Our one-year-old cat has been with us for about four months - she walked into our kitchen through an open window one snowy night right before Thanksgiving. Before that, she lived outside for a (little?) while with two other stray cats and wasn't really friendly or interested in making friends with us. We fed them some dog food and the like.
She's anything but a cat you read about in feline books (she's our first one, so we have nothing to compare). She wants, actually demands company and attention. She sleeps with us. She rests between us on our desk while we're at our computers. She waits at the door when we're coming home. She brushes her teeth, usually on her own, by holding onto her toothrbrush. She comes, for the most part, when you call her name. She's the cutest thing ever, yet she is so demanding that, for the most part, I am at a loss when it comes to tending to her needs.
She sleeps a lot, but always makes sure to be awake and alert when there is any sign of food being passed around. Actually, she'll do anything she can to steal that food, no matter how hard you try to prevent her from getting even close. She doesn't like it, but she'll grin and bear when you point a spray bottle towards her. She'll sneak to your plate, pretend she's not interested and then, all of a sudden, she'll grab something and run away with her prey. She is not hungry, or at least shouldn't be, judging by the foods we give her.
She often picks her food from her food basket (if you're not offering her dinner when she thinks it's dinner time, she'll go dig into her food stash). She opens containers cats shouldn't be able to open. She opens closets. She loves closets, whatsoever.
She doesn't like cat toys, especially anything ball-shaped or ball-like. A bit smarter toys, such as that feeding egg thing, she can tolerate (if there's food in it). She'll jump after a toy hanging off a wand and occasionally wrestle a kickeroo. She will, however, run around like a lunatic on her own, while trying to wrestle me (for some reason, she doesn't think my husband, also, is her toy) or bite my behind or calves. Running and hiding from me and then jumping out of the shadows is her other favourite activity. She is a loud, meowy cat. She doesn't care about our furniture, plants, or anything else cats tend to scratch and/or destroy. She has her claws and we only trim them occasionally.
She goes to bed when we do and sleeps with us. And this is where the biggest trouble of all starts - she wakes up at least an hour before my alarm clock is set to go off. She'll then walk all over me (again, she'll never touch my husband), poke me with her paws (never with her claws!), grumble and do anything she can think of to get me out of the bed. Then I have to follow her to the kitchen and - feed her. This happens at 4 or 5 in the morning and she only gets a snack (which I deduct from her daily amount of food!). When my alarm clock gets me out of bed for work, there's the cat, running to the kitchen, and then waiting on the floor, on her back (this is what she just wrote, oops: -=------907777777777777777777777777777777777790), demanding 5-10 minutes of pet-play time and, of course, some more food. The food issues, I already described today in another thread.
What I keep wondering about is - what can one do about these night/early morning activities? I have been insanely tired for four months now and I am dying to figure out how to get her to leave me alone until I wake up. I can't and don't really want to lock her out of our bedroom, but even if I did, I think she'd claw her way in, or meow loud enough to wake up our entire neighbourhood.
Are all cats like this?
Can one train a cat?
We love this one dearly, but she is more than just a handful.
She's anything but a cat you read about in feline books (she's our first one, so we have nothing to compare). She wants, actually demands company and attention. She sleeps with us. She rests between us on our desk while we're at our computers. She waits at the door when we're coming home. She brushes her teeth, usually on her own, by holding onto her toothrbrush. She comes, for the most part, when you call her name. She's the cutest thing ever, yet she is so demanding that, for the most part, I am at a loss when it comes to tending to her needs.
She sleeps a lot, but always makes sure to be awake and alert when there is any sign of food being passed around. Actually, she'll do anything she can to steal that food, no matter how hard you try to prevent her from getting even close. She doesn't like it, but she'll grin and bear when you point a spray bottle towards her. She'll sneak to your plate, pretend she's not interested and then, all of a sudden, she'll grab something and run away with her prey. She is not hungry, or at least shouldn't be, judging by the foods we give her.
She often picks her food from her food basket (if you're not offering her dinner when she thinks it's dinner time, she'll go dig into her food stash). She opens containers cats shouldn't be able to open. She opens closets. She loves closets, whatsoever.
She doesn't like cat toys, especially anything ball-shaped or ball-like. A bit smarter toys, such as that feeding egg thing, she can tolerate (if there's food in it). She'll jump after a toy hanging off a wand and occasionally wrestle a kickeroo. She will, however, run around like a lunatic on her own, while trying to wrestle me (for some reason, she doesn't think my husband, also, is her toy) or bite my behind or calves. Running and hiding from me and then jumping out of the shadows is her other favourite activity. She is a loud, meowy cat. She doesn't care about our furniture, plants, or anything else cats tend to scratch and/or destroy. She has her claws and we only trim them occasionally.
She goes to bed when we do and sleeps with us. And this is where the biggest trouble of all starts - she wakes up at least an hour before my alarm clock is set to go off. She'll then walk all over me (again, she'll never touch my husband), poke me with her paws (never with her claws!), grumble and do anything she can think of to get me out of the bed. Then I have to follow her to the kitchen and - feed her. This happens at 4 or 5 in the morning and she only gets a snack (which I deduct from her daily amount of food!). When my alarm clock gets me out of bed for work, there's the cat, running to the kitchen, and then waiting on the floor, on her back (this is what she just wrote, oops: -=------907777777777777777777777777777777777790), demanding 5-10 minutes of pet-play time and, of course, some more food. The food issues, I already described today in another thread.
What I keep wondering about is - what can one do about these night/early morning activities? I have been insanely tired for four months now and I am dying to figure out how to get her to leave me alone until I wake up. I can't and don't really want to lock her out of our bedroom, but even if I did, I think she'd claw her way in, or meow loud enough to wake up our entire neighbourhood.
Are all cats like this?
Can one train a cat?
We love this one dearly, but she is more than just a handful.
Otto already mentioned this, but you really don't know anything about what happens out there to her. I lost my cat Mackerel early this month to FIP, and it's very likely that if I hadn't been forced to let her outside (my ex-housemate, basically, was determined to let her cat out and too stupid to keep my cat inside.) then she'd still be here with me today. 
