Resetting San Jose cat’s internal clock to snooze at night

Dear JOAN: I a short while ago adopted a cat, Sugar. She is my initial cat, despite the fact that I’d had puppies for quite a few yrs. I enjoy cats and considered it would be good to have 1 immediately after I missing my past pet dog.

So much it is been rather superior. She is affectionate and utilizes her litter box. She likes to sit in the window and look at the birds.

The only challenge I definitely have is that she sleeps most of the working day and then is up at night. She prowls all-around and at times makes a great deal of sound, which wakes me up. Is there everything I can do to switch it about so that she stays awake all through the day and sleeps at night?

Alicia G., San Jose

Pricey ALICIA: Have you tried using switching her decaf early morning coffee to fully caffeinated?

When cats are not real nocturnal animals, they are crepuscular, that means they’re most energetic at dusk and dawn. Cats sleep 12 to 16 hrs a day, and simply because they retained a great deal of their untamed approaches and instincts, they like to prowl as a result of the darkness and hunt.

Keeping Sugar hectic throughout the working day, enjoying with you or interactive toys, will signify considerably less slumber in the day and far more at evening.

Proper just before bedtime, do a small searching with your cat, furnishing toys that Sugar can stalk and chase, these as a toy mouse on the close of a string, which you can drag around or dangle in entrance of her.

I had a cat that liked to stalk me at night time, which was a little disconcerting, but we turned it into a video game we both enjoyed.

If she’s generating a good deal of sounds taking part in with her toys, place the loud ones up at evening and pull out the delicate, quiet ones.

Expensive JOAN: I have a issue about ants. Is there any way to get rid of them when they invade a 3rd-ground condominium, with out killing them?

Gail Ghose, San Carlos

Pricey GAIL: If you have a hand vacuum, you can suck them up and deposit them outside. Then unfold talc or cinnamon at the destinations in which they’re coming in, developing a barrier they won’t want to cross.

Dear JOAN: This is in reaction to your request for quirky features of cats. My new-to-me, geriatric kitty (16 a long time outdated, we imagine) a short while ago has begun a new sport. It involves waiting around in a typical spot to be chased to the bed room, where by he loves to bounce up onto the mattress to be petted.

When he initially started carrying out this a handful of weeks ago, he would hold out to make absolutely sure that I was next him, and I would attempt to capture his tail. He would meow and grunt like he was so happy, then meow all over again, if the petting stopped too quickly. Now he is aware I will chase him, and it can be so much exciting involving stomach rubs and a lot of scritches.

One more quirky trait is for him to use his ideal paw to carefully faucet me when he feels he’s not receiving ample focus or when he wishes consideration to be all on him. When he 1st did this, I had my back again turned to him. He tapped me on my again three situations in quick succession, like a knock at the doorway, as if to say “Hey, you’re not spending interest to me!” Needless to say, it was very efficient.

Alice C., Los Altos