Crazy Cat Behaviors

Maybe I should change my title to cats think they can rule a household, at-least they will try and try very persistently. Or is it just my cat that is persistent in his quest to rule our home.

Misfit is a black and white, fat, lazy, wonderful cat that found us about 2 years ago. He was a stray that lingered around my house day and night. I started feeding him because he looked hungry. We bonded right away. It took much persuasion on my part to get him into our home. I did it rather cleverly though. While my fiance was away at work I would bring him in everyday to get the dogs accustomed to him and vice versa. When he moved into our home it was much delight that he had been litter trained. I checked the papers everyday and also the bulletin boards through town to see if anyone was looking for him. I did not want to take somebody's missing cat. No one was looking for him so he became the newest member of our family. He was calm, the kids were no bother to him, and he got along great with the 2 dogs.

All that started to change very gradually. He would usually sleep with us at night and he would lay at my feet. During the day the kids would play with him, at our baby's nap-time you could find him laying at the bottom of the toddler bed. He eats a can of wet cat food in the morning, and in the afternoon I will fill up his bowl with dry food. He soon decided he wanted to be fed early!! He would run in front of me through the house, side to side, stopping and going, trying to trip me. Jumping up on the counter when I would be near, Meowing as loud as possible, until I would give in a grab the food. He would be content a few weeks but it would start again. After a year and a half his feeding time went from 10 in the morning to 7 in the morning. If we weren't up yet he would wait for the alarm to sound and he will then fly up the steps to start meowing you out of bed. It was fine during the week, but weekends when you would like to sleep in Misfit would do his best to wake you up. One day my fiance got up in the early, early morning for a bathroom visit at 5 am, and to my dismay he decided to feed the persistent cat who indeed wanted his food now!!! All was fine until the next morning Misfit was attacking his feet in bed, climbing up his stomach and poking him in the face, and of course Meowing him out of bed at 5:30 to feed him breakfast. I didn't hear him this time being I was fast asleep. This routine between him and the cat went on for months. No bother to me until my fiance decided that if he was not sleeping, well then neither was I. Everytime he woke up from Misfit, he was sure to wake me up.  So now faced with lack of sleep I needed to come up with a solution.  Now a squirt bottle sits next to the bed, if Misfit tries to wake us up all we have to do it aim it at him and off he goes.  But it still doesn't stop the tripping and the loud meowing, at-least we are sleeping just a little bit better.

I am sure Misfit is planning his next stategy to rule the household.  Just hope it takes place during the day and not the night.