Experts state that the typical cat sleeps from 19 to 22 hours per day. The domestic cat also has inherited many of the traits of its wild ancestors,  including nocturnal activity such as hunting down food, patrolling its territory, finding a warm place to sleep and barfing on the rug.

For thousands of years, cats have had an image as silent and light-footed prowlers of the jungle. For several years, MS Tigger has had an image as a dysfunctional cat.  She doesn't slink through the shadows, she's afraid of shadows. She'd rather eat pizza than fish. Her dainty little feet make more noise than Elsie the cow at full gallop. But she meowed quietly and infrequently.

Her mentor, MS Squeaky, showed her how to howl and bang on the bedroom door at dawn when it was time to open a can of cat food. MS Tigger prefers dry cat food, so she doesn't get rowdy for breakfast, but she took note of the correlation between howling and the fulfillment of the howler's desires.

MS Tigger's desires are simple and few: To get her daily 22 hours of sleep, and to get her evening attention and affection session. MS Tigger decides when this session is complete; usually she instantly switches from being a playful kitty getting a belly rub to a cold and indifferent cat who walks purposefully out of the room without so much as a "goodnight", and you didn't see (or hear) her again until the morning.

Recently, MS Tigger has begun to wander the hallway outside the bedroom door, howling like a banshee. This doesn't bother me (I once slept through a Viet Cong rocket attack) but Eva is a very light sleeper. We figured out eventually that the cat was not ill, was not hungry or thirsty, she just wanted to get some more attention and affection. Eva attempted to explain to Tigger that it was very late at night and that it would behoove her to be very, very quiet. Tigger has a short attention span and quickly forgot the part about being quiet.

Next day, I tried an experiment. Cats are nocturnal animals, they sleep all day and become active at night. What would happen if the cat was kept awake during the day, - would it sleep at night and not wander around meowing? I checked on MS Tigger frequently during that day. "Wakey, Wakey, no sleeping in the daytime", "Hello, wake up", and so on... At first, Tigger looked at me with an amused look, later it turned into annoyance, late in the afternoon she started to growl when she saw me coming.

Did it work? - No. Ten minutes after the bedroom door closed that night, plaintive meows sounded. Eva, in  loud and simple terms, explained to Tigger that there would be unpleasant consequences if the commotion did not cease at once. That worked. I guess you just need to know how to explain things in terms the cat can understand.