yelling at the closed door like a crazy person "I'm down here!!!!"
:bounce::cry:

Thankfully my BF had a key and came over after work for a visit after not being able to reach me on the phone all day. But I still love my Buster!!!:dry::D
 
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