What to do at night

We have two cats. One jumps up on the bed at night and walks all over
us, making it impossible to sleep, but will leave us alone if shut out
of the bedroom. The other is good when in our bedroom, but if we shut
the door, will pound on it about six times during the night wanting to
come and go. We have nowhere suitable for food and litterbox in the
bedroom. Can anyone suggest another resolution to this problem?

Is there another room in the house where you can keep the cats for the night
with food, water, litter box, and soft beds?
Gail
"Nick Kasoff" wrote in message
ups.com...
We have two cats. One jumps up on the bed at night and walks all over
us, making it impossible to sleep, but will leave us alone if shut out
of the bedroom. The other is good when in our bedroom, but if we shut
the door, will pound on it about six times during the night wanting to
come and go. We have nowhere suitable for food and litterbox in the
bedroom. Can anyone suggest another resolution to this problem?

Unfortunately, no. I don't want to put the litter box in a kids'
bedroom, and none of the rooms that aren't a kid's bedroom have a door.
We're in a condo, so basement isn't an option either.

PS - I got a good laugh when you mentioned soft beds - my cat (the
door pounder) is current asleep in his favorite place - on top of a
pile of papers on my desk.

Suddenly, without warning, Nick Kasoff exclaimed (03-Oct-05 3:26 PM):
We have two cats. One jumps up on the bed at night and walks all over
us, making it impossible to sleep, but will leave us alone if shut out
of the bedroom. The other is good when in our bedroom, but if we shut
the door, will pound on it about six times during the night wanting to
come and go. We have nowhere suitable for food and litterbox in the
bedroom. Can anyone suggest another resolution to this problem?


My first thought? Food, water and litter on both sides of the door.
Pounder in, stomper out. Problem solved

But seriously, I solved the stomper problem by kicking Meep out if she
woke us up during the night, closing the bedroom door, but it doesn't
sound like it'll work for your cat. You need to find some sort of
negative reinforcement - something your cat doesn't like - that you can
use whenever s/he wakes you during the night, something you stop as soon
as the cat jumps off the bed. This can be tricky, because anything I
can think of would have your spouse waking up rather suddenly, and
probably beating you senseless with whatever's handy

Sorry, I'm on my third illness in about two weeks, I think my sense of
humor's busted...

Anyway, something like a pepsi can with pebbles, or a squirt gun, or...
well, inspiration fails, but you get the idea...

As for your pounder, do you let him/her in when s/he pounds? If so, you
need to ignore the noise, and though you'll lose sleep for a while,
s/he'll hopefully figure out it gets him/her nowhere. A long time ago
on this NG, somebody said they kept a vaccum by the bed, and whenever
the cat'd howl to get in, they'd turn it on. Apparently that worked well.

jmc

jmc wrote:

Suddenly, without warning, Nick Kasoff exclaimed (03-Oct-05 3:26 PM):
We have two cats. One jumps up on the bed at night and walks all over
us, making it impossible to sleep, but will leave us alone if shut
out of the bedroom. The other is good when in our bedroom, but if we
shut the door, will pound on it about six times during the night
wanting to come and go. We have nowhere suitable for food and
litterbox in the bedroom. Can anyone suggest another resolution to
this problem?


My first thought? Food, water and litter on both sides of the door.
Pounder in, stomper out. Problem solved

But seriously, I solved the stomper problem by kicking Meep out if she
woke us up during the night, closing the bedroom door, but it doesn't
sound like it'll work for your cat. You need to find some sort of
negative reinforcement - something your cat doesn't like - that you
can use whenever s/he wakes you during the night, something you stop
as soon as the cat jumps off the bed. This can be tricky, because
anything I can think of would have your spouse waking up rather
suddenly, and probably beating you senseless with whatever's handy

Sorry, I'm on my third illness in about two weeks, I think my sense of
humor's busted...

Anyway, something like a pepsi can with pebbles, or a squirt gun,
or... well, inspiration fails, but you get the idea...

As for your pounder, do you let him/her in when s/he pounds? If so,
you need to ignore the noise, and though you'll lose sleep for a
while, s/he'll hopefully figure out it gets him/her nowhere. A long
time ago on this NG, somebody said they kept a vaccum by the bed, and
whenever the cat'd howl to get in, they'd turn it on. Apparently that
worked well.

jmc


I've had problems now and then with cats waking me during the night or
early morning. Not a total soluton, but it does help to feed them as late
as possible so their less likely to want food during the night. Also, a
play session late in the evening might tire them out enough that they're
more willing to sleep instead of prowl around.