Every night, from anywhere between 5:00am and 8:00am, my male cat Zen will begin meowing loudly and pounding on my bedroom door to get in. It seems for a couple of months a year he’ll give me a break, but for the most part, I don’t get a single night of uninterrupted sleep. This has been going on for years. Zen loves humans and must receive near-constant human attention.
I have to keep the door closed, since I have a roommate.
I can’t keep him in my room, because either a) the other cat (Nayumi) will start screaming and pounding because she’s lonely, or b) Zen will scream and pound to get out in the middle of the night to eat or use the litterbox.
If I keep both of them in my room, they’ll lay down for a bit, but invariably get into a wrestling match on my bed, which Zen loves to initiate whenever Nayumi is sleeping.
I won’t lock them in another room, because I feel that’s kind of cruel.
Are there any ideas on changing my cat’s behavior? I have tried time and time again to just not open the door and deal with it, hoping Zen will be conditioned to see that his crying and pounding won’t get him the result he wants. No dice; he just keeps trying. Please help – I’m dying for a quiet night’s sleep!
And before anyone says it, yes, the irony of him being named “Zen” is not lost on me.
When our horrible cat does that, we suddenly fling the door open and go “Yaaaaargh!” while flapping a towel at him or spraying him with the cat sprayer.
It won’t help with the meowing, (for that I suggest earplugs) but we cured our cats from mauling our bedroom door at night by purchasing a scat mat. These are mildly electrified mats usually used to keep animals of furniture, but they work fine in front of closed doors.
I’ve developed an ability to get up and let the cat in, then later get up and let the cat out, without awakening enough to matter. Once that happened, in the time-honored manner of cats, the cat no longer cared to come in.
Though as I never slept nude, I always kept a rolled up hand towel blocking the door open a sliver and dropped my work boots inside the door to keep it mostly shut, then Puff could wander in and out as she wanted. The roomie was more trouble than the cat was.:rolleyes:
This cat is neutered, isn’t he? First things first.
I use an old sandal to prevent the door from fully closing, and the dirty laundry (yes, I’m a slob - use a folded towel or pillow if you want neatness) to press against the door on the HINGE side…
Result: door is open about 3 inches, cat can squeeze through (the door will open easily - the cloth “closer” simply exerts a few ounces of force.
Using anything at least an inch wide as a prop to hold it open should work - cats work out hooking a paw around the door and pulling to exit; of course they just ram it open with their heads from the other side.
If the two can’t play nice, pick them BOTH up and evict them, then latch the door. A few nights of “wake human = sleep in hall” should convince them to “take it outside” - the one which currently has bedroom privileges will be pissed enough to teach the other.
The scat mat sounds like a good idea - or a baking sheet (a real one, with raised sides full of water will probably keep a cat away as well.
The cat door would work, but if this is a rental, get a replacement door painted and ready to install before cutting a hole in a rental door.
Another thing: Warning, this is nasty: I have barking dogs whose owners don’t mind their bark-just-to-bark. I do.
There is a product: Guardian Bark Control. NOTE THE NAME there is an inferior (worthless) product using the same gimmick, disguised as a birdhouse ($40 on ebay over $100 at PetCo).
In addition to being triggered by barking, tapping it against a hard surface (headboard) will cause it to produce an unpleasant noise in the ultrasonic range. I was testing one in the house and cat was watching. When I triggered it, she looked as if I had just hurt her badly and ran.
A bigger, badder version (different maker) did not bother her. Consider this the equivalent of a nuke in pet behavior modification, I never have it on if it is in the house or even pointed at the house, just for this reason.
We use a SSSCAT cat spray canister. It works very well to scare off a cat who won’t leave a bedroom door alone - we have one of those, too. She thumps and howls all night long when the door is closed.
Many of them are - Bark Off (which is the junk which has mimicked the birdhouse design) is useless;
The Guardian bird house (look for the Petco name) works really well for some.
After I shut up their scotty with the bird house, neighbors came up with a beagle which would actually charge at me when I triggered it.
The big, bad boy of the lot is the GoodLife Dog Silencer Pro - the next time the beagle started yapping, I waited for him to get real close to the fence, then turned it on - he stuck his tail between his legs and ran to the other side of the house.
The new neighbors behind me got a mutt that liked to bark about the time I go to sleep. I started him on the Pro but he got to tolerate it. I moved the birdhouse over and he shut up.
The Pro model is nice on 3 points:
Control sensitivity
Uses (optional) wall plug
Has manual override “clicker” for use when the mutt comes up with a squeak that doesn’t trip it automatically.
That poor mutt now has 3 devices which pretty well cover his entire yard.
I do wish he shut up - the folks across the street (had two which tried to attack the device, one night they were having their usual bark fest when they suddenly stopped. Seven quick “bangs” were heard, then blessed silence) now have a mutt that needs training - he’s starting to stir up the others whom I spend a great deal of time and money to silence.