Does your cat have a schedule?

We just realized that our 17-year-old coon cat has a definite schedule that he never varies:

5:00 am, breakfast

5: 15 am, snooze in the kitchen corner.

7:00 am, to the loveseat for some serious sleep.

5:00 pm, snacktime followed by playtime and, weather permitting, sunning in the dining room.

6:00 pm, dinner and elaborate washing up.

6:30 pm, nap in the recliner.

9:00 pm, time to head upstairs to bed.

But one of them, Thomas, lets me know when he thinks I should go to bed (he sleeps on me).

If we aren't following "the schedule" we are given verbal warnings. We are also often herded if we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are are always given goodnight purrs and asked to lay still as they are disrupted by tossing and turning. We were, as a matter of fact just scolded for not being up at our usual time. :hi: :thumbsup:

We have an alpha female that is ten years old and eight pounds of fresh hell. She's not the problem -- well, usually not. The problem is her two 20+ pounds Maine Coon brothers. Mojo, our older Maine Coon (he's almost four,) slept between us every night when he was a kitten. We thought it was cute. It's not quite so cute now, especially when he's spinning like a top so he can get comfortable (otherwise known as trying to push one of us off the side of the bed.) How long is he? He can pull items off the top of a 36" high counter with his paws.

If there is a hole invisible to the naked human eye in the bottom of their bowl, they are STARVING TO DEATH, and we must remedy the situation at once. "At once" usually means about 3:30 AM. If we don't get up and fill the bowl, a variety of unpleasant things happen, typically capped off with one of us receiving a furry butt in the face, or having one's sternum jumped on full force. They are awake when the sun rises, and we must be, too. They settle down for a mid-morning nap and wake up again in time for us to come home from work. They ignore us for at least the first hour we're home for having the temerity to leave the house in the first place.

Oscar, our three year old Coonlet, starts demanding we go to bed about 9:30 PM. He attempts to "herd" us upstairs as well. If we don't do what he wants, he becomes more insistent and much more annoying till he gets what he wants.

I never thought my life would be run by a group of felines. Actually, it could be a lot worse.

Julie

The way it works is, we go to work to support cats and they stay home to nap. If we're home disturbing the napping schedule they get upset. Yesterday, one tried to bite me when I took him off the bed to change the sheets--it was HIS bed and I was supposed to be at work. Of course, the second we get home from work, we're supposed to feed cats instantly.

:rofl:

Seriously, they all have built-in atomic clocks or something. Plato starts staring at me from the bedside table exactly 10 minutes before the alarm goes off at 7am. On weekends, if food has not been served by about 9am, they start ganging up on us on the bed. The s.o. telecommutes afternoons, so lunch is at 11:30am upon arrival or else.

Dinnertime is often high theater, with cats holding up pickets signs reading "The service continues to suck!" if dinner is not promptly served at 6pm.

Nightcap is at 10pm, with Plato starting to skulk half an hour before that (which led to one of his nicknames, Twenty-One Thirty). Imhotep usually starts howling around 9:45pm. We feed them in time to sit down and watch The Daily Show. :)

I should point out that the above feedings involve the dishing out of wet food. They have plenty of dry kibble in their bowls all through the day and night.

If I don't serve breakfast promtly at 5:00 am, I have cats staring up my nostrils and patting my face. That I might want to sleep in on weekends is irrelevant.

6 am-wake me up so he can get wet food.
Cats are evil, I tell you, evil.

When my SO has just gotten into a deep sleep, that's when it's time to go out.

When I've just sat down with a book and a cup of tea, it's time to turn on the bathroom sink so he can get a drink of water.

When I'm up to my elbows in dishwater, keeping one eye on the dinner cooking on the stove, it's time for him to eat.

When I'm reading a magazine, it's time to take a nap - on the magazine.