When my cat was a very little kitten he didn't quite realize he wasn't human and would sleep in bed with the humans, tucked in under the blanket on his back with his head on the pillow. If one of us got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night he'd get up and go use the litter box. Our bedroom was down the hallway from the bathroom and the litter box was in the room across the hall from the bathroom so you'd turn one way into the bathroom and he'd turn the other way to the litter box. If he finished first, he'd sit in the hallway and wait until you were done and go back to bed with you, and if you finished first you could hear him frantically trying to clean the litter box as quickly as possible and I'd always stay in the hallway and wait for him to finish so we could complete the ritual together. Gosh I miss when he was a little guy.

I tell my cat every time, "I'm getting up but you don't have to," but what he hears is "we are entering panic mode. Enemies are at the gates. Be vigilant. While I pee you secure the exits."

We have forgotten the ancient agreements, but the cats remember

Get a nightlight for the bathroom. Don't signal your circadian rhythm that it's time to wake up.

My cat doesn't sleep at night anyway. He would be happy for the extra opportunity to yell at me.

Cat channeling its inner rick astley:

We're no strangers to pee You know the rules and so do I A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other pet