So my cat is driving me and my fiance crazy at night. We love her, but she meows and makes a ton of noise at all hours of the night. She'll nibble at us and knock things off of my desk and the nightstands. We've had her about 5 months and, while bad the first week, she's been good for the last few months, but these last couple of weeks have been very bad. Like, newborn baby bad (and I've taken care of a few).
Locking her out of the room causes her to meow at the door and scratch the shit out of the carpet. She also turns on the washing machine and knocks things off of the counters. Locking her in another room obviously doesn't keep her from meowing and she'll still scratch the shit out of the carpet and the door. I'm obviously also concerned for her psychological well-being. For the record, we play with her a few hours a day, keep her litter box clean, feed her and show her affection and she has her own space. Despite her acting out at night, she likes to sleep in our bed between us an acts normally when we are paying attention to her (aside from the usual suite of bizarre feline idiosyncrasies), so I'm thinking she's just lonely.
I'm basically left with two options in the short term:
turn the two car garage into a playroom for the cat at night
or
transition her to an outdoor cat at night
We don't often use the garage and it's both clean and has shelves. A little work and it could be made into a suitable area for her to hang out in, but I'm concerned that she'll still just be lonely and feel isolated in there.
The other option is to put her outdoors at night, which I really don't know much about other than "people do it". I also don't know if you need a cat door or if they're typically content with being outside from like 11 p.m.-6 a.m. I know they have their "territory", but what keeps them from running away? How do I know if she catches and eats a bird or something? Do I account for that in feeding her? If I do install a cat-door, will she still just come in at all hours of the night and meow incessantly when she gets bored?
I know she has a higher risk of parasites and sickness, but I'm not sure what other factors I'd need to consider. I also don't really know how that all works in the winter time. I know cats can be outside in relatively cold weather, but how cold is appropriate?
Locking her out of the room causes her to meow at the door and scratch the shit out of the carpet. She also turns on the washing machine and knocks things off of the counters. Locking her in another room obviously doesn't keep her from meowing and she'll still scratch the shit out of the carpet and the door. I'm obviously also concerned for her psychological well-being. For the record, we play with her a few hours a day, keep her litter box clean, feed her and show her affection and she has her own space. Despite her acting out at night, she likes to sleep in our bed between us an acts normally when we are paying attention to her (aside from the usual suite of bizarre feline idiosyncrasies), so I'm thinking she's just lonely.
I'm basically left with two options in the short term:
turn the two car garage into a playroom for the cat at night
or
transition her to an outdoor cat at night
We don't often use the garage and it's both clean and has shelves. A little work and it could be made into a suitable area for her to hang out in, but I'm concerned that she'll still just be lonely and feel isolated in there.
The other option is to put her outdoors at night, which I really don't know much about other than "people do it". I also don't know if you need a cat door or if they're typically content with being outside from like 11 p.m.-6 a.m. I know they have their "territory", but what keeps them from running away? How do I know if she catches and eats a bird or something? Do I account for that in feeding her? If I do install a cat-door, will she still just come in at all hours of the night and meow incessantly when she gets bored?
I know she has a higher risk of parasites and sickness, but I'm not sure what other factors I'd need to consider. I also don't really know how that all works in the winter time. I know cats can be outside in relatively cold weather, but how cold is appropriate?