Wants to go out at dawn

My cat has recently started spending the days outside - we just moved to a new house with a completely fenced in backyard. She comes in at night, but has recently started crying as early as 4:30am to go back out! Any ideas on how to train her to stay put until 7:00am?

Our Kosmo also wakes us up every morning at 4:00 or4:30. I don't want to let him out because we live in the desert and there are supposedly coyotes out there, but if we put him out of our room and close the door, we still have to get up and we're awake! Anybody know how to train him to sleep in?

If you have a well fenced yard and you allow your cat outside, why not have a catflap? You could get one of the magnet-operated kind to keep out other cats and you can lock it at night.

We have one and from my experience, once the cats don't associate us with being let outside (as they "open" the flap door themselves ) they stopped crying for us when they can't get out. They just go back to sleep or to doing something else around the house.

Great idea Anne! You can get those pet flap doors for sliding glass doors too. I just bought one for my house so the boys will be able to get into the atrium (now known as "their" room).

I found that the best way to traiin in this instance is to ignore. My Squirt used to go outside and would meow at 5:30 a.m. to be let out. He was especially impatient because, like a dog, he was holding it all night and not using the litter box (preferring to go outside). When he saw that I wasn't going to get up, he eventually stopped.

Nowadays, my cats do not bug me before the alarm anymore. Even when the alarm goes off, they don't come in the room. They know I'm gonna hit the snooze button a few times. When they hear the tv click on for the morning news, they rush in, because they know I'm getting up.

Cats are creatures of habit. They will learn your routines if you give them time.