# New Kitten smelling our faces at night, licking inside our ears...help!



## tignor (Sep 8, 2004)

We adopted Woody on Saturday, probably the best kitten ever. He's 8-weeks-old, orange tabby and white. He's so sweet, we've never had a kitten walk into the house and just know it belonged there. We've kept him away from our 7 year old cat for the most part (first introduction last night, it went well) and he's been in our bedroom the rest of the time. He got a clean bill of health from the vet on Monday and got lots of lovely shots and bloodwork and curled up in the vets arms, purring. Vet said, "Yep. You have a winner right here."

Woody is very very loving, and will rub on you and run right up to you, right from the minute we met him. He's extremely trusting, he fell asleep in the crook of my arm on the first day on his back.

Every night though, while we are sleeping, he gets right up in our faces. Smelling our mouths, kneeding our chins and lips, sticking his tongue right into our ears, and purring like a maniac. He is constantly purring! He's really loud and won't let us sleep. This morning my husband got up before me (he always does) and I literally spent 20 minutes trying to hold Woody at arms length and he was trying so hard to get up in my face.

My questions are: Why is he doing this? Will he ever stop? How can we get him to stop, if we can? Should we just put up with it? 

I know some here will say he was taken from his mother too early as there seems to be some disagreement as to when a cat should leave his mother and littermates (8, 10, 12 weeks), but I was assured by the owners (who foster kittens all the time for shelters) that he was ready. He had 4 others littermates he left on Saturday so we think he thinks we are his littermates too. We really love this kitten but we also really love sleep! 

Thanks for any advice you can give.


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## OctoberinMaine (Sep 12, 2006)

Your Woody sounds just like what my Murphy would have been as a kitten! Orange and white cutie, trusting, purring up a storm. I didn't know him then, though -- I'd love to see pictures.

I've never had a kitten, but I suspect Woody is doing what most cats do, which is get all up in your business when they're trying to sniff you. We've had people on the Forum talk about how their cat actually tries to stick his nose up your nose, and Murphy's done that to me too. I think it's all about getting the best smell possible, and they just don't understand our personal space boundaries.  I would just live with it if I were you, because it's a sign that Woody is trying hard to acclimate himself to his new surroundings and be completely familiar with his new peeps.


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## Dave_ph (Jul 7, 2009)

|Every night though, while we are sleeping, he gets right up in our faces. Smelling our mouths, kneeding our chins and lips, sticking his tongue right into our ears, and purring like a maniac. He is constantly purring! He's really loud and won't let us sleep. This morning my husband got up before me (he always does) and I literally spent 20 minutes trying to hold Woody at arms length and he was trying so hard to get up in my face. |

He's trying to memorize your scent because he's accepted you as family but you're obviously defective because you don't have scent glands in the places he's looking where a normal cat would have scent glands.

Fay did this to me gently once but she's an older cat so she figured out I'm not a cat fairly quickly. 

Be honored. Stop the arms length stuff.

I still get the nose in the ear purring and face rubbing on my era purring routine.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

My orange and white boy is the same as October's (and yours). Ironically, I'm pretty sure they called my guy Woody at the shelter.....

MowMow does the same thing. Pokes me in the mouth and nose with his nose. Sticks his nose in my ear AND he tries to nurse on my earlobes (he's 8 years old). I just push him away and tell him "no." They learn eventually that it's ok sometimes but when I say to stop, he has to stop.


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## Jan Rebecca (Oct 14, 2010)

Yea Tuffy used to do that as a kitten too - he grew out of it!


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## Penny135 (Apr 6, 2011)

I got Mia when she was 7 weeks old from the shelter. She did the same thing with me. At night though I was scaed I might roll over on her and I wanted my sleep so I would put her in her carrier beside my bed. I did this until she was 10 weeks old then she started sleeping in bed with me. Every night though she had to sleep wrapped around the top of my head. She stopped that aroung 4 months old but she still sleeps with me all night and has to be right up next to me, touching me. I attribute her good sleep habits to her time in the crate at nights when she was little and to the fact that whenever she did act up in the middle of the night I would put her back in it when I went to sleep the next few nights.


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## peanutsmommy (May 19, 2012)

Mack does this too and my allergies just don't allow for cats to be in my face. I just take him and lay him by my stomach and pet him and he gets comfy, still happy he's close and goes to sleep. I agree about having your husband feed him though when he gets up. I've started this with my 2 and they go back to sleep better. (I get up at 5:30 am to get daycare kids, but since everyone goes back to sleep, I too lay back down until 6:30 am. I don't let Peanut on the bed when I'm sleep because I'm too afraid of rolling on her and I don't let the cats in bed with us at night because I'm afraid of my husband rolling on them. He will fling a leg over on me in his sleep and I care barely get out, I don't want to wake up to squished kitties. I put Peanut in the bathroom at night and he goes in her kitty bed after her bedtime bottle and she's out for the night. We don't hear from her, until she hears us up and moving around. Mack ends up falling asleep next to us on the couch while we are watching TV and sleeps there all night. He has only gotten upset a few times because he thinks he needs to be in our room, but both times it was just shortly after we'd went to bed and I will just get back up and watch TV or in the early morning on the weekends, because I think he's become accustomed to us getting up early during the week, so I just open the door and he climbs onto the bed and lays down by me or I should say tries to invade my pillow, but I can't do that, but is happy to be petting by my belly.


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## jadis (Jul 9, 2011)

When we found Tiger Lily she was about 8 weeks, I don't know if she had been with mom up until then or not, but she did that too. She would also try to nurse on our earlobes. She did it for months but eventually grew out of it. She isn't very affectionate at all now, which is kind of sad. My 6 yo cat Muffin sleeps with me and wakes me up in the morning licking my hands and arms.


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## sjk373 (Oct 31, 2010)

Socks would do that. I got Shoes and Socks [litter mates from a colleague's cat] at a little over 13 weeks. Socks did the head butting, smelling my face and he would chew on and tug at my hair. it's weird to wake up to cat whiskers in your face. He still does that sometimes in the mrings, and shoes just wants to knead. the first thing in the morning nose in the face and the hair-nibbling stopped in a few weeks, mostly cause after a bit I'd push him away, but every now and again, socks still comes over for a head butt and a face sniff.


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## Vivid Dawn (May 31, 2010)

Having kittens was great incentive for me to wear my AVAP (kinda like CPAP) mask! The little boy was sick, and he would want to snuggle in my face...then SNEEZE! Well, with the mask on, he could lick and sniffle and blow boogers all he wanted, and I had a nice little barrier from it all  
A'course then he and/or his sister chewed on the air tubing, and I had to patch it up with duct tape LOL

Paizly is 11 years old, and still tries to lick my lips on nights when I'm bad and don't wear the breathing mask. "Yes, I love you Paizly...but I don't want to french kiss you!"


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