Working

Miss Luna, in her very kittenish mind, has been waking me up in the wee hours of the morning for a while now. Sometimes she sleeps through the night, and sometimes she wakes up (and subsequently wants to wake me up) at 0200, 0300, 0400, etc. Mainly, she gets up on things and that puts her in reach of things to knock over that may break. Even more than her constant mewing, this is what bothers me the most when she gets up so early.

I've mostly taken to moving things and securing things so they don't make the annoying noise or aren't in her reach. This works well...until she finds something else to go after.

One of the most annoying things that I haven't secured is a tall black DVD stand. On the top shelf, I have a few knickknacks. She will climb onto the computer, making noise and pulling off the towel I have there to mask the lights of the router and modem, and then she will reach for the tower and the breakable figures I have upon it. Yesterday morning, she knocked off a clay figure into the trash can. Thankfully, the can was full of papers and things and cushioned the fall so it didn't break. That is when I decided to get a squirt gun and take my chances at getting the computer et al wet.

I wasn't feeling well yesterday, which I'm certain was due to the sleep deprivation I've been experiencing lately (and the donating of blood while sleep deprived, I've learned, is not exactly a good move). I was having a very hard time staying awake and finding things to distract myself into staying awake. LDS suggested going to the ASPCA website to find ways to curb Miss Luna's nocturnal activity.

This was a brilliant suggestion! The articles recommended giving her a big meal right before bed because she's likely to sleep after eating. Another idea is to play with her and wear her out. The third suggestion is ignoring her. When she wakes up and climbs on things and mews, she wants attention (and, possibly food) and even getting up to yell at her is attention.

So, taking all of these things to heart, I gave her a touch of food before bed (the real meal changes started today) and we played with the laser pointer and ball. Since moving things or securing things has worked in the past, I moved the black tower to where she can't get to the top shelf and replaced it with something that she can crawl on all she wants. There's still a tiny bit of adjusting I need to do to kitty-proof my room. The last step was to affirm that I would ignore her when she woke up in the night. I would not get up to yell at her, or kick her out, or try to gently calm her down. I would not get up to move something I may have forgotten, and I would not get up to pot the towel back on the computer.

She did wake up in the night. I heard her meowing. I heard her jump on the computer, and jump on the dresser and claw at a painting of mine, and jump back on the computer. I didn't move. I didn't roll over; I didn't even look at the clock. And, I didn't wake up again until my alarm went off.

This is encouraging! I understand it's a process. But, if I work at it with patience, just like I did when I first started taming my feral kitty, I will make her diurnal yet!