PET OF THE WEEK: Fafa is a stunning 5-year-old domestic medium hair cat with the softest white and orange fur you can imagine! She’s a little shy at first but she’s an outgoing and friendly lady who’ll headbutt you to keep the petting going. Fafa is a sucker for catnip and is highly treat motivated. She’s got her paws crossed for a nice quiet home. Ask for Fafa, ID# A816778. Adoptable pets are available at Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA’s Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, 1450 Rollins Road, Burlingame. For information, call 650-340-7022or visit www.phs-spca.org. (Thelma Andree / PHS/SPCA)
Dear Miss Behavin’: My cat, Nemo, is a very early riser, and starts demanding food at 4 a.m. every morning. I’m desperate for a full night’s sleep. Any advice?
Reply: Cats are notorious for waking their owners in the morning. Cats are natural predators, and dawn is when they would be out hunting if they were in the wild. Unfortunately, today’s housecats haven’t processed the memo that we humans need our beauty sleep.
Cats will employ a variety of techniques to get their owners to wake up. Some cats will walk all over you, others will meow incessantly. My own cat figured out how to bang on the window blinds until I would give in and feed her. Long story short, cats will do what works for them. If you give in and feed Nemo, you are rewarding his efforts, and he will continue the unwanted behavior.
Often the best way to get a cat to cease his morning shenanigans is to ignore the behavior. This is really difficult to do, especially if Nemo has been doing this routine for a long time. He is going to try everything in his power to get you to wake up, and he will be persistent. But if you resign yourself to a few difficult mornings of ignoring him, eventually he will give up.
If you are unable to stick it out a few mornings, you could try setting up an automatic feeder that works at dawn. That way, Nemo receives his breakfast from a machine, not from you. Some cats will turn their attention to the automatic feeder and leave their owners to sleep in peace.
If no other options have worked, or if there are other factors at play (such as a sleeping child that can’t be disturbed), you may need to find a way to keep Nemo out of your bedroom at night. This might mean enclosing him in another room of the house with all his creature comforts (bed, water, etc). Most cats (and owners) love to cuddle at night, though, so this would be a last resort.