Hello,
To begin, I would like to introduce myself. I've been a lurker for a while, ever since I finally made the decision to get a cat. I got Coda from my local humane society a month and a half ago and couldn't be happier. Even my boyfriend (who wasn't too keen on getting a cat) loves her and now calls himself a "cat person". She's now 4 months old and very affectionate and very playful, sometimes too playful, hence my problem
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She seems to want to play ALL THE TIME! Now, I realize she's just a baby and is full of energy, and my boyfriend and I try to play with her as much as possible. We try to allocate various periods of 15-45 minutes (sometimes more on weekends when we have more time) of play every day, and every night we play with her for at least 45 minutes (and make sure she runs around a lot).
Now, the problem seems to be mostly in the mornings. She'll wake us up by scratching on the side of the bed, on the boxspring. I believe she's seeking attention because she does have a scratching post in the bedroom that she uses. In addition, she knows she's not supposed to be doing this as whenever one of us moves to squirt her with the water bottle (please don't flail me - I realise some don't like to discipline this way but it does work) she runs under the bed. As soon as we return to our sleeping position, she starts the scratching again. We've tried picking her up and putting her on the bed and petting her, but no!, she wants to play and this is her way of getting our attention (and we want to sleep!).
I've tried putting double-sided tape on the bed and it does work minimally but within a few days it starts peeling off, and she also either (1) finds the areas that aren't covered (the tape isn't big enough to cover the entire bottom of the mattress so it's put in layers), or (2) she starts licking the tape (which kind of worries me about her ingesting toxins).
We've also tried putting her outside the bedroom whenever she does this but she ends up crying the entire time, which also prevents us from sleeping.
We haven't really tried ignoring her as we're afraid she'll destroy the mattress...
Any suggestions to help curb this would be well appreciated as I'm a very grumpy morning person and like my sleep. Other than this little problem she is very well-behaved and the perfect cat.
Thank you
To begin, I would like to introduce myself. I've been a lurker for a while, ever since I finally made the decision to get a cat. I got Coda from my local humane society a month and a half ago and couldn't be happier. Even my boyfriend (who wasn't too keen on getting a cat) loves her and now calls himself a "cat person". She's now 4 months old and very affectionate and very playful, sometimes too playful, hence my problem
She seems to want to play ALL THE TIME! Now, I realize she's just a baby and is full of energy, and my boyfriend and I try to play with her as much as possible. We try to allocate various periods of 15-45 minutes (sometimes more on weekends when we have more time) of play every day, and every night we play with her for at least 45 minutes (and make sure she runs around a lot).
Now, the problem seems to be mostly in the mornings. She'll wake us up by scratching on the side of the bed, on the boxspring. I believe she's seeking attention because she does have a scratching post in the bedroom that she uses. In addition, she knows she's not supposed to be doing this as whenever one of us moves to squirt her with the water bottle (please don't flail me - I realise some don't like to discipline this way but it does work) she runs under the bed. As soon as we return to our sleeping position, she starts the scratching again. We've tried picking her up and putting her on the bed and petting her, but no!, she wants to play and this is her way of getting our attention (and we want to sleep!).
I've tried putting double-sided tape on the bed and it does work minimally but within a few days it starts peeling off, and she also either (1) finds the areas that aren't covered (the tape isn't big enough to cover the entire bottom of the mattress so it's put in layers), or (2) she starts licking the tape (which kind of worries me about her ingesting toxins).
We've also tried putting her outside the bedroom whenever she does this but she ends up crying the entire time, which also prevents us from sleeping.
We haven't really tried ignoring her as we're afraid she'll destroy the mattress...
Any suggestions to help curb this would be well appreciated as I'm a very grumpy morning person and like my sleep. Other than this little problem she is very well-behaved and the perfect cat.
Thank you
