Cat uses springy doorstop as alarm clock

[Video Link] This cat knows how to wake up its human companions. (Via Bits & Pieces)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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shamowfski

One of my cats does the same thing. Is super annoying.

Though not annoying enough to replace them with the solid ones.
- http://zekeweeks.com @ZekeWeeks
  
  I had to read this twice before realizing you didn’t mean the solid *cats*.
http://twitter.com/GrandviewWatch J W

The spring should be on the baseboard, not the door.
ROSSINDETROIT

I’m not a big fan of cat videos but that is super-hilarious.
http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham

This is why our cats are outside at night.
- marilove
  
  So they can get eaten by a wild animal, into a fight with a cat or another animal with rabies, or hit by a car?
  
  Not to mention … night time doesn’t seem like the best time to put a pet outdoors. What about weather? And I know where I grew up, owls really, really liked to eat house cats that got outside during the night.
  
  If you find cats so annoying that you’re willing to risk their lives by kicking them outside at night, what’s the point of even having a pet?
  - Won Word
    
    Even better is they’ll bring fleas into the house.
    
    Mmmm, nothin’ more satisfying than a good scratch session!
    - marilove
      
      Or they’ll get ear mites (wonder how often he checks the cat’s ears? Probably never). Or they will eat something that will cause them to get very sick.
      - http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham
        
        They don’t have fleas or ear mites. Thanks for your concern. One of them did get a botfly one time and the exit wound got infected, but I asked her and she said that she had picked it up during the daytime, when they also like to go outside.
  - Jeffrey Duckworth
    
    Umm…because they really seem to enjoy going out at night? I figure if they don’t make it back one morning, they’ve had more than a few years of fun times to make up for it. Seriously, I’m asleep–they don’t seem to find that very entertaining.
    - http://vertigo25.tumblr.com/ vertigo25
      
      Good point. I’m gonna start doing this with my kid.
    - marilove
      
      My cat seems to enjoy climbing on my window screens but that doesn’t mean I LET her.
      
      Wow. Really. If they don’t make it home by morning you just assume they’ve had a good life?! Wow. Just fucking wow. How cruel and awful.
      
      What if they were hit by a car? How nice that is! To know that your cat could have been safely indoors, but instead it got hit by a car. But you know, she “probably” lived a nice, happy life … until she got hit by a car because her owner was negligent. You do know how awful and drawn-out being hit by a car can be, right? Or how awful and drawn-out a death by being mauled by another animal can be, right? What a happy way to go!
      
      Ugh. People like you shouldn’t have pets.
  - http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham
    
    We live in Seattle and our cats are annoying enough to us that we put them outside at night. Even in the rain!
    
    Get off your high horse.
    - marilove
      
      Why do you have pets if you find them so annoying? I really do not understand.
      
      I have two cats and I don’t even have a proper bedroom door. And yet, somehow, I survive without tossing them outside.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Honestly, there are cats who either have to go out or be strangled. If you get the alley cat personality with the siamese voice, you’re screwed. I’ve had cats that could kill a german shepherd and cats that couldn’t climb up onto the couch. I let the former out and kept the latter in.
    - http://aqfl.net Ant
      
      I don’t have a horse! :P
  - Qat
    
    Reading advice : “The Unadulterated Cat”, by Sir Terry Pratchett and Gray Jolliffe
    
    Cats do love to prowl at night. Felix Silvestris, the european wild cat (very similar to the domesticated one) is indeed a semi nocturnal animal.
    
    Night is a time when they hunt, interact with other cats, breed (if not neutered), and yes, sometimes fight. Those activities are synonyms of “the good life” for a cat.
    
    I don’t know where you live, Marilove, but it seems a very dangerous place, where rabies is a threat, owls kill cats and weather is so bad it could damage your cat…
    
    In most countries, the real danger for cats is cars. And indeed, I would not advice to put your cat outside, ever, not even in daytime, if they have easy access to heavy traffic.
    
    And for the record, I own 3 neutered cats (aged 14, 3 and 1) that spend all their nights outside (exept if the temperature can reach below minus 5°C). They are healty, slim, and seem very happy. The older one has a scar on the ear but hey, that’s what being a real cat is all about.
Preston Sturges

Reach around.
splashu

Sickest beats in any cat video I’ve seen.
http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

Time to restring the tennis racquet.
xzzy

Our cats used to do this, until we stopped closing doors because it’s so damn annoying.

So they found a new trick to wake us up in the morning.. if we leave any kind of plastic bag anywhere in the house, they’ll sit there and lick it (making an awful crinkling noise that is impossible to sleep thorugh) until they get some attention. So now we don’t leave plastic anywhere in the house where they can get at it.

What did they advance to next? Doing their nails on the corner of the bed.

Kitteh that wants breakfast will not be ignored.
Shibi_SF

Our cats will do anything they can to annoy us at night when we are sleeping. If they can’t get our attention with household objects (hanging from the blinds, knocking things down or over, banging on the closet door) they wrestle/play/fight on the bed. Damn cats!
- M Carlson
  
  Our male cat turns his motor on, jumps on my chest and proceeds to lick me until I have to retreat under the covers. Wash, rinse, repeat. It’s hard to be mad at a purring cat.
  - Won Word
    
    Ha, mine sticks his wet, cold nose in my ear.
    
    It is enough to wake the dead.
CH

Awwww! And what a cute little paw!!!

