Cat won't let me sleep
 

I am sure everyone has heard of this problem before however I have read all the forums and nothing has worked. Here is the situation:

I have had Oliver (male short haired domestic) for about a year and a half now. I found him as a stray at 12 weeks of age. He has always been full of energy and kept me up at night, but I got used to it. Last August, I was accepted to Graduate School and moved into a one bedroom apartment. He continued to keep me up at night but then would eventually climb into bed with me and sleep.

3 weeks ago my boyfriend moved in with me. Oliver is not happy with this situation at all. He no longer sleeps with me and howls all night long. My boyfriend is a light sleeper and by the end of the night is plotting ways to kill the cat. We have tried squirting him with a bottle, but he thinks its a game. It gets him even more hyper and destructive. We have tried ignoring him but didn't get much sleep that night. We have tried hugging him in the bed with us at night and talking to him but Oliver is not in the mood to be touched. We got alot of jerking and tail swishing. We tried closing the door, but he just howls all night outside of it and scratches. I even bought those spiky pads to put up on places to keep him off of our dresser (where he will hurl things off of the dresser) but they didn't bother him. We have tried feeding him late at night and trying to tire him out right before bed... but when 2:15 roles around, hes up.

Recently I have been getting up with him, where he will lead me to his food bowl (automatic one so that he wasn't waking me up for food). He will eat, rub up next to me and then wait to get picked up. I pick him up and place him in his cat tree and go back to bed. This worked the first night.... had to follow him twice the second and third night.... 3 times the 4th night and now it doesn't work at all.

He has even started acting up when we get home. We play with him but when we go to watch tv, he trys to climb on our new flat screen TV and claw at the paintings on the wall. Again, the squirt bottle doesn't work. He just stairs at me like "Yes?". I have even tried squirting him in the face and all I get is a mean look.


HELP! My boyfriend is threating to get rid of him but I love him dearly. I would get another kitty but I am afraid of double trouble at night.

Another kitty might just be the solution. They could keep each other amused during the night. For the most part my 2 cats distract each other and keep each other company so we can get a good night's sleep (until 4:30 am when they get a few minutes of the zoomies).

Maybe you should get your boyfriend to give more lovin' to Oliver during the day, feed him, play with him, snuggle etc.... Perhaps Oliver is just feeling insecure with a new man in the house.

I've lived with this in a tiny appartment too.

EARPLUGS.