I adopted a sweet cat from the SPCA a little over a month ago (see my icon). I love her to death, but she has NEVER let me sleep more than a few hours in a row at night. She wakes me up meowing loudly, licking and rubbing against my face, biting and clawing at the spaghetti straps/drawstrings of my tank tops/PJ bottoms, nibbling on my fingers, etc.
I live in a studio apt, so I can't put her in a separate room (she'd go crazy and chew the door apart anyway). I also can't crate her (she HATES it), nor do I want to do that. I want her to sleep in my bed and feel loved and welcome, but how can I make her actually SLEEP?
BTW, she used to run around all night like a maniac, running over me and pouncing on me as I slept; but since I started taking away her toys at night, she has stopped the running around/pouncing stuff.
---She gets PLENTY of exercise before bedtime (she loves kicking toys all around the apt, running FAST in big circles, wrestling with me, and climbing on her cat tree, which goes all the way to the ceiling).
---She's not hungry (I feed her a little while before bedtime, and there's still some left over in the morning).
---She gets tons of attention from me in the evenings.
I can't prevent her from sleeping all day while I'm at work (so telling me to keep her up all day won't work; I can't bring her to work with me).
Any more ideas? I'm never getting rid of her, so please don't suggest that. ;)
I live in a studio apt, so I can't put her in a separate room (she'd go crazy and chew the door apart anyway). I also can't crate her (she HATES it), nor do I want to do that. I want her to sleep in my bed and feel loved and welcome, but how can I make her actually SLEEP?
BTW, she used to run around all night like a maniac, running over me and pouncing on me as I slept; but since I started taking away her toys at night, she has stopped the running around/pouncing stuff.
---She gets PLENTY of exercise before bedtime (she loves kicking toys all around the apt, running FAST in big circles, wrestling with me, and climbing on her cat tree, which goes all the way to the ceiling).
---She's not hungry (I feed her a little while before bedtime, and there's still some left over in the morning).
---She gets tons of attention from me in the evenings.
I can't prevent her from sleeping all day while I'm at work (so telling me to keep her up all day won't work; I can't bring her to work with me).
Any more ideas? I'm never getting rid of her, so please don't suggest that. ;)
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Sat, March 29, 2008 - 11:34 AMIF you are in any financial and emotional position with time to care for another cat i'd suggest adopting a second cat - as young as 5 to 6 months old on up...
i think you will find that they will engage with each when they are in need of attention and play in the middle of the night than with needing-to-sleep you... also, they can engage in so much activity during the day when you are gone that they might be worn out at night... now i WILL tell you that it's possible your nighttime problems might be multiplied x2 some nights when they are both freaking out... which might be a good reason to adopt a bit of an older cat to help you "discipline" the younger cat... i would always suggest going opposite sex of what you have now - and older male boy might be helpful...
i don't know if this is even possible for you but i figured it's worth suggesting...
have you spoken to your vet about it? she/he might be able to help you... -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Sat, March 29, 2008 - 12:09 PMHey feralkittycat! I know you from CFBC. :)
You know what - your comment is EXACTLY what a cat expert online told me to do. Another cat lover who has adopted needy cats for years (so he should know) told me the same thing too. Yay! Looks like I have no choice but to get another kitty! :) I even have my eye on one - a boy, almost one year old. My current cat is estimated to be 3 years old (but the SPCA can't be sure). I think she's younger; she's thin, small, and as playful as a kitten!
I am a bit afraid of the double-trouble possibility; but hey, kitties are always worth it, aren't they? Maybe the vet will prescribe me some Ambien along with kitty's rabies shot. ;)
Thanks for the reply! -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Sat, March 29, 2008 - 1:43 PMyay!!!!!!
so glad to have helped! kitties are the best... they are healers... sometimes i think they are special little alien beings from another plane that come here to bring joy and love to us and teach us lessons about what really matters in life...
i devoted alot of my career to taking care of kitties... even though i don't work with them anymore i am always happy when what i have learned turns out to be kinda right... -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Sat, March 29, 2008 - 3:59 PMI agree - kitties are the special-est-est-est little beings in the world!
It sounds like you're a vet (or at least have worked a lot in vet care). Have you ever tried Soft Claws (plastic thingys as an alternative to declawing)? Like you, Gretel is a feral kitty who likes to scratch EVERYTHING (furniture, walls, cabinets, carpet, etc.), even though I bought her a HUGE scratching tree with platforms and all. She is incorrigible...but I still love her like crazy! :)
Anyway, if you've tried Soft Paws, did they work well? -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Sat, March 29, 2008 - 4:10 PMsoft paws = god!
i worked as a vet tech for one vet and as an office clerk for another... i worked for several years at a very big shelter doing front office (take in and release) and facilitiating adoptions... then i became their spay/neuter feral cat trap-neuter-return coordinator as well as taking out their rv to community events and malls and stuff with a staff of volunteers and animals from the shelter to do community outreach and p.r.... then i worked in doggy daycare for half a minute and HATED it (love dogs but just can't stand working with them - i don't have that special knack that dog people have)... then spent more than two years working at a cat hotel/grooming salon - was the main groomer and wound up running the place by myself - we'd have anywhere from 10 to 100 cats staying with us depending on the time of year... so that's my animal/cat resume...
as a humane educator and cat advocate at the shelter one of my pet projects was keeping claws ON kitties - declawing is the WORST - so i actively promoted softpaws all the time... as a groomer i became the applier of those little things to lots and lots of kitties - i kept several client cats from getting declawed by suggesting softpaws... i love them and highly recommend them...
and they come in lots of pretty colours and i think they come sparkly now too! -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Sat, March 29, 2008 - 4:52 PMI've found it a lot easier and cheaper just to keep my cats claws trimmed. Usually take advantage of one of them lounging on me. I'll start with massaging a paw and maneuver them to a position I can work with. Then, with good light, get the human-type nail clippers and just take the sharp tips off. You can see where the pink is in the nail and just stay a bit beyond that. If they get fussy, I'll give head scratches a while and come back to the nails later. For the most part none of my cats really minds it. You can have your vet's technician or a groomer show you how the first time.
Even with trimmed claws, they still like to scratch. It helps them stretch, kind of like kitty yoga. I get cardboard scratching items from www.catclaws.com. Cardboard is different enough from furniture and carpet that it's easier to teach them this is okay to scratch on, this is not. -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Mon, March 31, 2008 - 8:42 AMI trim my cats nails the same way! Freaks them out every time but doesn't seem to affect their quality of life at all. -
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Re: Help! I'm soooo sleeeeeepy!
Mon, March 31, 2008 - 11:43 AMI've been trimming her nails the same way you guys do - taking advantage of short moments of tranquility to snip a nail or two. It can take a few days :) ...so I can only imagine how it would be to put the vinyl covers on her. Yikes! I can just picture the glue everywhere. I went to the pet store to get some yesterday, but they were out of her size (medium). They only had Kitten and Small. :(
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nail trimming and scratching posts
Mon, March 31, 2008 - 5:26 PMI also keep my cats' claws trimmed. One of our 3 takes offense, but we've learned that scruffing her while someone else clips makes the process fast, painless, and minimizes her trauma. She's usually very lovey when we get done. Additionally, we've found, for our house, the rope scratching posts are the favorite. We've had the carpet ones, but they usually get ignored. Torque eats (well, shreds) cardboard, so we don't tend to keep it around for long.
ALL of our cats will greet us when we return home by racing to the nearest scratching post, grabbing near the top, and streeeeeetching down to the floor. Needless to say, we keep one near the door, as well as near the furniture.
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