My now 13yr. old Ex-Male is neurotic and does that, he does it less now, he wanted attention and comfort because he (get this now) couldn’t find me peacefully ‘sleeping’ in my bed. If I called him he would come (rather dog-like my stupid cat) and settle in near me on the bed or come in, see I was there wander off quietly… until he got lost again.
We haven’t convinced Nadia that we get up at 6:00 now, which is 7:00 to her. She wants breakfast at 5:30 our time, 6:30 hers. Has anyone else had trouble telling their cat about “Spring ahead, Fall back”?
I had a cat who meowed constantly since birth. It was not that anything was wrong, it was just that he was incredibly vocal and extremely sociable. Basically, he spent his waking hours saying “Hey, let’s play!”
Unfortunately, he would sleep all day while I was out, and then expect me to play with him all night. Tossing him outside was out of the question due to the dangers of the neighbourhood (dobermans, rotweilers and pit bulls, plus some sicko who liked to poison cats with anit-freeze – this one eventually killed him). I tried setting up a TV with “The Cat Show” video playing (lots of scampering squirrels and chirping chickadees), but he didn’t like watching the movie alone. I tried leaving out all sorts of interesting toys, but he wanted a playmate. I tried getting him a girlfriend (yes, I obtained a pet cat for my pet cat), and they had a great time together, but he still wanted to play all night with me. So much for positive correction. On to negative correction.
I tried the squirt gun approach, but for him it was just a form of playing. He would chase about and meow until I would squirt him, then he would chase about and meow some more. I tried dipping him in the tub to some success, for he would lick himself for half an hour afterward, and sometimes fall asleep, but eventually this too failed. One night he would not stop meowing (as usual), and as I sat up to go dip him, he ran to the tub, hopped in, ran back and crawled up onto me and began to lick himself. For the next few nights he repeated this, so I stopped keeping the tub filled, and resigned myself to a life of sleeplessness.
The closest I ever came to finding a solution was to exhaust him on the weekends, so that I could at least sleep on Saturday and Sunday nights. He learned to walk on a lead, so he went for hikes and paddles with me. His favourite was to go bird watching at Point Peele and Rondeau Point on Lake Erie in the spring. He really pissed off the human bird watchers though. The poor little guy – all his life all he wanted was human companionship, he never figured out how not to piss off humans.
Sometimes, after all efforts have been made, all you can do is love them for what they are.
My animals also had trouble adapting to daylight savings time! The dog was far worse than the cats though… we have an elderly Doberman who starts having a whining fit if she doesn’t get her special supper (the regular ol’ dogfood just ain’t enough) at 5:30. EXACTLY 5:30. We fixed this by gradually moving up her feeding time over the course of a week. I think once the cats saw what a fool the dog was being, they decided to be cool and accept the change more readily. Anything to appear superior to the dog!
May I suggest we take you to Michi to be “fixed”? 
Rpinrd, I completely sympathise! My cat will lay in the bed with me as long as I’m still, but as soon as I move AT ALL, (even to roll over!) he leaps to the floor and begins meowing at the top of his voice. In my opinion, it’s because he sleeps all day and wants to play all night. Hey, it’s a cat thing.
I’ve learned to just ignore him. It seems that the more times I tell him to “SHUT UP!!!” the more obnoxious his meowing becomes. When I disregard his behaviour and just try to sleep, he eventually gives up and sulks in silence.
He is probably voicing his extreme displeasure about being an ex-male. 