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- May 18, 2017
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A little background:
We adopted our dear little Flo about a week ago now. She is a DSH mix, about a year old. Immediately following picking her up from the shelter, we took her to our local vet. She was diagnosed with an URI and given oral antibiotics and topical eye ointment prophylactically. Her spay incision site looked a little funny, so the vet thought the abiotic would help with that as well. Once at home, we confined her to a bathroom with a litter box, food/water, toys, and hiding boxes in order to get comfortable with her space before letting her out into the apartment. Unlike most cats, after only about 12 hours, she wanted to explore. We cracked the door and allowed her to explore at her own pace. It was at this time that we first noticed some serious clingy behavior. She follows us into every room.
The problem:
My husband and I love the cat dearly, but are both new nurses working 12 hour shifts... and the cat won't let us sleep. Currently, she is sleeping in our bed at night because we are working days. Through the night she lets us sleep, but at about 4-5 every morning she starts doing everything in her power to wake us. I'm unsure if she does this because she still isn't feeling super well from the URI, or if she simply wants attention. She kneads heads and stomachs, rubs her head all over your face, and even just stands in top of you. It is causing a major stressor in our lives. On top of that, it is rather unsafe to be exhausted while trying to save lives. Here in a couple weeks we will be switching permanently to night shift, which is one of my main concerns. I'm so afraid that during the day when we desperately need sleep, she is going to pull this attention seeking behavior. Also, my husband and I will not always work the same shift. Meaning one of us will be wide awake in the other room while the other is trying to sleep from the previous shift in the bedroom. With the current behaviors miss Flo has, we will not be able to shut her out of the bedroom and try to allow the other to rest. This is a major problem. So ultimately, I think maybe training her to leave the door alone when shut and not allowing her to sleep with us may be best (opinions welcome!). We have read just about every other forum pertaining to training a cat to let you sleep, even Jackson Galaxy's posts and videos. I'm posting this today though because I feel as if our Flo is a special case and has thrwarted all attempts to break her of this.
What We Have Done So Far:
1. She has a plethora of toys to play with during the day. Stimulating toys that she can play with herself too. She really only likes to play with a wand and string toy with someone else.
2. She has vertical spaces via a cat tree, bookshelf, and bar height dining room table. She refuses to use the cat tree.
3. We ignore all attempts to wake us, but eventually have to get out of bed to get ready for work.
4. We tried locking her out of the bedroom altogether, but she cries at the door and rips up the carpet from under the door. Even after letting it go for a solid 15 minutes, she doesn't quit and I have to open the door for the carpet's sake.
5. We feed two meals and one snack a day. One meal at 6:30a, one snack at 8p, and one meal at 10ish (or right before bed). We know this isn't ideal and have been considering a timed feeder since we are gone for so long in the day. We want to stay away from munching all day (per Jackson Galaxy), but Flo does this on her own. After we feed breakfast, when we get home 12 hours later there is still a tiny bit of food in the bowl. Also, after we feed dinner and the snack, there is enough food in the bowl for her breakfast the next day (one of the reasons I know she isn't waking us in the morning because she is hungry). This leads me to believe she grazes all day.
6. We always make time to play with her (several hours a day) on our days off, and at least 30 minutes before bed on the days we work. Same goes for petting and brushing.
7. The litter box is always clean before we go to sleep.
8. We even tried on our days off to keep her active during most of the day and waking her during her usual nap times. This only seemed to make matters worse.
Help!:
So basically, we have a clingy kitty that loves to be around us. My husband and I feel as if we have been doing everything in our power to help her behviors and teach her to allow us to sleep, but nothing has changed. We are indifferent to her sleeping in the bedroom, but can't just shut her out because of the carpet ripping/door scratching behavior. We are considering a times feeder, but want to know opinions. We are open to any suggestions at all as we are new to cat parenting. I apologize that this post is so long, but I just wanted to paint a picture of Florence so that I could get the best advice possible for her! Thank you!
