How to Live With Your Crepuscular Cat By Kim Boatman courtesy of The Daily Cat

Dawn breaks as you burrow under the covers and feel the familiar tap-tap-tap of a paw on your cheek. You could use a couple of more hours of sleep, but your cat wants your undivided attention without delay. Fast-forward to later in the day when you return home from work, school or other late-afternoon activities with just enough energy left to operate the TV remote. And yet, there’s your furry friend again, ready to play.

If it seems like you and your cat are never quite on the same schedule, it’s for good reason. Cats might sleep twice as much as we do, but their activity patterns don’t coincide with ours often. While we humans are diurnal, or active during the daytime, cats are crepuscular -- a fancy way of saying they’re raring to go at both dawn and dusk.

You can, however, take steps to make life easier for both of you. “Luckily, cats are pretty accommodating,” says Pam Johnson-Bennett, a Nashville, Tenn., cat behavior expert and author. “They willingly adjust to our schedule more than we adjust to theirs.”

If you make the following tweaks to your cat’s daily schedule, the chances for happy coexistence will greatly increase:

Dusk
A little extra effort in the evening might just buy you that sleep you crave at dawn, says Johnson-Bennett. Too often, we don’t provide stimulation for our cats in the evening. We’re ready to pet and cuddle, but a cat that has been sleeping all day needs more. “They’re very economical in their energy, but they need to release that energy,” she explains.

Your cat’s natural pattern in the wild would be to hunt, feast, groom and then sleep, so play with your feline right before you go to bed. If you feed on a schedule, give that last portion of food right after the playtime. Send your cat to bed with a full tummy, and you’re less likely to be awakened at dawn, says Ingrid Johnson, a cat behaviorist in Marietta, Ga. Canned turkey cat food can have the same sleep-inducing effect on your cat that you notice after eating Thanksgiving dinner.

Even when you’re tired, don’t skip that play session. “If I don’t want my cats to walk on my chest at 3 a.m., I need to play with them,” says Johnson-Bennett.

Overnight
At nighttime, set the stage for feline enrichment in another area of the house. “In the spring and summer months, one option is to leave an outdoor light on, with a kitty condo pulled up next to a big sliding door,” Johnson says. Other options are to play a kitty DVD softly or set up certain cat toys just at night. For example, Johnson-Bennett pulls out a soft fabric cat tunnel each evening. “I might stick a treat in there, too,” she says.

Dawn
If your cat comes to you at dawn, don’t respond or even open your eyes. “We get so mad at the cats when they’re waking us up, but we reinforce the negative behavior,” Johnson-Bennett says. If you get up to feed your cat, you’re telling your pal you’ll do that day after day. However, if you’re the tenderhearted sort, try a timed cat food feeder.

Daytime
Make sure your cat has the opportunity for adventures, even if you’re out during the day. Johnson recommends providing balls such as the Play-N-Treat or SlimCat. She leaves a number of such interactive cat toys out each day.

Cost need not even be a deterrent when considering such toys. A rectangular tissue box with a ping-pong ball inside, or a paper bag laid on its side with a hidden toy equally offer the potential for stimulating activity, says Johnson-Bennett. “I also do a little quick playtime with my cats before I leave in the morning,” she adds.

As you make these adjustments to your cat’s routine, be patient. “You’re not going to do it in one day and the next day your cat will be perfect,” Johnson-Bennett says. “If you stick to it, it will work.”

About the Author
Kim Boatman is a journalist based in Northern California whose work has appeared in such publications as The Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press and San Jose Mercury News. She is a lifetime lover of animals and shares her home with three cats.

Visit www.thedailycat.com for more.

How do I get my cat accustomed to riding in the car and liking their carrier? By Ingrid Johnson, Feline Behavior Consultant

An example of the Petmate 2 door deluxe carrier with Cat Chi designs carrier bed and carrier handle. Both are available at Paws Whiskers & Claws

Many cats dislike car rides and the cat carrier alike. Desensitizing them at an early age or using positive reinforcement later in life can be helpful at making both of these experiences less stressful. The following are recommendations and suggestions that in our experience have been helpful; cat carrier dos and don’ts, if you will.

