My Morning View: The Pillow Trotter

 “... When you stop rewarding a behavior that you have previously paid attention to you, your cat will initially escalate her attempts to get you to respond. This is called an extinction burst, a temporary increase in behavior when reinforcement is removed. In order to be successful at ‘extinguishing’ annoying behaviors, you must make sure that meowing in the middle of the night serves no function for your cat, and is not in any way rewarded. And that means suffering through the extinction burst. Then, believe it or not, the peace and quiet of a solid night’s sleep without pillow trotting will be yours.”

—Jackson Galaxy, Total Cat Mojo