My Little Snickers Commercial: Life with a Hangry Cat
My Little Snickers Commercial
He’s a hangry boy.
I know cats are nocturnal; however, when I adopted my boys, I laid out some ground rules.
Primary Rule #1: You do not play in the bedroom. Period.
I tried keeping them out, but my sweet Mama’s Boy was not having it. Needless to say, he eventually won.
I tried. I really did. I gave up. Plus I love his snuggles.
However, I did accomplish one thing—the bedroom became quiet time.
Until around eight months ago.
One morning, I’m woken up to three paw slaps in the face.
Whap. Whap. Whap.
Then a blood-curdling meow.
He jumps off me.
Goes to the laundry room (where he gets fed) and screams again.
Back to the bedroom.
Slaps me again.
Repeat.
This was around 5:00 AM.
At first, I thought it was funny.
I made the mistake of engaging the behavior.
And so it began.
By week two, the time had changed.
Apparently, 3:00 AM seemed much more appropriate.
I had a serious problem on my hands.
Not so funny now.
I had a hangry boy.
My very own Snickers commercial.
Whap. Whap. Whap.
Now, I’ve trained dogs.
So far, I’d done pretty well with the cats—or so I thought.
Now I’m in uncharted territory.
Fudge a duck.
Mr. Snickers and I (yes, that’s his new nickname 😉) communicate really well together.
I know what every version of his meows means.
All his gestures.
His looks.
That’s exactly what got us to this point.
He’s a hangry boy.
Now, don’t let him lie to you.
He’s fed well.
He’s not even close to a Marvin… you know, Starvin’ Marvin.
As an animal communicator, I of course brought him into my meditations energetically.
We had conversations.
As well as regular conversations around the house.
He was firm on this one.
Whap. Whap. Whap.
Alright, you little f’r… 😉
Two can play this game.
If you won’t listen to reason…
I started messing with his feeding time.
Everyone’s feeding time.
During the work week, I didn’t have much wiggle room, so I switched up the routine the best I could.
But the weekends…
Oh yes, the weekends…
I would lounge.
Drink my coffee.
Stretch.
Do some work.
And then, around 9:00 AM…
Feed everyone.
Sometimes later.
Sometimes earlier.
Either there was a full-on revolt because everyone suffered…
Or my Snickers boy finally got the hint.
He no longer slaps me.
However…
We’ve reached an agreement.
If he’s not fed by 7:00 AM, he’ll throw his meow tantrum.
I’m okay with that.
I’m usually up by 7:00 AM anyway.
If I’m not…
Mr. Snickers makes sure I am. 😉
If you guessed that Mr. Snickers is my boy Toads 🐸…
You guessed correctly.
The moral of the story?
If you’re struggling with a behavior issue—whether it’s with a cat, dog, or another furry family member—you might just have to think outside the box.
Sometimes the answer isn’t a battle of wills.
Sometimes it’s changing the routine.
And sometimes…
It’s spending many nights pretending those paw slaps didn’t wake you up. 😹
Has your pet ever trained you instead? Tell me the funniest thing your dog, cat, or other furry family member has taught you in the comments — I can’t wait to read your stories!
Note: It took me about six to eight weeks to correct this behavior. This correction didn’t happen overnight. I decided to post about this experience after he threw his tantrum at 7AM on the nose this morning. No slaps. Just meows. It made me smile…and I thought, “my little snickers commercial.” The blog post was born.
