Carl's Notes

So, we now have, in a manner of speaking, five cats.

Two by purchase (Callie and Colby), one by adoption (Holly, an ex-stray), one by birth (Tyler), and now one current stray (which we call Schnelly).

At first, we thought that Schnelly was only hanging around our carport for a place to sleep (hence the blanket and box we put out for her).
Then we found out (due to the interest she started showing) that she was hungry, and I started feeding her once every weekday on my way out to class.

However, combine the lull between semesters and the fact that Schnelly no longer seems to be going anywhere else to eat, and she is now asking or demanding (we can't tell which) that we feed her twice a day.

Granted, our understanding of the language spoken by cats is quite rudimentary, so we can't tell if she wants to be petted or fed.
(after I came home from watching Iron Man 2, I managed to pet her for about three minutes, so it's rather obvious that she likes me and probably even wants to come inside...)

Now we're wondering what to do about her interest in coming inside...
She's sat on the front porch and meowed at us fairly consistently at 10pm, so she's at least interested in us.

I should probably start by telling you about the cats we have at the moment:

Colby: Named after Colby Granger from our favourite TV show Numb3rs, he's a bit wide now, loves attention, but doesn't seem to like snuggling. Maybe because he knows he's too big to fit properly. Orange stripes.

Callie: Rather skittish most of the time, but does want attention on the odd occasion. Gray stripes.

Holly: We found her in our carport, possibly abandoned by a stray cat we've seen hanging around a few months before. Very cuddly when she wants to be, but also tears around at times, and is usually responsible for knocking things over and such. Black and white.

Tyler: The youngest addition to the family, as we didn't quite get Colby fixed soon enough. Looks very much like his father, but unfortunately has Callie's skittishness to an even greater extent. Loves playing with Holly.

Callie and Holly don't like each other very much, though we can't tell for certain what exactly the issue is.

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Sometime last year I purchased a laser pointer, and was interested in using it to play with the cats, though as I'd noticed that they get rather jittery after playing with it, I limited myself to using it once in a long while, like at most once a week.

More recently, I'd started using it to lure cats out of my room before bed so they don't make too much noise while I'm sleeping.

This has become a bit of a problem as of late, with almost all the cats hanging around my doorway around bedtime.
Holly has taken things a bit far by hanging around my doorway many times during the day acting very jittery like she's looking for the bright red dot. She's even taken to hiding under my bed where I can't get her out without the laser beam, which would be rewarding her, something I really don't want to encourage.

Today, Holly was hanging around like that again and went under the bed, but this time I decided to close the door (as I usually do before officially getting dressed). After using the computer for a couple hours (I have an assignment due tomorrow), she started scratching at or under the door like she wanted out, but when I got closer to open the door for her, she went back under the bed again. After repeating this several times, I got fed up with her and started trying to send her out the door by swinging at her with a stick-like thing I found under the bed (from my old HotWheels race set, a flexible plastic length of track).

This eventually escalated to yelling at her, knocking on the wall a couple of times, and swinging almost wildly at her, which did get her out the door, but also woke my dad and my little brother. (they sleep late)

Does anybody have a suggestion for trying to get them to forget about the laser pointer?
I'm going to avoid using it on them for a week or two to see if I've been using it too much on them...