Help! I'm losing sleep...

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....and I can't take it much more.

My cat Sam sleeps with me every night and has since I rescued him out of a parking lot last fall. For a while our routine was pretty regular. He would wake me up around 5:30 or 6:00 if I was still in bed and that was fine because I usually got up by that time anyway.

I began working out before work so my alarm now goes off at 4:15 every morning. For the first couple of weeks I woke him up everyday which I could tell from his expression he did not like.


....but lately for the last month or so he is waking me up EVERY NIGHT between 2:30 and 3:30. Since my alarm goes off at 4:15, waking up at 3:00 or 3:30 usually means I can't get back to sleep. He's not climbing on me or meowing, or trying to play with me. He is just rustling around in the room. Getting behind my entertainment center, climbing on my dresser (which he knows he can't do when I'm awake).


I have locked him out of my room which he doesn't like and he will put his paw under the door to rattle it. I put him in the guest room with his litter box and food but he actually tore some carpet by the door trying to get out. This is the first destructive thing he has done and I don't want him to get in the habit so what do I do?

I can't keep getting up in the middle of the night.

Thanks,
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didi86

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Young Cat
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Jun 13, 2008
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I'd say play with him every night for a vigorous hour before you go to bed
maybe it will tire him out enough that he wakes up later?
get one of those laser pointers and just sit back and make him chase it around everywhere - or get him a toy he really really likes, my new kitty loves those "real fur" mice, he'll carry it around the house and drop it into an area thats hard for him to get it out (ie : empty soda box, he'll shove it in there and dig around in it for it and once he gets it out, he'll go dump it somewhere else (between boxes/shoe boxes/)
of course its not garunteed your cat would do this
I have to usually wear out Alex, or get my roommate to before I go to bed,
he still starts mewing around 6 AM trying to wake me up but its better than 3 AM (which he was doing before)
and since I'm keeping my two cats separated he'll claw at my door before I wake up as well but I just put "soft paws" on him so he can't ruin the carpet - those were extremely easy to put on and it doesn't seem to bother him at all, he can still climb up his cat tree - etc- he just can't destroy anything anymore!

with my older cat when she was a kitten, i just had to deal w/ it, had to open my room and let her run amuck between the rooms and just try to keep the house clean so theres nothing she could actually destroy (nothing valuable on counters, etc - no exposed electrical wires/ no loose jewelry/ small things she could play with and 'hide') --- and invested in Ear Plugs!


I hope this helps :> good luck!
 
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