My cat keeps walking all over me and waking me up!!!!

foxfire

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My cat is a dear, but he gets up early. He wakes up wanting to play; in fact, will wake me up by walking all over me until I'm awake. Then I have to play with him until he's content. (okay, laugh if you like! But it's not very amusing at 5 am) If I don't, he jumps on places he knows he's not supposed to be.

It seems simply his type of wake-up routine. Possibly I'd not mind if he slept in a little later, but the older I get the harder it is to get going--early. There are food, water, and litter box in the room. He loves to perch on the window sill to look out. But the minute his prank-filled eyes open in the morning, he's in play mode.

HELP!!!!!!
 

musicteacher

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My two used to try to wake me up at ridiculous hours. The key is to not give in to what they want. By playing with your kitty, you're giving him what he wants and inadvertently rewarding him for waking you up. My cats no longer attempt to wake my up early. What worked for me was ignoring their every attempt. This meant I had to endure having my nose swatted (with claws retracted, thankfully), having my hair pulled, and my face licked or sniffed. It took quite some time, but they eventually realized that I wasn't going to give in and they gave up. If your cat is jumping on you on places that he is not supposed to (I take that to mean painful places), you may have to endure that for a little while. When kitty does this, you can say "no" firmly, pick him up and put him right on the floor, then roll over and go back to sleep. Be consistent and patient.
 

slkanger

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One of our kitty's sleeps on the bed with us. Usually around 4-5 am she'll come up and find your hand and just wants to be petted on her head. After a few minutes, she's satisfied and gets down between us and goes back to sleep. Funny thing is, she never does this when we're awake! Aren't cats funny creatures?
 

jane_vernon

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Ignore Ignore Ignore - Its the only way - Just push them off the bed and roll over (And in your case, maybe on your stomach so they can't jump on sensitive bits!)

Keep doing this - They will eventually get the hint!
 

iarecrystal

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My Louie will "make biscuits" on my back or stomach until it drives me insane. I don't know if he wants me to wake up or just wants to massage me, haha. But the only way I got him to stop was to close the door and not let him in during the night for a few days. He's stopped doing it since.
 

white cat lover

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Twitch scratches the door until I let her out at about 4 am. Lily sleeps until 5 am when she uses my bladder as a trampoline.
That's a surfire way to wake mom! I keep a squirt bottle on my nightstand right by my alarm clock. One blast of that right in Lily's face makes her sleepy. I scolded her, too. Now I just reach for the bottle & she lays down really, really quick. I made her understand I decide when to get up. It is hard to scold a deaf cat, or Twitch would learn, too.
 

nebula11

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Emmet being the smart cat that he is knows that momma has to go pee...and he knows if I get up to go pee, then they will get fed....

Well again being the smart little bugger he is...he will get on my belly and push his paws on my bladder till I finally give in and go pee...and in turn Emmet gets fed....
 

lizch6699

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Originally Posted by slkanger

One of our kitty's sleeps on the bed with us. Usually around 4-5 am she'll come up and find your hand and just wants to be petted on her head. After a few minutes, she's satisfied and gets down between us and goes back to sleep. Funny thing is, she never does this when we're awake! Aren't cats funny creatures?
My kitty 'baby girl' sleeps under the blankets with me, she'll nudge me until I lift them up for her to squeeze under. And Otis has his own pillow in our bed that he sleeps on, otherwise he'll sleep on our heads :p

But back to the post, like everyone says, ignore if you can. If not you may want to consider moving the litter box and food out of the bedroom and locking her out when she wakes you up.
 

pombina

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I keep moaning about getting disturbed sleep so my mum keeps saying, CLOSE THE BEDROOM DOOR!!! but in actual fact I would miss my babies if they didn't snuggle in at night.
Sleeves pulls my hair, he can do this without even getting on the bed as my hair is very long and sometimes falls over the side of the bed depending on how Im lying. He also stands on my face, my tummy, my legs, nibbles my arms or whatever flesh is showing. He does all this to Mark too and bites and licks his chin. It cracks me up.
Nismo is new and sleeps under our covers so you spend the night totally paranoid you're going to squash the teeny little thing.
If we don't get up, Sleeves will jump up onto the desk and scratch all the lecture notes Mark has pinned to the wall. What a racket!!!
He also knocks everything off the desk which means I am constantly turning the lamp on going 'oh god what was that?!' incase it was something breakable.
Or he flips over his water bowl then scratches at the kitchen door as if to say 'now I have no water you will HAVE to let me into the kitchen to have a drink from the tap'.
I don't think we've had a full nights sleep since we first got Sleeves in June.
The latest thing thats keeping me awake is the sound of the christmas tree shaking...
As everyone has already said ignore them, although your sleep is already disturbed at this point but hopefully will stop the interuptions eventually, or shut him out the room.
Good luck with it!
Lauren
 

touro1979

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My boys wake me up every morning around 6am. The good thing is I am never late to anything, the bad thing is on a sunday morning when Im hung over and and still a little drunk they still wake me up at 6 even though I just went to bed 2 hours ago. If only I could teach them the concept of weekends and sleeping in.
They dont wake me up to play, they want their canned food. Even though I have heard them munching all night on dry food that I self feed, they want that canned food like a drug addict wants crack
.

