Living alarm clocks

[Rte.66_chicks]

I'm wondering if any of you have the same problem with living, non-crowing alrms clocks that I do.

On work days, I'm up between 3:30 and 4:00 A.M. Of course, the animals come first, so I feed the cats their canned food and feed the dog before I even start the coffee.

However, on the weekends, I would like to sleep in until around 5:00-not unreasonable, to my thinking. My indoor cats have different ideas. Chushi, the Japanese Bobtail, who sleeps peacefully on the bed all night, does laps around it, jumping over my head every lap. Storm, who is a beautiful cream-colored apricot point blue-eyed something that has the size and coat of a Maine Coonand also sleeps on the bed, just sits and stares at me in the dark. I can see him silhouetted against the blinds. Finally, Bandit, a black & white shorthair, gets up on the dresser beside the bed and knocks things off. This morning it was the Altoid tins I'm collecting for Miss Prissy.

At least the dog, an older Boston Terrier, is considerate enough to leave me alone.

It's useless to try to sleep in. I've spoiled them. It's my own fault.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

My mom usually takes care of feeding the cats. They expect to be fed at 6:00 in the morning since my mom usually feeds them when she wakes up to get my brother ready for school. On weekends and during breaks, she'll wake up, feed them, and go back to bed. That seems to be the only way she can sleep in late!

I'm lucky because I only have fish here at college. While they can look at me with those very sad little faces, they can't get in my bed to wake me up! Unfortunately for them, they just have to wait until i wake up to feed them.

 

[HorseFeathers]

My cat wakes me up at about 4 every morning by scratching at the door, whether she's inside or out.

 

[Wifezilla]

Cats do not understand this "weekend" concept.

Once, my hubby fed the cats at 4am because he couldn't sleep and they were begging. It took 2 weeks for them to get back on their regular schedule. Hubby has been threatened with death if he ever pulls that again.

 

[briteday]

When I want to sleep in I give the cat extra food before bedtime. In our case, the cat is too fat, so she normally gets 2 meals per day. If I want to sleep in I fill the bowl with kibble before going to bed. If your cat has access to food all of the time, it would help to take the food away in the afternoon so that they are really hungry by night time. She can't possibly eat all of the kibble before she goes to sleep, on the electric blanket at my feet, so there is plenty for her in the morning when she wakes up. It's also the only way I can keep her from "talking" some nights. When we first had the "talking" all night problem, I ended up putting her in a very large dog crate, with a litter box, out in the garage. She was keeping the whole house up all night otherwise. After about one week she figured it out, with only one backslide back out to the kennel, and she has been quiet at night ever since.

 

[AK_Button_Mama]

yeah my dogs know I feed them when I get around to it.... they get fed but I NEVER do it on a schedule..... its kinda hard tho when you have to leave to work outside the home.... and they may not even be hungry but they know that you get up at the same time EVERY day!!!! so.... my husband and I feed at variying times to avoid the early wake up thing from the pets!!!

 

[English Chick]

Oh dear tell me about it....what is a "lie in" been a long long time since I had one of those....my oldest cat Toby wakes me every morning at 2.30am.....irrespective of the weather he wants to go out....I get up.....the other cat wants to go out....knowing that they will want to come back in shortly (usualy within the half hour) I wait...make a cup of tea and get on BYC...I am trying to train them to realise there is a cat littler they can use so they dont have to wake me up...no chance!!! and I am always up at 6.00am anyway...broken nights with cats are worse than broken nights with young babies.....hey ho.... how we do love our pets eh....?

 

[Akane]

Cats are not allowed in the bedroom. I get a whole lot less sleep if they are. They threw a fit for about a week yowling and pawing at the door. Now I only get the occasional yowling if I sleep until 9 or 10am and they are bored. The dog knows better. If I move around she'll come check on me, I pet her on the head, roll over and go back to sleep. She sighs and lays back down on her bed to wait. My dog and cats do not have a feeding schedule. None of them are overweight or over eat so when their bowl is empty I fill it. That usually happens about now in the afternoon before I decide to go check the chicken coop for eggs.

 

[JustChicky]

Ugh... we have two new kittens and the little one bugs me every morning. She has a cute little meow, but it is so loud! Then she walks all over me until I get up. I always find her on the mantel. She is a terrorist, but I love her. She also waits in the bed for me at night. I tell her thank you for keeping the bed warm, it really works. She is such a sweetie!

This is Kiki!