19-year old cat. Almost deaf. Sight & smell are good. Has renal disease, but only howls normally during day for food, water, litter scooping or closed doors. He refuses to eat ANY Rx food. He has never played with any toys, so that's out. If we try a dangling toy or laser pointer he only sits there staring stonily at us as if to say, "Get real. I'm retired." He lost his litter brother 3 years ago, but the yowling only started less than 2 years ago & is getting worse (he's got great pipes), so it's not mourning. We feed him a final meal between midnight & 1 AM & scoop the litter. Lights are left on. We even have a 60" TV where we leave the Roku 4k aquarium on all night (when he was younger he tried to "catch" the fish, but ignores it now). He starts yowling continuously at top volume at 3 AM for 4 or 5 hours, every 3-5 seconds. We've tried Gabapentin & pill anxiety meds, but they traumatize him & he gets scared of us & will avoid us. Outside of the stable renal disease, being almost deaf & the obvious dementia, he is physically healthy & active, moving agilely with no sign of arthritis. Nothing you or other experts have suggested works. We've taken to sleeping with the kind of earplugs gun enthusiasts use, which is a big help, but our neighbors are not happy about his nightly concerts. we are in our mid-70s & live in an "older adult" building with neighbors of 80 & 100. We won't consider putting him down or a no-kill shelter. There are electric or vibrating training collars for dogs, but, apparently not for cats (we don't want to "train" him out of making normal meows & howling over legitimate needs anyway). Our vet says he may live up to 3 more years (her oldest is 23). We introduced a kitten, which only made things worse as he did NOT want its playful attention & hid or fought violently, so we returned the kitten to its fosterers. Catnip can sometimes work, but only delays his onslaught by an hour or so. Woe is us! We are doomed! We don't want to get up at 3 & comfort him as it only reinforces his behavior. At this point, we're only waiting for him to die naturally & start again with 2 littermate kittens (we've had cats & Goldens for 48 years, but no dog now), but he has lived with us a quarter of our lives, so we really don't want to lose him. Any other suggestions?

Lol good luck on keeping my cat up during the day it doesn't happen and if they yowl because they want affection during the time it's to sleep well guess the animal will have to deal with it