Methods for waking:

sticking paw in open mouth;

placing paw on face and ever so slightly flexing claws to annoy (not maim);

laying down on my head (shamus is around 15 pounds so this usually does the trick);

Licking my hair unitil I get up.

They can be very persistant.
 

pombina

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Originally Posted by touro1979

My boys wake me up every morning around 6am. The good thing is I am never late to anything, the bad thing is on a sunday morning when Im hung over and and still a little drunk they still wake me up at 6 even though I just went to bed 2 hours ago. If only I could teach them the concept of weekends and sleeping in.
They dont wake me up to play, they want their canned food. Even though I have heard them munching all night on dry food that I self feed, they want that canned food like a drug addict wants crack
.
How disgusting is the smell of cat food when you have a hangover...
 

purr

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Originally Posted by foxfire

My cat is a dear, but he gets up early. He wakes up wanting to play; in fact, will wake me up by walking all over me until I'm awake. Then I have to play with him until he's content. (okay, laugh if you like! But it's not very amusing at 5 am) If I don't, he jumps on places he knows he's not supposed to be.

It seems simply his type of wake-up routine. Possibly I'd not mind if he slept in a little later, but the older I get the harder it is to get going--early. There are food, water, and litter box in the room. He loves to perch on the window sill to look out. But the minute his prank-filled eyes open in the morning, he's in play mode.

HELP!!!!!!
Hee hee! My cat does the same thing, but luckily, he doesn't do it until around 8-9am. I usually just press snooze a few times (i.e. push him away and he will hop down for about 10 minutes) until I'm ready.


I would miss it if he didn't do it anymore. Sometimes I put him in his room @ night so he'll get a better night's sleep (if I'm feeling particularly tossy & turny), and I miss not waking up with him.
 
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foxfire

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Thank you all for your responses!! Glad to know I'm not the only one.

I may have given the wrong impression when I mentioned Jeremiah jumps on places he's not supposed to be. I meant the dresser and the chest of drawers. And he is better--I suppose. He used to start up anywhere from about 4:30 to 7:30 a.m. I studiously ignored him, and he's not waking me (generally) until maybe 7:30. But that is for me still a bit early.

But this morning was the worst of all. I put him in his carrier in another room for a couple of hours. When I did get up, he'd used it for his litter box. And that's the first time he's missed his box since he came home with me in August. Now I am concerned!!

I've used the pennies-in-the-pop can and water sprayer routine enough that he knows he's not to jump on these pieces of furniture. All I need do is move my head or roll over and he jumps back off. I half-wonder if he's simply doing this to get a reaction from me since I'm ignoring his requirements to play.

Aren't there gadgets to put on furniture to keep a cat off? Some seem a bit expensive for my budget, but if it will keep peace, it'd probably be well spent.

I didn't know I'd go on so long, but thanks for being able to spout off about it.
 

carolpetunia

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Originally Posted by Pombina

I keep moaning about getting disturbed sleep so my mum keeps saying, CLOSE THE BEDROOM DOOR!!! but in actual fact I would miss my babies if they didn't snuggle in at night...
Absolutely! No matter how sleepy I am, I love their attentions. Especially the biscuitmaking -- and my Pearl has recently graduated from regular biscuits to what I call Four-Wheel Drive Biscuits: all four paws fully dedicated in a slow, luxurious massage, after which she snuggles in on my chest to sleep. What could be sweeter?

Clyde is the one who actually wants me up and out of bed, and I've found that NOTHING will deter him. He is polite and gentle, but incredibly persistent!
So what I've done is hold out for some nice nosekisses before I give in and get up. Now Clyde knows that some biscuits are welcome, some purring is appreciated... but it's those nuzzly little nosekisses that will get him anything his little heart desires...
 

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My youngest, Marnie, is usually the one who climbs on me and wakes me up. She also tries to wake me during the night. Last night, I had to call the police on my downstairs neighbors who like to play their stereo at thumping level no matter what time it is, so I couldn't get back to sleep for a while. She cuddled up and we had a little snuggle time together while I read myself back to sleep.

While I do get annoyed sometimes by this behavior (I've been known to open one eye and snarl, "Back off, hairball" ... LOL), most of the time I take it for the affection it represents.
 

menagerie mama

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I agree, Bob tries to do that too, and once a night, Emily wakes me up by kneading and purring on my head. I (gently) toss her off and don't pay attention to Bob. If I did, he would be all over me constantly at night. Ignore them at night and they will get the hint. Also, I make sure mine have food before I go to bed. Otherwise they wake up hungry and are relentless until I feed them!
 

menagerie mama

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Originally Posted by labellavita

simple enough. close your bedroom door so they cant come in and wake you up
Ooooohhhh, EXCEPT that some kitties know how to knock! Mine do and it's annoying!
 
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