Hey everyone,

Just to give a bit of background we have two girl sibling black and white mogs, Frankie & Sassy, who we adopted from CPL just over four years' ago. They're predominent house cats, have both been spayed, live in a household with no children and get very pampered and spoilt.

We're having a major problem at night time at the moment with Sassy. My boyfriend and I are literally got zero sleep last night and we're at our wits end. What she'll do is follow us upstairs on a night and hop-up on the bed to give us cuddles, which is fine and pretty cute. The problem however is it just doesn't stop there! She'll continue to do this throughout the night numerous times. She'll stand on top of us constantly purring and meowing as loud as she can to wake us, and she'll wet her nose and muzzle her face in ours and tickle us with her whiskers. It's getting worse as my boyfriend now stays away two nights a week and when he's back she'll not stop all night (she's a bit of a dad's cat, and I'm guessing she misses him).

It's getting to the point we're dreading going to bed. Closing the bedroom door doesn't help; Sassy will just scratch the door and meow to be let back in. I love her to bits bless her but she's becoming a little terror for it. HELP!!!

Thanks.

put it outside at night

Why not confine her to a different room at night with food etc, that way she cant scratch at your door.

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I was going to suggest the same thing - she'll hate it at first but I'm sure if you leave her food, toys, comfy bed/s and litter tray she'll get used to it.

I'd also suggest ear plugs and maybe a fan on for the first few nights - you can't go on without sleep, you will get ill

Sounds just like my mum's cat Coco . She's a lovely little Burmese but so naughty! My mum was quite jealous of me when I said that our cats just curl up at the end of the bed and sleep all night. Not Coco! She wants the whole song and dance routine with bells on it! The nuzzling, purring, pawing and prodding just got way to much! What my mum does now is she takes Coco to bed with her for some snuggles and cuddles and bedtime fuss and then just before "lights out" she says "Come now Coco time for your bed" and she takes Coco down stairs to the living room and she sleeps there all night and then she hears my mum's radio in the morning and mum lets her on the bed for a morning fuss.

Seems to work that way.

We've got Burmese too (2 of them) and wouldn't get any sleep if we left them the freedom of the house all night. We shut them in the (large) kitchen with their last meal of the day, they settle down fine and accept it's sleep time. We get up half an hour early too to let them come upstairs for a cuddle!

that sounds like the way forward to me, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, like getting babies to sleep through the night. They'll appreciate your time even more then

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You have my sympathy!

My boys were a nightmare... when they were allowed to sleep on the bedroom they would wake me up sniffing / licking / staring at my face, biting my toes (Bob), or landing on me from a great height (from the top of the wardrobe - also Bob).

So I started shutting them out of the bedroom. Cue the constant loud meowing like they were starved / being murdered, the scratching at the door - and the piece de resistance - pinging the damn door handle! Believe me, that is the loudest, most annoying noise in the world at 4 in the morning!

It was only when I started decorating that the cats had a couple of days shut in the lounge away from the wet paint that it improved... and I've stuck with it. During the day the cats have the run of the place, but when I go to bed the cats are shut in the living room, at the opposite end of the flat to the bedroom. They have their litter tray, toys, food, water, etc - and they can complain all they like and I can't hear them.

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"For all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world"

Have to agree with other posters -- the way forward is to shut your cats in a separate room overnight. I discovered this is the best way 20 years ago, after constant disturbed nights when my first 2 cats were allowed to sleep on my bed.

Since then all my cats have been bedded down every night in my sitting room, with a little snack of dry food, a bowl of water and a litter tray, and the door is closed. They have never objected, and the nice thing is they always greet me with renewed affection every morning. I feel we all benefit from a little time apart from each other, at night.

I had a similar problem with my cat and spoke to the vet about it. He suggested squirting the cat with water (using one of those plant water squished things!) whenever it woke us up. I was really reluctant at first, but it worked and it does them no harm at all. It didn't work overnight, but we got to the stage where we wouldn't have to actually squirt any water, just sleepily picking up the bottle would be enough to send the cat off and eventually the behaviour stopped altogether and he would often sleep happily and quietly at the end of the bed. The trick is not to speak to the cat when you do it, a bit like controlled crying with a baby! Once you interact with them vocally, they have your attention.

Good luck!