I hope you cat experts are going to be able to help me out. I recently took in two very sweet cats for my cousin who is going to be traveling for a year. The problem lies with the 4 year old female.

The female has gotten into the habit of waking me in the middle of the night to try and be fed. I know this is pretty normal behavior. But it's the way that she does it. First it begins with butting my head and vocalizing to wake me. However, as they have specific feeding times, I don't give in and feed her. Thus begins a passive aggressive game that leads to me getting no sleep for the rest of the night.

I refuse to get out of bed and feed her as I've been told that giving in will reinforce that her strategy is working. That i'm best off ignoring her. I also changed their feeding time so they are fed in afternoon and then again later at night right before bed. The thought process being that she knew she was being fed in the morning before I left for work which is why she was waking me.

She continues to wake me usually the first time at about 4:30 in the morning. When I refuse to get out of bed and feed her, it has become her habit to go over to the corner of my door and begin to scratch.

Believe me. She knows exactly what she is doing. She has multiple scratching posts, she uses them regularly. It is not a "texture thing". She only does it when she is trying to get me to feed her. The moment I get out of bed to get her to stop scratching my door post or the wall, she runs over to her food bowl and turns to me expectantly.

She does this off and on until I leave for work. This keeps me up pretty much from whenever it starts in the morning until I go to work. It's costing me much needed sleep and my patience is wearing thin. I have tried everything that has been suggested to me. I put the bowls away so that they cannot knock the bowls around causing noise. I have tried a spray bottle for when she scratches the wall to deter behavior. I have tried even to kennel her despite my wishes.

Nothing is working. I'm at my wits end. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can try doing differently? Here's to hoping.