I know cats are nocturnal. But Salem, our otherwise wonderful, playful,
clownish (I've read up on the breed - it's so true!) 18-month-old "kitten,"
has gotten into a bad habit.
At first, when we rescued him from the shelter last fall, we kept him in a
closed room (with water, food, litter), and he whined (they trill, actually)
and scratched at the door for a bit, then settled down. Eventually, we tried
letting him stay out during the night, and he seemed to be doing well for a
while. (Oh, and we also have a much smaller, 8-year-old korat, Nooni, who
obviously was trained at a young age to settle down at night.)
Well, the problem is, we love his pre-nightnight purrs, licks, etc. But it's
when we turn out the light and say it's night night time, he will NOT settle
down. We wouldn't be bothered much if he was in the rest of the house,
scampering as he does. But what he does is, he trills (it'll wake you from
ANY stage of sleep) and paws (not scratches really, but just enough noise to
wake you) at the bathroom door (in our master bedroom). If we shout or
chase, it becomes a game. If I scoot him out of the bedroom with a bottle
cap (his favorite fetch toy, collects them by dozens), then he trills/whines
and paws at OUR (bedroom) door.

Some nights he's pretty good and gives up. But others, well, I don't know if
doing the bottle-cap fetch a buncha times before we go to bed winds him DOWN
or UP. Our friend at local shelter suggested some pheremone thing that can
settle cats in safe mode (a plug-in - like Glade?) -- and I'll admit, we're
not the most consistent folks in our go-to-sleep hours, etc. (But hey, who's
the owner and the ownee here? I know, I know, the old joke - dogs have
owners, cats have STAFF;-)

Just curious if me and the missus are overlooking any simple answers (like
ignore him and put the pillow over our heads to muffle the whining trills.)

When we read that Maine coons retain their kitten-like curiosity and
playfulness well into the adult years, we just wonder what to do. I guess we
could figure out a way to put him a room that's safe from his "what if I
slide this off the table/desk/counter?" play, but... the maddening thing of
course is, like our other cats over the years, once they've "gotten us up"
in the morning, THEN they settle down! (Usually on our bed, the way we wish
Salem would;-)

Anyway, thanks for reading this - we do love him and will put up with this,
but ... we do know Maine coons don't react, for example, to the water spritz
as behavior mod - they love it!

Barney in Bend, Oregon