How do set and enforce this rule? I’d like to have a cat in the future but I’d also like to be able to sleep in.
He used to wake me up anywhere between 3-5am every morning begging for food so uh I definitely needed to do
something.
What I got to work was actually a lot simpler than I imagined. With cats,
any kind of attention is a reward, whether it's praise or scolding. So yelling at him to get off the bed wouldn't have been effective either. Instead, any time he'd be screaming at me to wake up (or licking my nose, which was his favorite method and I admit I encouraged it at first cause it was cute AF), I would just....pick him up off the bed without a word and set him on the floor again. And then go back to sleep. He very quickly got grumbly and caught on that he wasn't getting anything he wanted from the arrangement. He knows he's allowed to be on the bed while I'm sleeping, because I didn't want to discourage that. And that he can lay
on me and purr, if he so desires (I can go back to sleep with this no problem lol). Just no screaming and no licking my nose.
I actually have two cats who follow these rules. Even on the weekends when I sleep in and they don't get breakfast until sometimes 3 hours past their usual time. They're certainly not
happy about it and will let me know, vocally, as soon as they know I'm officially awake. But they wait until I'm awake xD
