cat waking us up at night to go out!

I hope someone can advice me..

I adopted an older tomcat from the shelter last year and thought he would stay indoors mostly, but quite the opposite!

I let him out during the day when I'm home as I have no cat flap and the door opens out onto the street. Besides it's a solid oak door and I don't want to cut it up but more importantly I have another cat who never goes out and would run off for ever if she got out by accident. She's extremely nervous even on the balcony and also extremely curious and would surely follow him.

He is very persistent when he wants out, miauwing loudly, scratching and even banging the door. I've tried to get a good routine going, out once in the morning and then again for a few hours after dinner (7-9 or 10pm) and this went well all winter but since summer he wants out ALL THE TIME...4am, 3am, 5am. I've given up a few times and let him out but now it's getting worse. I don't want to leave him out all night.

HELP!

Is he neutered?

If so the best thing is to invest in earplugs (yes, I mean literally invest in earplugs) and ignore him.  If you never respond, eventually you will get the message.  My kitties still sometimes meow at my door around 7 am (I think for food) but after years of ignoring them, they do this at most once a week and give up after literally 2 weak meows.  It may take a while but if you are prepared to give it a few months, his behavior should stop.

I feel your pain Caro.  Two of my cats were used to being outside pretty much all the time but I recently moved and am keeping them in full time, with a future plan of just letting them out for a few hours in the afternoon (which I am sure they will cooperate with ).  I initially felt bad shutting them out of my room at night but started doing that about 4 days ago.  At first they really meowed and scratched outside my door but it has steadily lessened.  Last night I suffered some breakage for the first time and lost a crystal bowl on my mantel.  I keep hoping they will start being less active at night.

No matter how much they sleep, they will still be active at night. My suggestion would be to cat-proof your home for a while. If anything can be pushed off and broken, put it somewhere else. My ladies are indoor cats, who go out on the screened-in back porch in the daytime, but at night they are closed off from going out. I know they play at night, because I will find things moved around and evidence of them getting on counters, etc.

Thanks for al your advice guys. My good sense says ignore him so he doesn't get used to the miauw-attention link but my instinct at 6am (especially if I'm getting up top pee anyway) is to let him out till breakfast time. I will definitely try to resist for a few months