One of our cats, Pumpkin by name, wants to play, eat or go outside in the middle of the night all the time. Before the former Alpha cat died, Pumpkin didn't have these issues. Now that he's the Alpha cat he does.

Unfortunately, before finding out more about cat behavior and training, I did start letting him out in the middle of the night. We've decided now that that can't go on. But when we keep him in he yowls and whines with all his might, waking us up in the middle of the night over and over. We've decided now that that can't go on.

Is it spray bottle time? We love this little guy with all our hearts. We'd hate to ruin what was an excellent relationship. How do we get him to keep it down at night (we don't mind his playing and making noise other than whining and yowling)? And we've learned that feeding him at night just ensures he'll want it every night.

I've never heard from any other cat (and we've had four cats at a time for 35 years) the emotionally wrenching wailing that Pumpkin gives out at night. He sounds like a small human baby. It's so terribly sad and miserable that it's very, VERY hard to ignore.

What do do?