Banging on door in wee hours--help for prevention!

Hi cat lovers!

My girlfriend's cat is causing lots of problems in her household. She has two roommates, a cat, and a roommate's cat living her apartment (top floor of a duplex).

Her cat, RJ, is part Russian Blue and about four years old. He's always been kinda pesty--jumping on furniture in the bedroom throughout the night. But he's been better about that lately..fairly quiet at night.

But suddenly, about two weeks ago, he started banging on the back door (leading to the basement steps). This back door is in the kitchen, right next to a roomie's bedroom and quite far from my girlfriend's room. However, everyone in the apartment can hear it because it's SO LOUD.

She's tried picking him up, she's tried chasing him from the door, she's tried holding on to him for a long time, taping pillows to the door...he just won't stop. He does it from about 3:00 AM to about 6:30 AM when she wakes up.

It's unbearable.

Nothing has changed about this backdoor. He gets as much attention as he usually does, his diet hasn't changed. Nothing has changed (that we know of) that has provoked such a dramatic leap into obnoxiousness.

We seriously cannot handle it any more.

This issue is causing a lot of unnecessary grief for lots of people and needs to stop. Any ideas are welcome!

There is nothing wrong in secluding a cat at night from the rest of the household, as long as the cat has everything he needs to pass the night in comfort. Perhaps he hears mice downstairs or something? It's hard to say. As long as you don't keep him penned up in there 24/7 it shouldn't be a problem. And as long as the basement is fairly warm and you can keep him comfortable he probably won't mind to much.

Gosh did we ever have this problem with our 3! When my boys finally got around to tolerating each other (took about 2 weeks) it seemed like each one of them turned really annoying overnight! I guess I should've expected that since it was a new situation for everyone. I finally got to the point where at night we put them in the garage with litter pans and fresh food and water and a few toys. It turned out to be a miracle and worked so well for us. Everyone was happy, esp. me and hubby! Now we don't have to do it every single night and sometimes they ask to go in the garage at night so it has really worked out for everyone! Unfortunatly cat's sleep patterns are very different from ours.

I've heard cats don't like to scratch on bubble wrap or tinfoil. Try taping those to the door.
Dev

thanks everyone for your replies. i think we're going to try the pillows again. the basement isn't exactly cat-safe so we're keeping him out of there.

we're still open to any other suggestions.

thanks for your help so far!

I only have a suggestion for muffling the sound. Take an old washcloth and place it between the door and the frame before you close the door. Hans hates being locked up, but had to be for a few days after his surgey. He was in the room across the hall from me and banged for hours straight. The washcloth completely silenced the door and I was actually able to sleep. Hope this can be of some help until you can figure out how to get him to stop.

So nothing has changed inside, - but has anything changed outside? Mayb there is a new cat in the neighbourhood, or some other animal which may be annoying your kitty?