[monty_dweezil]

How many of you have feline alarm clocks? Lol

We never had a problem with being woken up before about 2 weeks ago, when Monty began meowing and scrabbling at our bedroom door in the early hours of the morning.

We always were of the opinion that as long as they had enough dry food at night, this wouldn’t happen, and this was true, as I said, until about 2 weeks ago. Nothing else has changed, and they did sometimes used to do this (I say “they” cause I’m not 100% sure which one it was) but it was only on the weekends when we got up later. Because they’re in a routine of my partner getting up just before 6am on weekdays and they get fed their breakfast at about 6.15am or so, on weekends they start meowing and scratching at about 8am or so usually, but this is ok. It’s not even that much to do with food though. When this happens on weekends we open the door and let them in and they’re happy to either sit in the curtains looking out, or scrabble manically at the bed and play.

The weekdays however now are starting very early for us…because the sun comes up before 5am here now, Monty (I originally thought it was Dweezil cause it sounded like his meow, but a few times we’ve caught him in the act, and it’s Monty, lol) the crying and scrabbling begins then, when it gets light and the birds start tweeting.

The meowing itself isn’t so bad, but the scrabbling is VERY loud and disruptive to our sleep and rest. It sounds like Monty’s sitting up on his back legs to support himself, with his little arms/paws going round and round in fast circles, as if washing a window or something. lol. Also in the past, if ever this would happen, it was only because it was a bit later in the morning than usual, and/or we’d been talking and they heard us. But these days we’re fast asleep and are woken up by this alarm clock. Lol. And we don’t make any noise or anything, but it continues on unabated for ages until we get up. The earliest it started last week was 4.20am, and my partner didn’t get up till just before 6am, as usual. She can sleep through the noise a bit, but I can’t. The first time it happened, we opened the door cause we were a bit worried something was wrong (nothing was, lol), and they came in and then played insanely on the bed and in the curtains. Very cute and gorgeous, but not at 5am on a work day!! We need to sleep!

We’re going to buy some of that tape you put on couches to stop scratch damage (we need to put some on our couch as well, as Dweezil lately has been scratching there a lot), so hopefully it will not only quieten the scratching noises, but also make it less possible/easy for him to scratch there.

There’s a big black Magpie-like bird that sits on a post outside our bedroom window and they often will sit, transfixed, staring at it in the afternoons, so maybe when the birds start tweeting in the early morning light, they think “their bird” is there and want to come in and see him. Lol.

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[scrapinkel]

My male orange tabby, Sonny, will stand on me and meow if I don't get up when he feels it is time for his breakfast. If I try to ignore him he will stick his cold wet nose on my face or up my nose!

[aboutTaya]

Taya never really wakes us up to get us up - she loves a sleep in and isn't fussed if she doesn't get breakfast until quite late, she does like to stir us so that she gets a scratch though while purring away curled up under our chins half tucked in under the doona.

Of course feeding and routine is done by the sun with meows and even Taya likes getting her dinner much later in the day when it's getting dark - combine daylight savings with the longer dusk now and she'll leave her food unless it's given at about 9 or 10pm, dark and almost time for her to go to bed.

I suspect though that Monty is waking you up for play and attention not food. What happens if you get up when he starts crying for you, feed him and then go back to bed?

[monty_dweezil]

Heheh, Sonny sounds so funny!!!! Standing ON you! LMAO

We've gotten up on a weekend in the old days when he would begin meowing and scrabbling at about 8am or so (before we wanted to get up, but not ridiculously early at 5am like nowadays!) and given them breakfast and then gone back to bed and not heard a peep. They've got dry biscuits still there but...I think it's sort of just something interesting for them...they see it's light, think it should be time for "this" to happen now, and even if they're not starving, they want their breakfast cause it means seeing their parents and having some action going on. I think this sort of appeases them until we actually get up. If they could sleep peacefully with us, then we could do this and then leave the door open and get back to sleep. As it is, we do leave the door open once we get up to stop the crying and scratching, and they come in but we get no sleep cause of the playing and scrabbling and burrowing into the bed (and our legs, lol). But that's ok (just not at 5am on a workday)

We're not sure...is it better to start getting up and feeding them at 5am (in Summer anyway. In the middle of Summer it starts to get light about 4.30am. LUDICROUS!!! I want daylight savings in South East QLD, dammit!!!) and then have some peace till we actually do get up (or my partner does at 6am anyway), or is that sort of starting a routine we really don't want? That they'll expect feeding that early all the time...even weekends...(although getting up briefly at 4.30am-5am on weekends if it means we get good sleep time until 9am or so is worth it)

[fleabag]

Well..I pretty much does what keeps them quiet..I go to bed when I'm told ..Fluff will demand I go to bed so she can snuggle ..tho I AM allowed to get up to go to the dunny ..and shhhh but sometimes I don't come STRAIGHT back...
In the morning ..I get up earlier than them and close the door and tippy toe out ...lol..
But I digress I would keep going the way you mean to continue..so if you are happy getting up and giving them a quick snack..do so..if not...what if you got up ..put on the telly ..and then dashed back to bed ...lol..maybe get a cat dvd for them to watch ...grin

[monty_dweezil]

Ah, heheh, that's interesting, the cat DVD LMAO.

