# Kitty is TOO lovey while im trying to sleep, suggestions?



## DustinG. (Jul 25, 2009)

Mr Higgins is a really sweet cat. :luv In fact, TOO sweet at night when we are trying to sleep. He walks all over my face, lays next to my head, purrs like a CHAIN saw, jams him nose in my ear (eeew cold wet nose), rams my face with his forhead, neads my NECK (which hurts), turns around and puts his butt in my face, which grosses me out because its STINKS. paces to the other side of my head and repeats. I will put him half way down the bed, and try to hold him there by petting him, to no avail. He just squirms his way back up to my face, he demands to be ON my face, and my pillow. I will try 10 times to get him to stay lower on the bed, dosnt work, so i start putting him on the floor, he immediatly jumps back up and goes for my face. If i keep this up for about 20 minutes, he give up on me, and starts after my wife, so i spend another 20 minutes trying to keep him from waking up my wife (he bites her hair and pulls on it) until he will FINALY give up.........until RIGHT AFTER i fall asleep, then i wake up to a cold nose in my ear, or him biting my ear lobes, or clawing my neck.....reapeat whole process again until i finaly get sick of him and lock him out of the room.

Ultimatly i have a solution, lock the kitties out of the room at night. But i just feel bad about that, they really like to be on our bed, and really like to wake us up for breakfast in the morning. I would realy like to let them stay in the room, but MR HIGGINS will actaullly cause us to loose sleep with his antics. Furthermore, i feel bad because it REALY FREAKIN IRRITATES ME, but hes being really sweet and hopelessly lovable.

Its probably an open and shut case (solution: lock him out of the room) but does any one have any other ideas? think its possble to break him of this?

Our other kitty allie will also be lovable at night, but its nowhere near as severe. She likes to sit on my chest, and ram her face into my hands. If i pet her for a few minutes, she is satisfied and will go to sleep, or go about her own business. I can handle her at night.


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## nanook (Jun 12, 2005)

What a sweety-pie!
Yes, it is possible BUT it will take time and some loss of sleep. Ready? Here it is. COMPLETELY ignore him! Don't talk to him, pet him, push him (except unceremoniously off the bed). When he starts in, just roll over or put the blankets over your head. I know, I know, he'll drive you mad but, eventually he will figure out that lights out in bed means sleep and he will stop. It could take a week, it could take a month but it will work. If you can hold out that long! 
Also, if you don't do it already, a really good, rambunctious play session and then snack right before bedtime.


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## KitkatnDaisy (Oct 21, 2009)

Hmmm, do you think maybe he is just trying to get your attention because he wants something? My cat would do this on schedule every single day at 4-5am. She was hungry. Sometimes I think she wasn't hungry but was concerned because there wasn't any kibble in her bowl. As soon as I started giving her a bit of kibble at night before I went to bed it stopped. Sure, she still slept in my bed but she didn't become a purr machine and nudge me to get me up.


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## Dave_ph (Jul 7, 2009)

Ignore, ignore. Don't reinforce the behavior.


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## DustinG. (Jul 25, 2009)

i HAVE noticed its worse if I dont fill the food and water before i go to bed. id say........30% better if i make sure that they have food and water before i lay down......

IGNORNING does make sense, i will try that!

LOL....it makes sense because the other night, i had a few to many drinks before laying down for bed, and i had no energy/didnt care enough to fight Mr Higgins off.....so i laid there in a semi-unconcious state and let him bother me.....he circled my head a few times, stuck his nose in my ear, etc etc (all the stuff listed previously) and gave up VERY quickly! it maybe took 10 minutes for him to give up! (Noramlly i would immediatly start trying to fend him off, and he seems to almost take it like him giving him affection)He must have got bored, he just laid on my chest and went to sleep, and THAT i can handle!

thanks everyone! will continue to try the ignorning method!


