Conference misery::feline_v1

    By any chance do you normally feed Shadow immediatly upon getting
    up? Argus and crew figured out that the earlier they get me up,
    the earlier they eat. 
    
    Or the cat might just be affectionate in the morning
    
    Deb

    Honey did the same thing when I first got him.  I used to call 5:30
    to 6:30 Happy Hour for Honey.  Drove me nuts.....
    
    I think he's just lonely and needs some attention.  Closing the
    door won't help; he'll only protest louder.  And I found that getting
    another kitten helps a little, but sometimes, Honey wants me, not
    some snotty-nosed kitten!  I dunno....
    
    Deb may be right about the feeding business.  Mine have dry food
    available all day.                    
    
    Mary

    I have a similar problem with Sy, But the time frame is more like
    2:00am to 4:00am.  He comes in and sits right on the pillow and
    paws and me and bites at my nose.  I tried to lock him out of my
    room but that created the meowing and shaking of the door.  
    
    What finally has occured is that he is hungry.  I go downstairs
    and his dish is almost always empty.  A little food solves the problem
    and back to bed I go.  Takes me approx. 5 minutes and makes for
    one happy cat.  
    
    la
    

    Rascal also does the same thing.  We tried everything from closing
    the bedroom door to opening a window (in the dead of winter).  We
    finally gave in and fed her when she started to cry (which could
    be anywhere from 2:00am on).  It's the only thing that seems to
    help.
    
    Good luck!
    
    Elaine.

    My cat, Shanti does this every morning too! Not until about 5 or
    6 - when the alarm goes off! It is sort of nice -- you NEVER sleep
    in! The alarm goes off, the cat JUMPS on the bed and starts purring,
    meowing, rubbing, licking and all she wants is petted a couple times
    and she's good for at least 10-15 minutes! Then it starts ALL over!
    
    My other cat, Charlie, RARELY wants to be petted! Only if his food
    dish is empty he will come up with Shanti and do the same thing!
    His is for food, while hers is for attention.

    Re .3
      Sounds like Sy has you well trained, I assume you enjoy getting
    up at the hour to feed him?  By rewarding his behavior you are in
    fact teaching him that all he has to do is cry to be fed.  
    
    We went through something similar with one of our cats, until we 
    figured out he was training us in an unacceptable behavior pattern.
    At 4:00 am he would wake us up for breakfast and then at 5:00am
    he'd wake us up again because he needed to be let out to his litter
    box.  Worked pretty well -- we did it right on schedule!
    
    The solution was to find a way to remove the reward:  the next time
    he woke us (at 4:00am) he was shut up in an unheated hallway until
    our normal wake up of 6:30am.  We figured there was nothing in the
    hallway that he could hurt and being a bit cold (this was late fall)
    would make it a little more of a punishment -- two days of this
    and he decided he'd wait until we got up on our own to yowl for
    food.  Closing all the doors between our bedroom and the hallway
    meant we didn't hear a sound and could sleep peacefully, the joys
    of an older house with thick plaster walls!
    
    You might want to find a way to re-train him, if you value your
    sleep time!
    
    
    
    Jan   who_tries_to_be_the_head_of_the_household

    Jasper did the same thing when I first got her (just over a month
    ago), crying, biting, clawing every morning at about 5:30 am.
    usually if I called her over to me she'd quiet down for awhile.
    She's also usually hungry, since she's used to eating about
    every 4 hours during the day, she has trouble waiting from
    11 pm until 6 am when mommie decides to get up. The easiest
    solution has been to try to cuddle with her, which sometimes
    works, or get up and feed her, after which she'll quiet right
    back down. She seems to be getting better and better as each
    week goes by, and has learned to entertain herself until I
    wake up.
    
    BTW, does anyone else's kitty attack the alarm clock?
    Jasper protects me from it each morning by knocking it on
    the floor and attacking it when it goes off ! (luckily it's
    battery operated and cheap!)
    
    Cheri

    I had an awful time breaking Smurf of crying at my door.  When I
    first got him as a kitten I lived in a house that always had lots
    of people in and out and as I didn't want him to get out I would
    let him stay and sleep with me and the problem with that was he
    was always wanting to leave and come back in - all night long. I
    decided it was time for me to get a good nights sleep so I started
    shutting my door and all he did was cry and throw himself at my
    door.  Soon he was opening it by sliding the door handle between
    his paws.  It was a nightmare.....  As I had two other roomates
    at the time, I thought for sure they would develop an intense hatred
    for both Smurf and myself.  
    
