Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My cat is the sweetest thing. She spends all her time following me around and she sleeps on my bed every night (and day). I've had her since she was a very small kitten, and shes about 10 now.

In the last few days shes developed some very strange behavior. Usually if she needs to use the litter box in the middle of the night, she wakes me up and I let her down to the basement. The other night however, she started waking me up for no reason! she pawed/pulled at my arm (not with her claws) and meowed until I woke up.

I tried to let her in the basement but she wasnt interested! she only wanted to be pet! I pet her and went back to sleep. A few minutes after I fell back asleep, she started pawing at my arm again and I ignored it. She then came up to my face, meowing very loudly, and started pawing at my cheeck until I woke up! she did this every time I fell asleep. I put her outside my room and shut the door, but she just cried and cried. I eventually let her back in and got to sleep after covering myself with the blankets so she couldnt paw at my face, and she eventually fell asleep clinging tightly to my side.

The behavior continued again today when I let her in my room again. I went to take a nap, and as soon as I fell asleep she came up to my face and meowed/pawed until I woke up and pet her.

Does anyone have any idea whats going on? I've been sick lately (had blood tests done to check for mono) and I've been very tired...I'm not going to get better if tiggy won't let me sleep!

Unfortunately, Tiggy has learned that she will get petted if she wakes you up. It's going to take quite some time to "unlearn" this behavior.

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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

I have a kitty that liked to wake me up at night and I found the best thing to do is totally ignore him. It will take a while for her to stop, but once she gets it in her head that you aren't going to pet her, she will stop. It may take a couple days to a few days for it to lessen and stop, but you have to be strong and ignore her.

The one problem you may have that is different is that you have to let her in the basement to her litter box, meaning she doesn't have full-time access to it whenever she wants, without your help. If the box must be kept in the basement, have you thought of propping the door open so she can come and go -- especially at night, or putting a cat door in the basement door?

As long as you have to get up to let her in the basement, then you'll have to know when she is bothering you for the litter box or bothering you for petting... If it is for petting -- stay strong and ignore her -- it does lessen with ignoring...
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey

Wish Lou was here...any one else remember a story from years back where Baba was waking him every night - turned out he was ill and didn't know it - thought he was tired from Baba waking him but the doctor found his breathing was disrupted at night - and Baba was waking everytime it happened?

Hope kitty just needs to be retrained, but keep following up with your doctor too!

Purrs,
Elizabeth

If I remember, Lou had/has sleep apnea, pretty common when you stop breathing during the night... It can be treated with an oxygen mask. I have several friends that us the mask, but the odd thing is, they didn't know they had the problem. Their spouses told them they stopped breathing (heavy snoring is usually part of it -- heavy snoring then stop breathing -- then start up again). They just felt tired all the time but didn't realize they weren't getting a full night sleep -- due to the snoring and breathing stop/start. In Lou's case, it was Babba that let him know!!
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey