Cenile or Psychic Cat?

[lotsagifts]

I don't know if this should be put under the pet or hexfile category, but I figured I'd start here and see what happens.

My 15 year old male cat, deaf but in good health, is driving us insane. For the last 6 months or so, he's been keeping us up all night long. (Actually just me.) He plays with everything in the bedroom he can get his paws on. Once I wake up he meows, if I lay back down, he starts all over, if I get up he runs down the hall. Spraying him with water doesn't do a thing either.

It got bad enough that I changed my bedroom around. I used to have a big bedroom with my office/bedroom in it, then changed it to have a small bedroom in the other room and keep the big one for the office. The cat used to play with all the computer cords etc. Hubby was not pleased with the change.

Guess what....didn't work. Yes, we tried closing the door and we also tried putting him downstairs for the night too. All he did, no word of a lie, is meow as loud as he could until we gave in.

Finally, I started sleeping out on the couch after he would wake me up noticing that he would let me rest there and would not go back to the bedroom to wake my husband up. Couch is not comfy or good for the marital bedroom.

Back to the bedroom I went, cleared everything I could out of the bedroom to cat-proof it in hopes of some sleep, didn't work either. Tried keeping him up all day so that he would sleep at night, didn't work.

Then, I decided that my husband and I would sleep on the pull out couch to see what would happen....wouldn't you know he slept with us all freakin' night!

I don't get it. He won't let us sleep in the other two rooms but allows me to sleep in the livingroom. It seems to be about me sleeping and not my husband too.

This cat used to sleep on my pillow all night with his paws on my shoulder, hand etc. Always wanting to be touching me and sleeping with me. Why the change?

I was thinking he was going cenile or something, but after the test of sleeping on the pullout with the hubby, I am beginning to wonder if maybe something else "spiritually" is going on. What does everything else think? Any suggestions?

Thank you for reading this novel and I look forward to any ideas to get some sleep. I am exhausted.

[Larimar]

got me stummped!

http://perfectpaws.com/spring.html

Have you tried the vet? Maybe the cat's in some sort of pain you can't see at first glance? not sure...

some cats don't like change..so if you changed things around they might go a bit weird lol.

hope someone here can help!

[magic mushroom]

a couple of my cats when they got to be that age reverted to kittenhood behaviors. it was totally weird, they were acting like 2 month olds.
maybe extra play and cuddle time is needed.

[melissa75]

Wow I thought I was alone, my cat does the same thing, will keep me up from 3am until morning if I let him, I tried the locking him out put he stands up and wiggles the handle, so I put him in another room and the loud cries and body slams against the door would start-My solution I feed him 1/2 a can of wet food as soon as he starts at 3am and it calms him until morning, its not like he is hungry because his last meal is at 11pm before I go to bed, but it works for me, my vet disagreed with my solution, stated I was reinforcing unwanted behaviour and to ignore him, but as you know its almost impossible, not to mention dangerous, because my baby would start chewing on wires as a last resort knowing I would jump out of bed.....I hope you find your solution, but it wouldnt hurt to try the wet food, maybe your kitty is as nuts as mine.

[lotsagifts]

Thanks everyone, but I couldn't take it anymore. It was bad enough that I had to start sleeping on the floor in the living room with him and I still couldn't get any sleep. We decided to do the hardest thing in my life, and put him to sleep this morning. Very sad. I do feel like a weight has been lifted off my back and I only pray that he is at peace finally too. Again, thanks for your suggestions and good luck melissa75

PS
I did take him to the vet and they put him on antidepressants. Those did not work and it seemed like even more torture to him and us to give him the pills.

[magic mushroom]

it was probably his time, take comfort in knowing you gave him a very good life.
R.I.P. little guy

[kuietgrl (got lost)]

I feel for you. I've been considering putting my 17 year old cat to sleep for a year now /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

He screams all night, too. But thankfully, my Chi keeps him from coming upstairs to torture us. He has also quit using his litter box on a constant basis, sometimes going under the table or by the bookcase. I'm just tired of my house smelling like a litter box /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

BUT, I got him for my 6th birthday and he was my best friend growing up. It's hard...