Obnoxious in the morning

My Monster cat starts yowling outside the bedroom door the second he hears my alarm going off (he's not allowed in the bedroom because the hubby doesn't want cat fur on the bed). I suppose I should be glad he waits until the alarm goes off, but I'm one of those people who needs to hit the snooze a few times before I actually get moving. I can block him out enough to go back to sleep, but I know the yowling stresses out my bird. Does anybody know of a way I could possibly break him of the habit? I've tried waiting until he's quiet for a few minutes before I get up and tend to his needs, but it's not working. I've also tried the squirt bottle trick, but it shuts him up for a whole thirty seconds.

 

I have no idea actually. Mine does the same thing, to a certain extent. It's not just if the alarm goes off, though, but rather, around that time in the morning regardless (i.e., weekends where I try to sleep in). She's gotten into the routine and expects to be fed around that time. Difference is, mine is allowed in the room, so she has no issues waiting until I've hit snooze 5 times before she finally hops up on the bed to insist I get up. I should be grateful I have a built-in second alarm, haha.

 

Haha Jessi. I wish my cat would wake me up! I have been getting up so late for work these past few weeks. That would have come in handy. My cat does this same thing at night when I am trying to get to sleep. I am seriously thinking of just letting him stay out all night at this point. I can't get some sleep!

 

Honestly, I don't that much believe you can change cats' habits. I may be wrong, I'm not a specialist, but I noticed that my cats are too self-reliant to change them in any way. Okay, if YOU change your habits, they change too (if you start getting up at 12 they will probably do the same) but they know that after an alarm soon you'll get up so why not to annouce it My cat's used to do the same. When alarm went off they were in my room with the first notes of it

 

I have a bad idea about how to break this habit. Set the alarm to every five minutes. Put the alarm in the living room. Right next to a squirt bottle. Every time the alarm goes off, shoot the cat with the squirt bottle. Hopefully it will now associate the alarm with something which it doesn't like.

 

It sounds like she's already tried the squirt bottle trick and it only works temporarily. Cats are stubborn.... I'm not sure they're going to suddenly stop meowing even if they don't like the water.

 

Especially that they don't do it at the exact time the alarm goes off but after it (if I understood it correctly). They know that jenb28 is going to get up soon. So they may be afraid of the alarm but it won't change the connection between an alarm and showing jenb28 up.

 

Yep, yep. He starts yowling about a minute or so after the alarm first goes off. He knows alarm = me getting up soon, and me getting up = breakfast time for kitty. I get the impression he's just trying to speed up the process since I'm slow to get moving.

I think he and my bird are working together now! For the past two days in a row, the bird, Buzzy, started screaming shortly after the Monster cat started yowling. I forced myself to get up right away both times because birds can sometimes freak out in their cages and hurt themselves, and they often scream while doing it. Once I made sure Buzzy was all right, I fed Monster, and Buzzy happily went back to sleep. We'll see if they do it again tomorrow....

Thanks for the comments and suggestions! It does seem to be a fairly normal cat thing.

 

When I saw this, I immediately thought of you! At least your cat hasn't learned how to do this, too, right?

 

Oh wow... LOL! That's hilarious! Fortunately, my bedroom door doesn't have one of those things, or the Monster would probably use it against me. Thanks for sharing!

The cat and bird are still teaming up to get my butt out of bed after the first snooze. I wish there were automatic cat feeders for canned food (that actually kept the food fresh).

 

Here's an idea which my friend used to feed his dogs when he is away for a few days. He puts dog food in small plastic bottles. Then he teaches his dog to tear open a bottle when they want to eat. So when he goes away for a few days he just puts out a number of plastic bottles filled with dog food.

I think you can modify this idea to use as cat feeders. Just put the cat food in small plastic bags. Make sure the bags are thin enough so that your cat can tear them open. Tie the bags up with rubber bands. Maybe you can trap air inside the bags so that they will be like little balloons. The cats can play with the bags if they are not hungry yet.

 

Aww.. my cat wakes me up in the morning but I find it incredibly adorable. She doesn't meow or do anything like that, but she crawls up on the bed and then cuddles with me. I don't think she's trying to wake me up, but it always does. I call her my little alarm clock.

 

I think your cat thinks you are her bed warmer. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

 

I think you are right. I have no problem being a bed warmer for my precious cat

 

OMG! ROTFL! I think my cats wouldn't be alive for very long if they did such things
It's like my younger one used to PLAY at 5-6 am, imagine glass ball on a floor (not carpet) at this time.. It's a miracle she's still alive