Screams in the middle of the night.

Hi, I am having a problem. Every night between 4-4:30 am I wake up to a cat scream. As some of you may already know, I have 2 cats of my own and recently took on my friend's cat to take care of while she's out of town. Her cat is much older than mine and doesn't participate in their play. She stays under the couch most of the time, however I caught her roaming around the room or sitting on the couch when I am not there. As soon as she sees me comming in, she bolts back under the couch.

So, one night I woke up to a terrible scream that felt like it made the entire house shake. I rushed out of my bedroom and saw Eow's butt and tail just disapearing under the couch, Wesley nervously running around and Chichi calmly sitting on the chair giving me the look like she had nothing to do with what happened. I figured the new cat must have not properly adjusted to my place, so I took her back to the storage room where she remained for 5 days. When I let her out things were calm, but then the screams started happening again. From every other night to every single night. Always between 4 and 5 am. Sometimes scaring the crap out of me, waking up my neigbour's dog and making him all nervous. I eventually got used to the screams. Sometimes I would even wake up right before they start and sort of expect there to be a scream any minute, and sure enough, I hear it. I checked the cats for any scratches or physical damage, none. I figured the fights aren't as bad as they sound. In fact, one of my theories is that there aren't any cat fights, it's just Eow's loud and obnoxious way of letting Wesley know to leave her alone. (He can be annoying sometimes)

But darn it, I can't sleep like that.

I would do wat you were doing, but then again the "king" cat of the house willie who used to love cats hates them and my brothers cat midnight likes to play and start trouble so all the time in the middle of the night i would wake up to them chasing each other and wills big mouth, so I try to keep them seperated at night, and it seems to be working good. But because i have the 2 kitties in my room will wont sleep in here so most of the time hes in my moms room and when hes not watch out if midnights in theres bond to be a fight lol...

I would definitely keep her separated at night - your cats may be terrorizing her (knowing you're not around) and she's just reacting the only way she can. Give her some security - she didn't ask for the arrangement she was left in (when's your friend coming back?).

She's comming back in March.

I wanted to do a good thing to help out a friend, but I'm never doing this again.

I thought about keeping her in the storage room for the night, but she really hates it when I move her around. She loves being under that couch. My cats don't bother her when she's under there, she has her own litter box right there and her own food and water bowls. It will just be too much of a hassle to move her back and forth.

Does your friend live far from you? I almost think its better that the cat stay in their own familiar environment, with someone coming over daily to play, feed, and scoop the litterbox. Is that not an option? Or I suppose that would be more inconvenient.

My friend is out of country. So the kitty has to stay with me unless I find someone else who will be willing to keep her untill March.

Last night it gotten to be really bad. I had to get up and put her in the storage room. That just does it. From now on, that's where she'll be staying at nights. I'll have to ask my neigbour if he heard any screams during the day.