Avatar wrote:But the damned cat persists in waking me at 5 every morning, as though he thinks I should go to work.
As someone who is woken every morning by dastardly feline, may I suggest a water sprayer? And may I also wish you better luck with it than I had!
Morning #1: Sharkie wakes Shaun at dawn, Shaun shoots Sharkie with water gun, Sharkie leaves, Shaun sleeps.
Morning #2: Sharkie wakes Shaun at dawn (she does this by scraping her claws repeatedly down the wall!

), then runs immediately down the stairs! Repeats this procedure at regular intervals.
Cutting a long story short, for the 'water sprayer' tactic to be successful, I actually have to get up and chase her around the house with the water gun, until she is wet and sulky enough to leave me alone for a couple of hours. Of course, this kinda wakes me up
And please, don't tell me to just shut the bedroom door. When I do that, she scratches and when that doesn't work, she takes a running jump and launches herself at the door.