Hatrack River Writers Workshop: I noticed there are a lot of cat lovers....

This is topic I noticed there are a lot of cat lovers.... in forum Grist for the Mill at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Nifty (Member # 7933) on :

I have a 7 or 8 week old kitten, and I love her dearly BUT every night for about a week or so she has been getting extremely rambunctious at about the time I try to go to sleep. She leaps on the bed, attacks my feet, knees, hands, book if I'm reading, and face- sometimes with claws and teeth, sometimes without. She runs frantically back and forth on the bed, or off the bed. Has anyone dealt with this? It's just as I'm settling into bed. Other than this, and darting out the front door, she's a very good kitten. Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance.

Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :

Cage. Spade.

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

Dog.

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

This is one of the hardest parts about kittenhood. You can try really hard not to be prey, but my one kitten experience had the little beastie thinking even our toes were prey while we were asleep. Guess they twitch from time to time.

My current kitties sleep in the basement now. Too much nighttime activity, mostly centered around my bed. I'm a mean kitty mommy, but I can't function much without sleep so...oh well. They're older and know the drill by now. And when I go to bed is when they get their dinner so they're motivated to follow me down to the basement.

One thing you might try is directly before bed get your kitty some good exercise. Have her chase a feather on a stick or a ball of paper or run up and down the stairs with her following you, trail a piece of string behind you, play flashlight tag (loads of fun) - anything to kind of get her to expend her energy so that she can then settle down to sleep when you are. Of course you know that cats are in general nocturnal and will have periods of awake alertness at night. And some of this will dissipate as she leaves the kitten days behind. Good luck surviving. If you're not a parent, it's good training for the parenthood days!

Posted by darklight (Member # 5213) on :

My kitties are abotu six or seven months now, and they still start chasing one another, play fighting and generally causing mayhem at around nine each night. And if I don't put them in another room, as I am settlling down to sleep, they start again.

I would suggest getting your little one into a routine. At the same time each night, I lay out the blankets for my two, and they settle down and go to sleep, I then shut the door so they stay in that room all night. In fact, they're so used it now, one of them takes herself through and just curls up in the basket where I keep my ironing and goes off to sleep.

It will get easier of course as she gets a bit older. My two spend most of the day outside, so are probably ready for their sleep by ten.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Nifty, this is one reason why we wanted to adopt an older cat.

If you put the kitten in another room, try to make sure you can't hear it cry, because that can be as distracting and sleep-disturbing as having your toes attacked.

There are a lot of good suggestions here (well, except for the dog one, and the one before it ). I hope they help.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

Tiring out the kitten during the day will help. Also, there are toys that you can give the kitten to amuse her or himself with (make sure they are noiseless, though! Or put them in a room where they might not bother you.) Also, if you have a pair of kittens, provided they get along, they can entertain themselves.

You could try squirting the kitty with water each time he or she attacks you. But remember playing is part of bonding for a kitten, and I think if you just put up with it now you will be rewarded with a closer bond later in the cat's life.

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

When Tiger was young, she adored my son, who was 2 1/2 at the time. Her favorite thing to do was curl up on his throat while he slept. Now, you need to understand that I was raised by a completely cat-aphobic mother, who told me cats love to smother babies. So although I made an effort to be reasonable, it didn't happen. I would hide in the room, and when she would come in and jump on my son I would squirt her with the water bottle, and she would run away. Unfortunately, I started to notice that she was going into the room with more and more frequency. I squirt her, hissed at her, chased her...ooh she thought it was the best game ever invented. It wasn't until I totally ignored her that she stopped going in there.
(BTW, my son is an incredibly deep sleeper now.)

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

I'd hug it, and pet it, and call it "George" - for some reason my cat leaves me alone when I do this.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

quote:
She leaps on the bed, attacks my feet, knees, hands, book if I'm reading, and face- sometimes with claws and teeth, sometimes without. She runs frantically back and forth on the bed, or off the bed.

Oh yeah. Had the same problem with one of ours. He would bite your toes in the middle of the night to wake you up. I nearly killed the thing one night (bastard was too quick). We thought he was evil.

quote:
My current kitties sleep in the basement now.