A hard sided carrier with many options for getting your cat in and out is what we find to be the most helpful in the veterinary setting. The Petmate 2 door deluxe is a great carrier that allows your cat to be placed in through a grate type door on the top, the typical side door, or the entire top half of the carrier can be removed. This last option is especially nice if your cat is particularly shy or aggressive at the vet. This allows us to examine your cat in their “safe place,” with their bedding and familiar smells around them. We always recommend having bedding in the carrier. It is clearly just a nice thing to do, but it can also be quite helpful if your cat urinates, defecates or tends to vomit due to stress or motion sickness. We find that cats are quite good at staying out of their own mess if they have some absorbable material provided, if not, they tend to be covered from head to toe which just adds to an already unpleasant experience.

Soft sided cat carriers can be extremely inconvenient for the veterinary staff and owners alike. If your cat urinates or vomits in their carrier, you or your vehicle can often become soiled from the material leaking out. Additionally, if your cat is aggressive during vet visits they can hold onto the mesh sides of the carrier with their nails and it can make it extremely difficult to remove them from their carrier to examine them. This process tends to frustrate them and they may escalate due to stress and fear, so soft sided carriers have many cons and we do not recommend them.

One of the best ways to get your cat used to their carrier would be to leave it out in the home 365 days a year. Pick a spot you can live with; for example, under the desk in the home office or on the sun porch. Then the carrier becomes no different then the armchair and the cats desensitize to it quite well. One can understand why cats would associate their cat carriers with fear; after all it only comes out of the crawlspace once a year. Then, for most cats, they get chased around the house, taken to the vet, given shots, pills and other unpleasant things, and they learn to realize that the carrier is the common denominator in that scenario. Take desensitizing a step further and use positive reinforcement as well. Place soft fuzzy bedding in the carrier so that your cat can enjoy it as a cozy place to sleep, add an old t-shirt with your scent on it, put treats and catnip in the carrier for your kitty to discover, and even feed them their canned food treat in there.

To get your cat accustomed to riding in the car, start slow and build to longer trips. Place your cat in the carrier and take them out to the car for 5 minutes and then come back inside. Next time drive around the block, then a short trip to fill your gas tank and so on. (Of course, never leave your cat unattended in the car and be careful about using techniques such as these during extreme temperatures). Your cat will slowly get used to short trips and you reinforce that you always come back home. If one kitty has an appointment you may bring another along for the ride, a simple nail trim could be given and then they go right back into their safe place to go home. This way nothing scary happens. They could even come along and not come out of their carrier at all. All of this reinforces that travel is not a bad thing and their cat carrier is not a scary place.

Another suggestion to help calm your cat during travel would be to use Feliway. Feliway is a synthetic feline facial pheromone that helps cats feel calm in a strange and stressful environment and makes them feel as if they have been to that new place before and already marked it. It is available in a spray form that could be used to spray the carrier itself as well as the car and we carry it here at Paws Whiskers and Claws. Lavender oil, and honeysuckle are two scents that cats find soothing and calming (and it helps stressed humans too!). We use a combination of all of these products in our exam rooms to help make your cats visit as stress-free as possible. Remember that your cat feeds off of your stress level, so it is important for whoever is bringing your cat to the vet to be as calm as possible. Lastly, we recommend playing calm classical music in the car. Following these easy suggestions can help make trips to the doctor less stressful for you and your cat.

Animal Planet Films Cats 101 Segment At Ingrid's House!

Filming of foraging segment in hallway.

Still photos between filming.

Jake constructing "The Cat's Meow" scratching post.


Setting up for Ingrid's interview.

Ingrid showing variety of foraging toys.