I’m sure it isn’t as cute at 5 am, though. :)
bwcbwc

More of a doorbell/knocker than an alarm clock, but fun, yeah.
cymk

Both my cats seem to hate closed doors and paw under them like in the video. Thankfully the doorstops are on the base boards so the twang free pawing.
MarnieMacLean

I sleep between my husband and at least 2 of my 3 dogs at night, so for me, the pressing question is: why can’t the cat sleep in the bedroom at night?
- marilove
  
  I’m inclined to agree, but it’s possible someone has allergies and are just trying to keep the pet hair off the bed.
  
  I don’t have a real bedroom door. I have a “pocket door”. It’s basically just a big closet door (and my bedroom is about the size of a large walk-in closet, heh!). If I close the “doors” fully, they’ll just bang against the door until I get annoyed and open it. It shakes a lot so it is NOISY.
- http://www.amynievera.com/ Amy Nievera
  
  We have to keep our cats out of the bedroom because my husband is allergic. It’s the only place he can retreat to when his allergies act up when the meds don’t work. I’d love to have the cats sleep with us but we can’t…
GTMoogle

One of my cats scratches at the door like this. The funny thing is I think the behavior has become disassociated with the reasons for doing it, because on some days when I’m up earlier than usual, I’ve caught him scratching at the door even though I’m on the same side of it as him. >.<
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  I think cats just hate closed doors when they’re used to going through them. My cats are perfectly content to lounge around in my office, but if I close the door, within minutes they’re scratching to be let out.
Phil Worthington

We sleep with the doors open, due to cats – but one of our cats has worked out that by reaching up to the old brass Victorian door knob, he can rattle it when he thinks it’s breakfast time. Never does it at any other time of the day – only when we’re sleeping – and at 7am.
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

One of my cats can hear my eyelids creak open. I’ll wake up, open my eyes, and here she comes, hopping up onto the bed and sniffing my face.
- penguinchris
  
  My cat does that too sometimes. Then I feel bad if I get up right away, because he can’t jump and it takes a lot of effort for him to get up on the bed (I have some boxes arranged as steps for him but it’s still difficult). So I just stay in bed. Works for me.
- http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
  
  She’s performing a stealth wake-up on you. My friend used to throw things at a cat that woke him up and when that meowing stopped he just kept waking up with the cat staring at him. One morning he was awake when the cat came in, and it had figured out to meow softly enough to wake without the meow registering.
OohErMissus

Domesticated cats: One of the few animals that will make giant leaps in mental evolution for the single-minded purpose of ensuring that the organic upright bipedal kibble dispenser units will feed them on-time over a regular basis.
- Won Word
  
  As an organic bipedal kibble dispensing unit, I represent that!
- http://profile.yahoo.com/HAJFRM2JJT6HTXVGOFIVU7BBUU Lilly
  
  Ooh! I wanna join that elitist group! Pick me! :D
Preston Sturges

I heard the tale of someone who let their cat sleep in the bedroom. So one morning they are enjoying some REM, when the cat sees their eye darting around under their eyelid. Cat lunges at the motion, sleeper wakes up with cat claw hooked into their eyelid.
- http://www.amynievera.com/ Amy Nievera
  
  My childhood cat did that when he was a kitten. He also liked to attack lips (I think my mother was a snorer).
bcsizemo

Well that certainly explains why I don’t have pets…
- Preston Sturges
  
  You can completely ignore lots of pet related issues, like “anal glands.”
  - Sparg
    
    Yes, so much fun expressing those. At least the dog starts scooting across the carpet to let you know.
  - marilove
    
    Humans have them, too, and just like animals, they can become infected. Don’t ask how I know. Just don’t.
    - Preston Sturges
      
      Well for humans they are not an essential part of our social lives.
      - marilove
        
        Hahaha. True. Well. Maybe they are for some people?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Speak for yourself.
      - Guest
        
        okay, so my original comment here was in the w-r-o-n-g context. My bad.
ROSSINDETROIT

Automatic electric kibble dispenser. Works for cats and small dogs. You fill the bin, set the digital clock, make a few adjustments and Kitty’s fed on schedule every day. I realize that many multi-pet households have to actively manage feeding to make sure that everyone gets theirs and nobody gets fat, but for a single cat this works fine. If you want to sleep in, put the thing in the opposite end of the home from the bedroom. Then at least they’ll leave you alone until they get bored.
- penguinchris
  
  My cat wants the attention from me as much (if not more) than the food. Sometimes he gets excited if I’m walking in the direction of his food dish and runs towards it, but then even if I give him food he just looks up at me expecting me to scratch his chin and couldn’t care less about the food.
http://profile.yahoo.com/HAJFRM2JJT6HTXVGOFIVU7BBUU Lilly

That’s one. intelligent. feline. Learned pretty quickly to bring it back all the way to make the sound.

Although I’m with others on this – why on earth is the doorstop on the door? ’Fess up. Did you see him doing that to the doorstop when it was on the wall and you reconfigured to make this video?

Now that’s dedication to your art.
http://vertigo25.tumblr.com/ vertigo25

Man. And I thought it was annoying when my cats would teleport to me when I had told them to sit.
slashdottir

what an awesome cat!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=511379702 Amna Kazmi

I feel like the lucky one whose cat doesn’t annoy me at night. whoohoo! she waits til I’m up to beg for fresh water like she does 29382x a day. sigh
http://www.amynievera.com/ Amy Nievera

1) Buddy, my male cat, did this all the time as a kitten. Now that he’s pretty much full-grown, he just throws himself at the door to make noise. The strange thing is the female kitten never picked up the trick. She would just stick her paws under the door and try to grab whatever was nearby on the floor.

2) We put the doorstop on the door because it was easier than installing it on the baseboard, according to my husband.