Lets see, you’re in your very early twenties and your first kitten. No way are you going to stomach hearing the little fur ball cry half the night. Same problem with darklight’s suggestion with another room. I bet neither of those pieces of advice would work for you anyway. I’m betting you live in a small apartment.

quote:
this is one reason why we wanted to adopt an older cat.

Nope, nothing like a kitten. Too late for that anyway. No way are you going to take tiger back, are you?

quote:
Tiring out the kitten during the day will help.

Good luck. This is like trying to tire out a five year-old boy in hopes they’ll go to sleep. Instead you got him all wound up and your exhausted. Kittens have limitless energy. They don’t rest. They’re winding up the internal spring for another burst power.

quote:
I would squirt her with the water bottle, and she would run away.

This will work if you don’t want the tiger on your bed anymore. Sleeping with a cat is so soothing though.

quote:
I'd hug it, and pet it, and call it "George" - for some reason my cat leaves me alone when I do this.

Glad this works for Philo but I bet a dollar against a hundred it ain’t going to work for you.

Here is the solution to your problem. Get another kitten. It’s the irresistible force vs the immoveable object solution. The cats will take out there energy and play with each other (after they get used to each other) and will rely on you for that loving care. Works everytime.

[This message has been edited by snapper (edited September 17, 2008).]

Posted by Lyrajean (Member # 7664) on :

This is why we adopted older cats!

Of course that doesn't keep them from thinking that 1am is a good time to express their affections toward you.

Thus I sleep with my door closed.

Midori (our cat) sleeps with my parents down the hall.

Or even if I leave my door open, she rarely comes to visit as I think its clear to her by now that I am an eggbeater while sleeping and curling up at the foot of my bed is a good way to get kicked in the head, smothered by shifting sheets or rolled over upon.

[This message has been edited by Lyrajean (edited September 18, 2008).]

Posted by Nifty (Member # 7933) on :

Wow, thanks you guys!

Thankfully, I sleep extremely deeply, it's just hard for me to get to sleep, and at about 7 I start sleeping lightly. I actually live in a house, so the other room is an option, but you're right- her cries drive me crazy! Last night I kept her from taking naps so often, and I played HARD with her, for like an hour, then gave up and went to bed. Much to my surprise, she hopped up on my bed, laid on my legs and passed out. I had to move her in order to actually go to sleep, and then she half heartedly played with my feet and my arm until she realized that she wasn't going to get me to play. So, all in all, last night was a good night.

I've never thought about giving Kiki back to the shelter- I made a promise to raise her, and come hell or high water I will. I'm stubborn like that. And when I got her, she was underweight, riddled with fleas, and had a BAD case of intestinal worms- I wouldn't take her back to that shelter if she ate all my furniture and bit my nose, no animal should live the way that they were there.

Again, thanks you guys!

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Eventually you learn to sleep while the cat is doing it...we had one cat, tended not to come near anybody during the day unless she was hungry or cold...ah, but at night, she would climb up, get on our shoulders, shove her nose right into our ears, and purr loudly for hours. (I say "our" because she did this with everybody in the household---one person per night.)

Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :

We had a cat who was afraid of the dark, he would freak out at night and come and drive us crazy. Once we finally figured it out we left a light on for him, in the basement and he was happy. (He still went nuts every full moon, but that was because he was a lunatic; nothing you can do about that.)

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

I don't know about that snapper. Now, whenever I look at my cat and call her "George", she runs and hides somewhere.

You do realize that this was a reference to the various incarnations of Of Mice and Men presented by Looney Toons. But it does work, at least for me...

[This message has been edited by philocinemas (edited September 20, 2008).]

Posted by kings_falcon (Member # 3261) on :

Some kittens don't grow out of that habit.

My first cat LOVED playing feet. As he got older we could do a round or two and when I was done I'd just tuck my feet under a pillow. He'd then settle down and fall asleep too.

The best part about it was trying to explain the the boyfriend (now husband) that when the cat jumped up on the bed with his claws out, he really wasn't aiming for the boyfriend's crotch. The boyfriend got mad at ME when I yelled at him for turning the cat into a projectile. Can you imagine the nerve?

The cat and the husband came to an accord as well.