Hi All!
I decided to hit up a Bengal forum for advice because I'm a bit at my wit's end. My username is From the Cat Grotto because I am reporting live from an old 1 bedroom apartment with 5 cats. Weee!
The residents: Me and my partner. 2 Bengal Brothers, Apollo and Ares, 1.5 yrs old. 1 tuxedo longhair kitten, Nyxie, 10 months old. 2 lady rescues, Miss Kitty (age unknown, estimated 9 years) and Boo Bear (6 years).
Small backstory: Nyxie, Miss Kitty, and Boo Bear are mine. Ares and Apollo are my partner's. [It's a bit like the Brady Bunch, but with cats] We moved in together in November and the cats have all adjusted remarkably well. Miss Kitty has asthma and sometimes the boys are overly curious about her and bring on an attack. :( Lately Apollo has begun licking out some of his fur, but seems happy otherwise. The cats are well fed, we play with them about an hour each human per day, and they are very active and playful together (the 2 boys and kitten, my old lady kitties just want to sleep and cuddle :P) We do not have outdoor access for them at our residence, though we have been talking about getting harnesses and leashes for the boys.
The problem: At night time, the bengal boys and tuxedo kitten go INSANE. This is pretty standard behavior, I gather, with bengals and with kittens, but the problem is this: we cannot sleep! The boys run across our bed so hard and fast they have opened cuts on our bodies that scar, leave bruises all over our ribs and tummies. My partner has a scarred face like a pirate from them launching off her face while she was asleep. We cannot lock them out because Apollo (the more 'wild-cat' looking and acting bengal) will howl at the top of his lungs, which all the neighbors can hear. On top of that, he launches himself directly up in the air, then drags his nails down the whoooooooole wooden door, and land with a huge crash. He will do this until the door is opened, and we don't want to get noise complaints from these sounds happening at 1 AM or later.
There is ONE surefire way to get the cats to stop and be quiet: My partner goes to sleep on the couch. It only works if she goes. If I go to sleep on the couch, they keep it up all night, running over her and bruising her and clawing her. When she goes to sleep on the couch, they all curl up and go to sleep like innocent angel babies. What crazy cat logic does this imply!?
What gives with this? What on earth can we do? We don't really want to spend the rest of our lives together with her sleeping on the couch. :P Sending them away is an unacceptable option so I hope no one is going to suggest that (ditto to declawing). We love them very much, they are fun, sweet, lovely cats for the most part, and their night behavior is clearly not malicious (not to mention, they were quite costly. xD)
So much need for advice or consolation or a cookie or something. Collage of cats included below:
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