We were talking about people who leave the TV on during the day when they're out for their cats (or dogs). We were talking about our stupidly high electricity bill actually and saying how we don't do anything that uses excess electricity, unlike some people, and one of the examples was the TV being left on for pets. lol I'm not against this though, if it means some peace!!! lol

[fleabag]

Here is Ruby watching telly ..she generally like animal shows..or the wrestling ..lol

 crufts.jpg (34.6K)
Number of downloads: 1

Ah, heheh, that's interesting, the cat DVD LMAO.

We were talking about people who leave the TV on during the day when they're out for their cats (or dogs). We were talking about our stupidly high electricity bill actually and saying how we don't do anything that uses excess electricity, unlike some people, and one of the examples was the TV being left on for pets. lol I'm not against this though, if it means some peace!!! lol

[catissi]

oh bronnie your cats are little people .

my cats sleep with me and wake me up yes by standing on me or tapping me on the face one even licks me on the face with that rough tongue every morning at day light without fail.

[monty_dweezil]

Heheh. Sometimes our boys watch TV too...Dweezy tends to watch from atop the post, and then falls asleep. Monty gets right up close like your Ruby and watches it intently...he likes crime shows...he dislikes cooking shows and some (but not all) ads. lol. (he'll watch the crime show closely, then when an ad comes on he walks away, but comes back in time for the next show segment. He also likes Neighbours but when Masterchef started at 7pm a few months ago, he'd leave immediately). lol

[suzie2224]

Oh yes I can relate to you.

Toby is a shocker. Every morning lately its around 5 am.

I'm a bit concerned as I'm going away for a few nights in a couple of weeks. Not sure how my neighbours are going to like it. (I live in a villa with neighbours close by).

He howls and howls until I get up. Rosie only gets up because he makes such a noise.

[monty_dweezil]

This morning was the worst yet! lol

It's not every morning Monty's 'alarm' goes off (yesterday he didn't do it at all), but this morning we got no sleep!

It was 6.45am (Sunday morning, this is), and he was scrabbling and bashing at the door, getting more and more insistent, so we eventually let them in, hoping they'd just be quiet and sit behind the curtains looking out the window, as they love to do. But noooo! Monty kept trying to eat my hair, drink my partner's water from her glass (she put a coaster over the top which usually works, but today he actually knocked the whole glass over and it spilt on the clock radio - and they had 3 mostly full bowls of water in their bathroom and in our ensuite so he wasn't dying of thirst if anyone's wondering! lol), and Dweezil kept burrowing and clawing and biting our feet. So after half an hour of not sleeping, we put them out again and closed the door, giving them a bit of food...

But no. The alarm came back immediately, scrabbling and meowing!!! This went on for another 30 minutes before we finally fell asleep. I think he stopped then, but I put an earplug in, so I'm not entirely sure. By now it was 8am.

We were woken up again at 9.30am by more insistent scrabbling, so we opened the door again. This time they were lovely, perfect angels and we fell asleep again till 11am.

AAAAGH! lol

[flipflop]

I feel your pain - I have suffered for some time now with an early riser.... MOAM always wakes early and I get the full treatment - massive purrs, feet in my mouth, pulling open my eyelids, slaps round the face, purrs in my ear, licks - actually quite impossible to ignore!!

If I get up and give him a quick snack then that will settle him however that then wakes everyone else up so then it's play time with Aby's bouncing across the bed and thundering up and down the hallways with their hobnailed boots on.....

It's actually far easier if I just get up when I am told.....

[debalvers]

We have been struggling this year with the same thing with Furrgus, now it is light so early and the birds start up before 4 am, any time from 3:30 am onwards he will get up and try to dig through the front door with accompanying crying. Originally I would get him to come into the bedroom (our door's open otherwise he digs through that to start with) and get him settled on the bed, but increasingly this worked for about 20 minutes and then it was back to the door, and we'd go through several cycles of this until I had to get up anyway. Unfortunately the front door is really near our bedroom door and thus impossible to ignore.

I've now started locking him in the bathroom when this happens: I'd try once to get him to settle and if he went back to the door, I'd lock him in. He'd still scrabble and whine for a while but it's further away . When I let him out when I got up he was perfectly calm and happy on the bathmat, so I think the scrabbling and crying is just boredom. It's not food, because half the time he goes back to bed after we get up and doesn't want to get up for breakfast!

Then twice last week it was at 1 am and I didn't even bother trying to settle him in our room, he was locked straight in the bathroom, and boy, was he cross. But now we've had two nights where he's slept right through, so I'm hoping the habit is fading, since I'm tired of being sleep-deprived. Much sympathy to you monty_dweezil, I'm also looking for a miracle cure.

[Britzobeauty]

Ahhh! Spring is in the air, birds are chirpping and cats have got the devil in them early in the morning as it is not so cold any more!!

Mine love to be out in the run early in the morning...no I mean EARLY, just as day breaks as we have an amazing amount of birdlife around here. They beg to get out there. So I dutifully open the door and they rush out.

Closed doors at our place means 'you dont want me in there coz there is something I can wreck' so open it! Its like a red rag to a bull.
Julie

[dilemma]

i highly recommend ear plugs! james snores really badly so i sleep with them all the time, but they have the added bonus of helping me block out my cat-alarm.
it's really hard to ignore her to start with, but when she realises that her noise and disturbance doesn't help her get what she wants, she stops doing it.
so my advice is, even if they have woken you up, don't let them get what they want... they will soon realise it's not worth the effort (a few days worth).
i like to use it as an excuse to stay in bed longer too