Poor kitty

[moonwise]

Every night, Biscuit wakes me up because she wants a snack. (She usually has food in her bowl, but she is too dumb to check her bowl out first.) Usually, after having her snack, she comes back to bed and snoozes with us until the alarm goes off. Sometimes, she doesn't want to go back to sleep - she wants to play with us. Many times when she's pesty at night, I'll find a toy on the bed the next morning that she's brought upstairs to keep herself entertained. Unfortunately, keeping herself entertained means keeping us up at an inappropriate hour, so we don't encourage her to play at 3 AM even though she is cute as buttons.

One of Biscuit's favorite toys is a kitty fishing pole with a feather on the end. We had played chase last night, and then husband hung the pole up where she couldn't get it. (Or so we thought.) I had gone back to bed after a snack run when I heard "BONK, BA-BONK, WHACK, BONK BONK BONK" coming up the stairs. Biscuit had managed to pull her toy off the wall and was bringing it upstairs to us so we could play chase some more.

It broke my heart into pieces to bring the fishing pole back downstairs and hang it up where Biscuit really couldn't reach it, and then shut the kitty door so that she had to stay in the basement (once she gets going, she won't settle down again.) We can't let her think that we're going to play with her at night, or we'll never get any sleep. But wow if it isn't hard to say no!

Comments

[wynndfae.livejournal.com]

My Giz is impossible when it comes to when she wants to play. She'll sleep when she realizes I am as well (she seems to comprehend Lights Out), but sometimes I'll wake up and hear her pushing her rubber bracelet around.

However, if we're both awake and especially if I'm busy with schoolwork or something else, she'll give a single meow and I'll have to guess what she wants. Usually it's to play, but sometimes it's for more food. If she'd just stand next to what she wanted, that'd be different. But no, she'll mew laying on the floor and be nowhere near either of her usual reasons to meow. I've thrown her into Serena's room a few times when she absolutely would not leave me alone.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

"Mommy, guess what I want!"

"No, that's not it, try again!"

[wynndfae.livejournal.com]

Exactly. XD

[geckophobe.livejournal.com]

I'm a softy, so I had to just let my husband be the bad guy and lock the cats out of the bedroom at night. He's better at being consistent. He did relent when it was -7 degrees out, because he wanted a little space-heater in bed with us, and they're so well-trained now, they didn't even bother us when we started locking them out again. I'm impressed. If left to my own devices, I would just spoil them rotten and they would annoy me to death.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Several other cat owners think I'm a softie too, for letting Biscuit sleep with us from day one. Amazing that your kitties didn't bug you after being excluded again!

[yankeerose69.livejournal.com]

Again....WHO NEEDS KIDS??!!

My older sis's cat who they have dubbed as The Dog, lives up to that title. For awhile, she would yell at the boys for not picking up their toys and they would go "but mom, we DID pick up our toys, we didn't even play with what was scattered on the floor." One day, witnessed by her hubby and later she saw "the dog" in action too, it was THE CAT who would dig through the kids toys and drag them around the house. Sis said one time she saw a toy sitting in the food dish. I asked her if he hordes the toys in a special place and plays with them when no one is looking. She said she has not come across any hordes yet.

It's amazing what cats will do for attention. Not sure if I could put up with what your cat does, that would drive me BONKERS!! It's bad enough my cat tries to push me out of bed by hogging the area where I sleep and I'm hanging off the end of the bed. (not knowing of course till I wake up)

[wynndfae.livejournal.com]

My Giz puts her favorite rubberbands in her food bowl for safekeeping, but lets her rubber bracelet fall where it may. Cats have very ferrety ways as far as hoarding goes; it's amusing.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Isn't that funny how they'll put prized possessions in their bowls?

[arafel.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious - your poor nephews! "The dog did it" is such a common excuse, but this time it was true. LOL!

[morgi.livejournal.com]

Lock the cats out of the bedroom? What kind of alternate universe do you come from??

In the last couple of months, I have been woken up by Q*Bert tap-dancing across me (back and forth) in the wee hours of the morning, and by Rocket eating Greenies off my pillow because someone left the bag unzipped on the headboard and it was knocked over.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Shutting her in the basement actually helps with the behavior - she doesn't like it, so eventually she'll put two and two together and figure out "if bug Mommy, get kicked out."

You guys must have no bed space whatsoever with all your guys. :)

[morgi.livejournal.com]

Chyna only gets up on the bed once in a blue moon, but on some nights--especially the colder ones--there are two cats at the foot of the bed. Sometimes Trayf the Mousie ends up there too, but come to think of it I haven't seen him at all in the last several months.

[cyanglow]

Aaawww. My Grimmjow is lucky I'm a night person. 3:30 am seems to be her hyper play time. But I did have to put one of those motion-sensor activated spray air cans near the head of my bed, otherwise I'd never get any sleep at all. :D

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Motion-sensor spray can? What's that?

[cyanglow]

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751025

They're cheaper at other places like Wal-Mart, but I got one to put near the X-mas tree and it worked pretty good. Once Grimmy got used to the sight of it, she avoided it. For manual things, just a can of spray air like you use to dust computers also works. She isn't scared of water yet, so spray bottles are useless on her.

[andmydog.livejournal.com]

My boy likes to bring his toys down the hall (especially the one with the bell) and play in the space between all the bedroom doors around midnight, on the assumption that one of us will get up and play with him. I found that if I run him ragged an hour before bed, he sleeps through the night just like a little kid.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

We've done the "wear out kitty before sleepytime" thing as well, and sometimes it works and sometimes she just gets more wound up. Just like a kid!

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Judging by all the shit Biscuit gets into that she shouldn't, I'm pretty sure she can fly why you guys aren't looking.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. Biscuit does try to get to high places, at least. Over the weekend, she jumped on top of the cabinets so she could watch us work in the kitchen, and all you saw were ear-tips.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

*when you guys aren't looking. Sigh. Why do I only notice these things too late.

That's adorable. Crouching tiger, hidden kittycat!