cat digging or pawing on vertical spaces

by Liza Richter
(Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)

I have a 2 1/2 year old female Maine Coon cross and lately she has been digging or pawing on any vertical space such as the wall, my bedroom door, the closet and the books at the bottom of my bookshelf. Sometimes I think she's looking for attention but she plays with my other cat and I play with both of them close to bedtime to help tirer her out. This however does not help with stopping this behaviour. She will paw at my night stand and when I put her in her kennel or close my bedroom door she paws at them too until it becomes too irratating. I don't know what else to do. Most of the time this occurs between 3-4:30 am I feed her regularily at 5:30 am every day and she has her dry food out all the time. Please help.

Thanks

Liza R.

Answer by KAte
Hi
I know how you feel as I have a cat who will also scrabble at my door at night to get in. However I find that if left long enough he will give up and go back to sleep to wait until i get up.

basically it is to get attention at that time. Cats are more night owls than us and he is probably wanting you to get up and feed him and pay him some attention.

Unfortunately you have to make some tough decisions about this. you either give in and get up to see to the cat at that time or you put them in another room at night so that you can't here the scrabbling. Often after a while the cat learns that the scrabbling does not get them any where and they stop doing it. At the moment your cat knows that they get a reaction from you when they do it and so they do it all the more.

best wishes Kate