    I moved shortly after and Smurf continued his vigil at my door.
    As I am not the best disciplinarian with him anyway I would ignore
    friends suggestions such as a little tap (I don't tap) or shaking
    him.  I thought feeding him would solve the sleeping separation
    problem.  I would get up and feed him and then 1/2 later he was
    there again.   I was a mess, I couldn't remember the last time I
    slept ALL night and he was fat.  I started yelling no, which was
    answered with a cry.  I then would chase him around the house yelling
    no (once out of a dead sleep and not checking to make sure noone
    was around, my roomates friends got quite a show).  Next the newspaper
    while running around yelling no.  I would smash the newspaper against
    the walls, tables, whatever would make a LOUD noise.  That did it.
    He stopped.  I may have looked like a lunatic while doing it but
    after a short period of time  he stopped.  It was wonderful.  Now
    he crys at 8:45 weekdays ( I usually feed him at 7:30, keeps me
    from being late from work) and on weekends he lets me sleep in.
    
    Not to say there haven't been a few occasions when I've heard that
    cute little cry in the wee hours but now I just rattle the bedside
    newspaper and its so quiet again.
    
    Sorry to go on so long.  Try the newspaper - running around - saying
    no - and make sure you let others in your household know when they
    hear the crack of the newspaper that your not hitting kitty.  I
    didnt tell my roomate this at first and she thought the loud noise
    was me hitting kitty - NEVER!!
    
    Sleeping Soundly
    Cathy

    I tried the screaming, chasing, loud noises, feeding and even once
    resorted to spanking (I felt REALLY guilty) but nothing worked.
    This went on for months and seemed to increase during finals.  The
    solution was a new kitty for Mielikki.  I got Ishtar so she wouldn't
    be lonely during the day, but it turns out nighttime was her lonely
    time.  Two days after Ishtar came, there's hardly been a sound.
    Of course there are now two chasing, wrestling cats to contend 
    with... ;-)
    
    
    

    MY cats tend to wake up when it gets light outside, and decide that
    it is time for the local human population to also wake up, and feed
    the important household members (the feline ones).  I don't get
    up anywhere near that early in the summer months if I can help it,
    so we put "blackout blinds" in the bedroom - they block out nearly
    all of the light, and the cats don't think it is daylight yet in
    there until around 6:30-7 (this time of year).  This worked fairly
    well.  The cats have also discovered that I won't get up early to
    feed them no matter how much noise they make (though if they get
    *really* panicky, I might get up and make sure that their water
    containers are not empty - they get *really* unhappy when they are
    thirsty), but that Paul sometimes will, so no they bother *him*
    instead!  Four-footed, fast-moving, feline alarm clocks....!

       All of the furry little friends I've had so this same thing,,
    in some cases a quick trip to the cat feeding dish solved the problem,
    in other cases teh cat just wanted to cuddle. I have never closed
    the bedroom door, opting for a feline open door policy. Most of
    the time the cats have slept at the foot of the bed and get up when
    I do. 
       Summer is when it has gotten bad, when the birds start waking
    up and chirping at 4am, the cat also felt it was time for me to
    get up.
    
    Yyaawwwnnn
    

    We've had cats with this bad habit and others.  Some of the other
    problems were more serious - Sulkitt was a kitten killer and would
    go into hysterical attack mode whenever she saw a kitten or an
    unfamiliar cat.  
    
    We found a very effective disciplinary tool.  (I NEVER hit a cat;
    it is too easy to seriously damage something that much smaller than
    oneself.)  Acquire a water pistol or a plant sprayer.  Fill it with
    water and put it by your bedside.  When the little beast exhibits
    bad behavior, SQUIRT HIM!  A few times ought to do the trick.  If
    bad behavior continues, try 5-10 seconds in the shower.  Water won't
    harm your cat, but the cat will HATE it!  This method has worked
    every time for us.
    
    Rita
    
    PS:  When Sulkitt even *considers* doing something bad now, she
         squints just as if she had already been squirted :-)
    
    

    We really fooled the cats this morning - Paul had to be in Boston
    by 8 o'clock, so we got up at 5:45 (VERY early for us!), and the
    cats, who were still asleep (since the blackout blinds keep it dark
    in the bedroom until 7 or so), gave us funny looks when we fed them
    THAT early.                                                   

    THE WATER PISTOL WORKED FOR US!!
    
    We feed our cats in the morning when we get up.  About 1 yr. ago,
    our cats decided we needed to get up sooner.  We tried closing the
    bedroom door, but we felt guilty about that so we gave in.  Soon,
    the cats decided that we needed to get up even earlier.  Then, we
    got mad and bought the water pistol.  We keep it by the bed.  When
    the noise started we doused them.  After a few weeks, we merely
    had to give 2 or 3 spritzes in the general direction of the noise
    and they got the idea.  They learned to even fear the SOUND of the
    water pistol.  Its a great no-guilt solution.  And the best part
    is, after a few weeks it becomes a subconscious to reach for the
    pistol and squirt towards the door.  You don't really have to wake
    up to do it.
    
    Behavior modification.  I LOVE IT!
    
    T. Wenderlich