We adopted our dear little Flo about a week ago now. She is a DSH mix, about a year old. Immediately following picking her up from the shelter, we took her to our local vet. She was diagnosed with an URI and given oral antibiotics and topical eye ointment prophylactically. Her spay incision site looked a little funny, so the vet thought the abiotic would help with that as well. Once at home, we confined her to a bathroom with a litter box, food/water, toys, and hiding boxes in order to get comfortable with her space before letting her out into the apartment. Unlike most cats, after only about 12 hours, she wanted to explore. We cracked the door and allowed her to explore at her own pace. It was at this time that we first noticed some serious clingy behavior. She follows us into every room.
The problem:
My husband and I love the cat dearly, but are both new nurses working 12 hour shifts... and the cat won't let us sleep. Currently, she is sleeping in our bed at night because we are working days. Through the night she lets us sleep, but at about 4-5 every morning she starts doing everything in her power to wake us. I'm unsure if she does this because she still isn't feeling super well from the URI, or if she simply wants attention. She kneads heads and stomachs, rubs her head all over your face, and even just stands in top of you. It is causing a major stressor in our lives. On top of that, it is rather unsafe to be exhausted while trying to save lives. Here in a couple weeks we will be switching permanently to night shift, which is one of my main concerns. I'm so afraid that during the day when we desperately need sleep, she is going to pull this attention seeking behavior. Also, my husband and I will not always work the same shift. Meaning one of us will be wide awake in the other room while the other is trying to sleep from the previous shift in the bedroom. With the current behaviors miss Flo has, we will not be able to shut her out of the bedroom and try to allow the other to rest. This is a major problem. So ultimately, I think maybe training her to leave the door alone when shut and not allowing her to sleep with us may be best (opinions welcome!). We have read just about every other forum pertaining to training a cat to let you sleep, even Jackson Galaxy's posts and videos. I'm posting this today though because I feel as if our Flo is a special case and has thrwarted all attempts to break her of this.
What We Have Done So Far:
1. She has a plethora of toys to play with during the day. Stimulating toys that she can play with herself too. She really only likes to play with a wand and string toy with someone else.
2. She has vertical spaces via a cat tree, bookshelf, and bar height dining room table. She refuses to use the cat tree.
3. We ignore all attempts to wake us, but eventually have to get out of bed to get ready for work.
4. We tried locking her out of the bedroom altogether, but she cries at the door and rips up the carpet from under the door. Even after letting it go for a solid 15 minutes, she doesn't quit and I have to open the door for the carpet's sake.
5. We feed two meals and one snack a day. One meal at 6:30a, one snack at 8p, and one meal at 10ish (or right before bed). We know this isn't ideal and have been considering a timed feeder since we are gone for so long in the day. We want to stay away from munching all day (per Jackson Galaxy), but Flo does this on her own. After we feed breakfast, when we get home 12 hours later there is still a tiny bit of food in the bowl. Also, after we feed dinner and the snack, there is enough food in the bowl for her breakfast the next day (one of the reasons I know she isn't waking us in the morning because she is hungry). This leads me to believe she grazes all day.
6. We always make time to play with her (several hours a day) on our days off, and at least 30 minutes before bed on the days we work. Same goes for petting and brushing.
7. The litter box is always clean before we go to sleep.
8. We even tried on our days off to keep her active during most of the day and waking her during her usual nap times. This only seemed to make matters worse.
Help!:
So basically, we have a clingy kitty that loves to be around us. My husband and I feel as if we have been doing everything in our power to help her behviors and teach her to allow us to sleep, but nothing has changed. We are indifferent to her sleeping in the bedroom, but can't just shut her out because of the carpet ripping/door scratching behavior. We are considering a times feeder, but want to know opinions. We are open to any suggestions at all as we are new to cat parenting. I apologize that this post is so long, but I just wanted to paint a picture of Florence so that I could get the best advice possible for her! Thank you!
