QualifiedKitten

So, that's what makes all of his complaints even crazier! I've heard multiple stories about cats that wouldn't even use a box after it's been used once, or at least very high standards for cleanliness!

For mine, I have multiple different boxes for them, but they each have their own preferences. I have tried waiting until the box that my oldest prefers is so gross that he's no longer using it, a d has moved to a different box, but even then, he gets crazy mad at me for touching it. I've tried sprinkling some used litter in the new box for him, so that it still smells like him, and he still gets very angry!

One of the boxes that he gets angry about me cleaning is automatic, but it's a "PetSafe ScoopFree Crystal Classic", not a Litter Robot, so it only scoops solid waste to one side. The Litter Robots were too tall for the space I had previously, and as long as my current box works, I just can't justify something a few hundred bucks on adding another box.

I foster, so I get to see a wide variety of illnesses and learn about their early symptoms, many of which are diarrhea or other abnormal poops. My foster fail had an intussusception, likely caused by irritable bowel disease/syndrome (IBD/IBS). As much as I would absolutely love to spend waaaaay less time thinking about/looking at poop, I just don't see any practical way around it without putting the health of my cats at risk.

One of mine legitimately gets angry when I scoop his poop, and even more upset when I do a full litter change. I have to wait until he's napping so that I can get at least part way through the process before he comes to yell at me. If I'm not fast enough, he'll even nip at my feet and/or (soft paw) swat at me.

Have you talked to a doctor about it? Would you be able to get up and just go sit on your couch?

One of the things that has really helped me get (back) into habits is to break it into tiny, achievable steps, and once I master the first step, I build on it. For example, I was trying to rebuild my early morning gym routine, so my first step was just walking to the gym everyday, but not actually going inside. Once waking up with enough time to walk there and back was easy, I started getting up a little earlier so that I'd have time to go inside for a bit.

On a slightly separate note, I dug into a bunch of "sleep hacking" stuff a long time ago. A lot of it isn't really useful to someone trying to live a relatively typical 9-5 type life, but one thing that I did find useful was understanding the basic sleep phases/cycle. One full sleep cycle typically lasts about 90 minutes, although this can vary from person to person, and also from day to day. If your alarm is going off in the middle of a sleep cycle, you're probably going to feel like crap, but if your alarm is waking you up at the end of a cycle, you'll probably feel more refreshed.

There's apps for your phone (and probably for wearables) that can utilize various sensors to help wake you at the ideal stage. The one I used to use was called "Sleep as Android". I would tell it what time I needed to be awake, plus a buffer of how much earlier it was allowed to wake me up, then leave the phone on my mattress. It would detect my movements to determine my sleep phase so that it could try to wake me up while in the ideal phase. It also had a variety of options so that you couldn't accidentally turn off the alarm. For example, it could ask you to solve some math questions, or to scan a particular bar/QR code that you'd set up in advance. At one point, I set it so I'd have to scan my shampoo bottle to turn off the alarm.

Sure, but in the context of the post where waking up early may have desirable benefits, there are ways to make it easier on yourself while still getting a good night's rest.

Honestly, I love that everyone else is still asleep when I get up. I enjoy the peaceful quiet of the early morning gym or an outdoor run at dawn, and if everyone actually took my advice, it would absolutely ruin it for me.

I've somehow lost rolls to cats rolling in either direction, so my TP roll is now often found in the cabinet above the toilet.

The trick is forcing yourself to get up early. It will be a rough couple of days, but pretty soon, you'll be exhausted enough to go to sleep earlier. You can also try moving your alarm up in 15 minute increments to achieve the same idea in a slightly less painful way. But, you do have to actually get up when the alarm goes off for the plan to work.

I also find that smart lights really help. Mine gradually dim off in the evenings, and gradually dim on in the mornings, and I usually don't need a traditional alarm. The dimming should be slow enough that it feels like sunrise/sunset. I usually have mine start dimming on about 15 minutes before I want to get up, and they're fully off 15 minutes before I'm supposed to be asleep.

This is more targeted to other people than you, but was the post right next to the couch? One of the smaller details that people often overlook is that scratching leaves their scent behind and says "I live here", so they will often want to scratch in socially significant parts of the house. So, if the only acceptable scratching surfaces are hidden away from the rooms you actually hang out in, they're probably going to find something else to scratch on.

Unfortunately, the same logic is sometimes behind litter box issues too.

Awesome! A friend of mine recently found a whole litter of abandoned kittens, so I was trying to help them find some low cost options, and everything around here was booked months out too.

What an adorable little standard issue cat! Looks a lot like my princess.

Please be sure to get her spayed ASAP, if she's not already. They can go into their first heat as early as 4 months old, and will become desperate to get outside!

They've been my go to for headphones & speakers for a while, but my last few purchases of different models all ended up getting returned due to the same connectivity issues. Sitting at home, the headphones are fine, but when I'm out for a walk, they experience some sort of interference that causes the music to skip/stutter. I still have an old, long discontinued, pair of Anker earbuds, and when I go for the same walk with those, there's zero connectivity issues.