We have a cat who insists on waking us between 5:30 and 6:00 each morning

[Orrex]

If he does it again tomorrow, I'm going to tie his tail to a pair of shoes and throw them over an electrical wire.

[HopeHoops]

1. Super soaker time!

Keep it charged and by the bed.

[Bertha Venation]

2. Do you feed them in the morning?

If so, stop. The morning awakenings will likely stop, too.

If not, I'm sorry, I have no advice. I like HopeHoops's idea of a super soaker. Keep a squirt bottle handy. It works.

[Orrex]

10. I wondered if it might be that simple

At this point, I'm willing to stop feeding him except on alternating Tuesdays.

[rurallib]

3. Ours likes to bite toes at 5AM. Door is now locked.

[suninvited]

4. Set your alarm for 5:00 a.m.

then start bugging the cats.

Give them a little taste of their own medicine.

[Orrex]

12. Little bastard deserves it.

[applegrove]

5. Don't let the sucker nap during the day. If you see him/her asleep immediately wake them up.

My cats sleep well after I'm awake.

[meow2u3]

6. My cats wake me up at 7 in the morning

That's the time I had always fed them; they're used to their 7AM feeding. Max will walk--and jump--on me until I wake up to give him his breakfast. Then, after they're through with their chow, they let me go back to sleep.

[Orrex]

14. The problem is that his fussing wakes our two kids, and thus our day must begin

If it were just the stupid cat, I'd stuff him into a shoe box and let him out around 10:00 for breakfast.

[Orsino]

7. You have your orders.

Did you need some sort of clarification?

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Move all your clocks off an hour and he'll wake you an hour later.

Cats aren't as smart as we are. Take advantage of that fact. You're welcome.

[Orrex]

11. Whoa! You just totally blew my mind!

:wow:

[amitten]

9. You and the rest of the world, my friend. n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. When I acquired my cat, he was doing that, but I followed the advice of

two long-time cat owners:

1. He gets his main feeding at night. That way, he's not starving in the morning.

2. Whenever he tried to wake me in the pre-dawn hours, I rolled over and said "NO!" sharply. However, when the radio came on (usually at 7:30, sometimes later), I petted and praised him and told him what a good kitty he was for waiting for the radio. It took about a week to condition him to wait for the radio. (I work free-lance and sometimes stay up really late doing projects for clients in Tokyo and other places, so a 5:30AM wake-up meow is extremely unwelcome.)

He's been really good about this ever since and has violated the morning rule twice.

One was when I'd been up literally till 3AM working on a job, so I decided not to set the alarm at all. At around 10AM, I suddenly felt kitty lips on my arm. I guess the cat was checking to see if I was still alive.

The other time was just two days ago. He started meowing loudly at about 2AM and would...not...shut...up no matter what. I finally got up to investigate to discover that the fuss was about the fact that he had a kibble in his water dish. I gave him some fresh water and that was the end of it.

He tried meowing in the middle of the night last night again, but I just told him to shut up and he did.

[mnhtnbb]

15. That's why our cats go out at night. When weather is too cold (low 20's)or

too rainy (and I mean huge thunderstorm or hurricane)we let them stay inside. Then they usually wake
us between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. just to make sure there is food in the damn cat dish! It's there!
Eat it, already!

[tabbycat31]

16. he's being a cat

mine does it ALL.THE.TIME and it's sometimes earlier

[bbernardini]

17. Automatic feeder. Trust me on this one.

We got automatic feeders for our cats, and after a day or two, they never bothered us in the morning again.

[dgibby]

18. Oh good! Then you won't mind if I send my dog to your house.

He does the same thing, and since you're already up.....:rofl:

[madeline_con]

19. Close the bedroom door. n/t

[Orrex]

21. Can't. We leave it open so that we can hear our two young sons.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Mosby did too. If he was in, he wanted out. If he was out he wanted in. 5:45. Didn't

change when the clocks changed either.

Amazing.

[quakerboy]

22. A cat who do that

would not last long in my home. I would just buy a guard dog to keep it away during certain hours.

Seriously... Ive had many cats. Not a one of them did that, to my knowledge. Perhaps my homes just naturally take on the "We don't do mornings" psychic vibe, and their little kitty brains succumb to its power. Perhaps its an innate sense of self preservation that tells them that my mind, preconsciousness from waking, does not value their input and take action. But whatever it is, its never been a problem.

[SoxFan]

23. This is my cat...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q

[elleng]

24. Sorry folks,

but they're prolly being KIND! Giving you some TIME after the birds start chirping!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. This morning one of my cats woke me up at about 4:00

by walking into my bedroom and announcing something like:

"Rrowrr nyahh meh mrrr? Mroww neh mrrrmm ehhh arr ngow yeh mrrrmm ngyeh arrng mrrr."

He doesn't exactly meow, but he rambles on and on at great length, and he has all these "words" that seem to mean something, at least to him. So he leads me downstairs, jabbering all the way, and there's still food in the bowl. The other cats appear, as well, and I tell them all to STFU and eat what's in their dishes. But after that I never got back to sleep.