Cat on the Nightstand

We've had a rescue cat for about 3 months. Nigel is brilliant, friendly, not too destructive, but he can be very manipulative. When we first got him he was very unsettled at night, meowing, moving about, jumping up on the windowsill and pawing at the venetian blinds. Now we've go him to sleep at the foot of our bed virtually all night. Here's the trouble, though.

He is always up at 4.45am. He doesn't just get off the bed and go into the kitchen, but will either jump up on to the windowsill, making an almighty crash against the blinds, or he'll get onto my bedside-table and start moving stuff around with his paws, usually knocking the stuff onto the floor. He likes to knock over the lamp too. I can never get him off. If I were to get out of bed, he's half-way out of the bedroom door before my feet touch the ground! It's so frustrating because it's just an hour from normal getting-up time. The thing is it's always my nightstand he's interested in, he won't go on my wife's side.

Any solutions that won't involve covering the table or windowsill with spikes? I'm thinking of using a water spray, which has been pretty effective at stopping him chewing though the christmas tree light cables. Is this cruel?

Compressed air can have the same effect as water - it can cause damage to the ears/eyes. Not sure I have any suggestions - thankfully none of my cats have been too bad about making a ruckus at night!

Remove all things from the nightstand. Take off the blinds.

Just before you go to sleep at night, cover the nightstand with a plastic garbage bag. Cats hate the feel of plastic, and this should keep him off. You can easily remove it in the morning.

My cat recently had to be kept from jumping, and my vet suggested putting a plastic garbage bag over his "trees." It worked; he did not even try to climb them.

I just velcro-ed down all the stuff that needed to stay on my nightstand (alarm clock, lamp, etc.) and then put everything else in the drawer. My boys don't bother the blinds, but my parents' had that problem, so they installed vertical blinds in the bedroom so the cats could just get behind them. Best of luck, I know kitties disturbing your sleep can be very frustrating!

How old is he? Friday used to do the same exact FREAKING thing and I feel your pain. In Friday's case he wanted me to get up and would walk on the alarm clock to try to get it to go off. When that failed he'd pull my eyelids open and use claws if necessary. It's unbelievably frustrating I know. I can't say I totally know what stopped Friday from doing that but I suspect it had to do with age more than anything I did.

Well, I did go for the water bottle in the end. I only need to hold it up and put my finger on the trigger and he gets the message. My wife calls pushing the lever and actually spraying him 'the nuclear option' as we hardly ever need to do it. When we do, it's always at his back end. As for the nightstand, I just put the bottle on there when i go to bed and he avoids it like the plague. Now all we have to do is stop him waking up an hour before real getting-up time and we'll have cracked him!

Mika sleeps with our daughter (her meowmy) and she does the same thing. When she wants to be let out of the bedroom she'll sit on the nightstand and start pushing things off until our daughter gets up and lets her outside.

Originally Posted by HappilyRetired

Just before you go to sleep at night, cover the nightstand with a plastic garbage bag. Cats hate the feel of plastic, and this should keep him off. You can easily remove it in the morning.

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My cats must not have gotten this memo as they LOVE to play in plastic grocery sacs.

Originally Posted by Gannett

Well, I did go for the water bottle in the end. I only need to hold it up and put my finger on the trigger and he gets the message. My wife calls pushing the lever and actually spraying him 'the nuclear option' as we hardly ever need to do it. When we do, it's always at his back end. As for the nightstand, I just put the bottle on there when i go to bed and he avoids it like the plague. Now all we have to do is stop him waking up an hour before real getting-up time and we'll have cracked him!

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Good luck with that! Wickett STILL gets up anywhere between 1-2 hours before my alarm. I get up, shut him out, and go back to bed for the last few hours. Do you feed him in the morning? If you do, you might consider changing his feeding schedule... that could be why he's waking you.

We're blessed with unbelievably well behaved cats, so this may not work for others, but I was able to break the kitties of waking me up. After they moved in with us and got used to eating at 6:30 am on weekdays they would start trying to wake me up about 5:30, whether it was a weekday or not. They'd do this by climbing on my face, biting at my feet, and yep, knocking stuff (including full glasses of water) off the nightstand.
I started grabbing them when they'd start bugging us and pulling them in close to me until they started purring and then went back to sleep with them for an hour or so before getting up and feeding them. Eventually they started just crawling into bed and laying against me instead of waking me up, they somehow know that hour is for snuggle time! They don't usually sleep in our bed, but every morning I wake up with them snuggled against me.

Like I said though, I think I may just be spoiled with very kindhearted kittens.