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## natalie.emma (Sep 20, 2009)

I was just wondering if the ignoring tactic had worked for you as my kitty has started this recently. It's really cute and sweet, but beginning to irritate me at 1.30am, 3am 5.30am...... again I don't want to stop him sleeping with us but I need my sleep.
:roll:


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## Shannon Richey (Nov 4, 2009)

Be glad your kitteh doesn't do this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q


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## DustinG. (Jul 25, 2009)

natalie.emma said:


> I was just wondering if the ignoring tactic had worked for you as my kitty has started this recently. It's really cute and sweet, but beginning to irritate me at 1.30am, 3am 5.30am...... again I don't want to stop him sleeping with us but I need my sleep.
> :roll:



nope. it hasnt. but to be honest, i havent been very solid on it. Problem is, if ignore him....i mean COMPLETELY ignore him, he just lays accross my throat, and neads my neck all night. So while hes not moving all around and bugging the crap out of me, he still making hit hard for me to sleep.

honestly (and some may scoff at me) the only way i can get him to leave me alone is to swat at him a little bit. of course i dont hurt him, but if hes bugging me i swat him lightly on the butt a few times really fast and he runs away.....he will lay off for most of the night. Swatting him is a last resort. SOMETIMES i can just FORCE him to lay where i want him repeatedly, and he will eventually just stay there......sometimes i very unceremoniously SHOVE him off the bed, and he will let me be for a while....if not of the works, i swat him on the butt.

i dont do this all the time though, sometimes i just give up and let him sleep on my throat. its odd to me that he likes to lay right on my neck, but it makes him really happy, so i let he do it a few nights of the week, and the rest of the time i fight him off. Ive noticed that hes getting better with time. Sometimes now he goes a few nights in row without bothering us, and he just lays at our feet. Other nights (night before last) he wont stop ALL NIGHT LONG with his antics, and it actually causes us to loose sleep. I still cant bring myself to lock him out of the room though.....sweet little pain in the @$$!


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## raecarrow (Oct 27, 2009)

I tried a different aproach with my Teddy that has worked really well. I found that ignoring him only made him more annoying and caused me to get less sleep.

I allow him on the bed as long as he is good. If he gets up, and starts climbing all over me and stabbing me with his little ballerina feet I throw him off the bed. I will try to get him to lie down and cuddle first, but if he doesn't stop moving around after 2 minutes or so I toss him off the bed. At first he would climb right back up on the bed and I toss him right back off. If he waits more than 5-10 min before climbing back onto the bed I will allow him to stay as long as he is good. Believe me, I had a few near sleepless nights and he needs a reminder every now and then but now he is a nice bed mate who will curl up and sleep with me for most of the night. Every now and then he get REALLY insistent (it is usually precipitated by me forgetting to feed him before falling asleep or if the water bowl has run low). If there is really no reason for him to be keeping me up the one sure fire way to get him to leave me alone is to grab him and smother him with hugs, cuddles and kisses. 

Hope this helps.


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## wEngelw (Jun 25, 2009)

> sometimes i just give up and let him sleep on my throat. its odd to me that he likes to lay right on my neck


lol =)) Zaya is exactly the same way. I think it's weird too. She just lays across my throat all wrapped around and sticks her nose in my hair, under my head, as deep as she can get.. Weirdos. I just ignore her, and I am a really heavy sleeper. At first, I used to get woken up by it about 5 times a night, but now I pretty much sleep right through it. I maybe wake up twice at night when she does her stomping thing, but then I fall right back asleep. I guess I'm lucky to be such a heavy sleeper


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## DustinG. (Jul 25, 2009)

wEngelw said:


> > sometimes i just give up and let him sleep on my throat. its odd to me that he likes to lay right on my neck
> 
> 
> lol =)) Zaya is exactly the same way. I think it's weird too. She just lays across my throat all wrapped around and sticks her nose in my hair, under my head, as deep as she can get.. Weirdos. I just ignore her, and I am a really heavy sleeper. At first, I used to get woken up by it about 5 times a night, but now I pretty much sleep right through it. I maybe wake up twice at night when she does her stomping thing, but then I fall right back asleep. I guess I'm lucky to be such a heavy sleeper



hehehe

were it my smaller cat of about 6.5 lbs, it probably wouldnt bother me so much...but Mr Higgins has got to be over 8 lbs already and he actually makes it hard to breath. The most annoying part is he likes to do laps around my head on my pillow. He walks all around my head, lays on my throat for a minute, walks around my head some more, then lays on my pillow, repeat....over and over. And somehow, he allways manages to get his stinky butt right in my face. I have woken up to the smell of stinky kitty booty on a number of occasions....it allways irritates me to wake up to that, but thinking about it now kinda makes me chuckle.


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## Apple (Nov 16, 2009)

We have one of those annoying cats at night time. Minnie does the same thing to my boyfriend, he trys to push her off onto me but she goes right back after him. I tryed explaining to him to just ignore her, but he won't. So I know how you feel. He keeps me awake every night while messing with her.


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