First night of a sit last night and I noticed the cat started meowing outside my door incessantly when I shut it to go to bed. It stopped for a bit, then started again and went on loudly throughout the early hours of the morning. Luckily I never travel without earplugs, but they still didn’t completely block the sound out.
I’ve checked the listing and the welcome guide, and there’s no mention of this behaviour. Surely the HO know?
New listing so there’s no previous reviews. Do pet owners think this is normal and forget to mention? I wouldn’t have agreed to sit had I known.
Cats catch on pretty quick - is there another internal door you can close to restrict access to the bedroom door. I think you have to be prepared for the odd bit of night disturbance with cats - most will give a wake up call outside the door when they’re ready for breakfast & young cats can get quite playful at night.
It’s something that you should have asked before accepting the sit “where do the cats sleep?”. You’ll remember for next time. I’m sure the owner didn’t miss that out intentionally.
They probably aren’t used to being shut out. Going forward, ask if you don’t want to sleep with the pets. Meanwhile, maybe try sleeping with the cat and see whether it’s less disruptive.
Personally, I like sleeping with pets, as long as the bed is big enough. With 19 sits, most have slept with me, without any problems — the pets and I slept well, whether cats or dogs.
The exception was a dog who had severe allergies and kept waking very early and scratching wildly, poor thing. I just woke early, gave her medication with food and then we went back to sleep. Her family knew it was happening and what I was doing. They said she normally didn’t wake early, scratching. They wondered whether she wasn’t sleeping as soundly, because she was in a guest room with me.
I always leave my door open while sleeping, so the pets can come and go, unless their humans have specified that they aren’t allowed in. Being locked out atypically probably would create more problems.
In one case, I sat a pair of Siberian cats. They have a triple coat and shed wildly. My hosts didn’t let them into their bedroom, which is where I stayed. They even had an air purifier with a filter in there. They’d trained the cats to not expect to enter. Each time I woke, the cats were waiting patiently by the door. So sweet.
We have found some HOs a bit evasive over this situation often using the terms the cat is vocal or talkative. Regardless we always ask where the pet sleeps and express our unwillingness so sleep with a pet. A bit ore digging will usually unearth the reality.
Here’s a couple questions I ask during the application process. Pet parents leave out a lot of info in the Welcome Guide intentionally or unintentionally. I feel it’s best to ask all of the pertinent questions you can think of.
What is the sleeping schedule and where do your pet(s) sleep
Are there any responsibilities or pet behaviors that would require the petsitter to wake up during sleeping hours of 11pm-6am? (ie potty break, medication, etc)
I agree with the others that the cat is probably used to having access to the bedroom. if you don’t want the cat in the bedrom, you will need to get used to the meowng until the cat learns that it dosn’t work and stops. Cats meow to get attention. If you give them what they want, they learn that meowing works and will continue to do it.
If you didn’t discuss where the cat usually sleeps and if you definitely don’t want him in with you, can’t you shut him downstairs, to create some space between you? Make sure he has somewhere cozy and comfortable to sleep. Is there no sign of a pet bed or bedding, elsewhere? If not, then clearly kitty thinks you’ve taken over his usual bed!
it will stop. Clearly the cat sleeps with the owners at night. It doesn’t like being locked out, but after a few nights it will know, and (most likely) the meowing will stop.
thanks @Crookie . There was a listing when we first started that I applied for where the listing mentioned nothing about overnight care. The pet parent sent a message stating she will send over the confirmation and by the way “the dog will need to be let out around 3am for a pee break” I fully assumed she purposely didn’t include this in the listing. I have 3 kids all within 18 months and lost too much sleep when they were babies. Unless it’s an emergency, I need my beauty sleep. I sent the lady a message stating that I would withdraw my application. I don’t like sneaky people.
I canceled a sit that was similar within 10-15 minutes of accepting. That’s how long it took till I read in the welcome guide that one dog had to be let out overnight and another was prone to diarrhea. Nope, nope, nope.
Wow that’s quite a tall ask. I wonder why they didn’t get some kind of dog-flap so the dog could take itself outside for the toilet with that schedule?
I have health issues, and have had bouts of insomnia, which I have managed to somewhat fix, but I really cannot have my sleep interfered with without there being consequences.
It’s a spare room so I don’t think they sleep in here. Looks like they have sleeping spaces elsewhere in the home. I think it could be an attention seeking thing. I had an old housemate who had a cat that did the same thing. In the end the housemate had to put the cat in the garden when it started meowing endlessly at 4am. (It was a warm climate so the cat was fine outside)
I had a sit where I was adviced to have the bedroom door open. The pet didn’t come in, but popped by to stare at me in the middle of the night. Took some getting used to…
I always ask for sleeping arrangements for pets - as I am like you and like to sleep without pets.
Took some getting used to…