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Old September 16th 03, 09:10 PM
TonyB
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First of all, stop being so mean to your cat. Yelling at him, chasing
him and squirting him will not work (as you seem to have figured out)
and it's abusive.

This poor cat has, until recently, spent his whole life sleeping with
you and cuddling, and it stands to reason that having that suddenly
taken away is upsetting to him. Punishing him so severely and cruelly
for what is an appropriate reaction is unfair and wrong. If this were a
child I would hope you would approach this with KINDNESS and
UNDERSTANDING, and work with him in a way that eases his anxieties about
the change and use positive measures to make the change easier.
I would suggest that you make the hour before bedtime a special time for
you and your cat. Play with him, snuggle him and give him lots of
attention. Give him that to look forward to as an alternative to
sleeping with you at night. You should also, for now, put a tall
scratching post next to your door. Once you go to bed, don't respond to
his scratching the door AT ALL. No getting out of bed and chasing him,
no yelling, no squirting. Wear earplugs if you must, but stop getting up
and negatively reacting to him. Just like children, cats will sometimes
settle for negative attention rather than nothing at all.
It may take a few days or more, but if your cat doesn't get a response
to his scratching behavior he will stop the scratching and settle down
for the night.


Or maybe not. Ours did it for 17 years despite being totally ignored. He
died a couple of years ago and I still miss him but the sleep is wonderful!
Soft earplugs do help but sometimes you don't hear the alarm!

We tried lots of things with William, soon figuring out that reacting to him
didn't work. He was a big lad at 15 lbs and letting him in the bedroom was a
non-starter - he would walk on me all through the night and keep me awake.
Or sit on my head. Or pee on the bed. By ignoring him we did eventually get
some sleep but his habit of yowling and rattling the kitchen door persisted.
In summer he would sometimes like to spend a night out and as we live in a
very safe area away from roads we would let him. Then at 4 a.m. he would
come and yowl outside our bedroom window. Double glazing cured that but it
was hot in summer with the windows closed!

Tried leaving lights and radios on, giving him blankets & jumpers, extra
food etc. Even other cats didn't help.
Don't mean to sound negative but if you find a cure please post it for my
future reference!

Thanks
TonyB