How does your cat wake you up?

[TheNunsOfGavarone]

Following on from Arabella's is it compulsory to share your bed with your cat thread.....

When my old boy was a kitten he used to sit on my pillow and purr gently until I woke up. For the next 17 years that was his preferred method but as it didn't always work (when I was very tired or pretending to be asleep) he learned to pat my cheek gently with his paws, pads only first. If that didn't work he'd start using a bit of claw pressure. At that stage I would either get up or retreat under the duvet. Then he would either give up and go back to sleep for a bit or start shoving stuff off the bedside table.

Late in life his purr faded away and I could only detect it by putting my hand on his throat. Obviously it was useless now from a "waking up the staff" point of view so he went for a very direct approach, dropped all the namby pamby cheek-patting niceties and stuck his claws up my nose

Once or twice he actually yanked my eyes open so I started wearing an eye mask to sleep. Fortunately that didn't happen very often; as he grew old he slept longer and it was more usual for me to be the first to wake.

My old lady cat never woke me directly but occasionally from the corner of my eye I used to spy her walking on the old boy to wake him up - presumably so he could do the dirty work for her!

So, how do your cats wake you?

By standing on me and meowing insistently in my face. I'd much prefer some gentle pillow purring!

By screaming his head off (as if he's being tortured) until one of us gets up. Little sod.

Starts by sitting on my chest...then rams her slimy nose up my nose until I get her breakfast.

My mother was once woken by her cat wiping a bloody* rabbit's paw across her face.

• Literally, although it did also make her swear.

Our tortie (RIP) used to pat our eyelids to wake us up (on the rare occasion she managed to sneak into the bedroom)

oh, I also forgot the numerous times when she would wake us up in the middle of the night doing the 'wall of death' around various rooms and hurtling up and downstairs very, very loudly.

Mine lies next to me on his back/side with his face all wonky and sideways.... He stretches his legs out and paws my cheeks (no claws... Just paws).... And purrrrrrs.... Loudly!

Sometimes he then decides to start cleaning my hair which I am not a fan of!!!!

We have another cat but he rarely comes in to our room to see us... He's a lot younger and still likes to go on little adventures. He isn't interested in cuddles yet really

Sometimes she jumps on me and stomps up and down me before yelling at me loudly that there's a apecial gift b in my shoe. Sometimes she just snuggles right up against me and flops over so she can get as close as she can (or push me off the bed). Sometimes she jumps around on thr furniture pushing things onto the floor.

He was a small cat with lovely manners, so he'd sit and make a gentle call a couple of times.
If that didn't wake me up, then he'd hop up and pat my face softly with his paw, no claws.
Now he's gone, I sometimes wake up to the feeling of a paw patting my cheek.

Boy cat used to bite my face to wake me up when he was a kitten...luckily he's grown out of that.

Now boy cat and fat old cat alternate between 'lets both stare at her till she wakes up'...and... 'lets walk all over her till she wakes up'.

Oddly, they never try these tactics with DH

Jumps on the bottom of the bed, walks up my body and meows in my face at full volume :-)

I sleep with my door closed, so he leaps at the door and body slams it, making quite a significant bang.

I am used to it now, but it quite upsets DH (still!) Elroy is 11 and we have had him since he was a kitten, so you'd think DH would be used to it by now .

I'm not good at mornings so Seniorboy has learned (as all my cats must learn) that if I'm not awake it's better to just turn over and go back to sleep rather than try to get me up.

Haha that is brilliant noth

Ours are shut out of our room at night because they tend to chew through all the electric cables if left unsupervised

But they wake up around six and scratch at the door and miaow constantly until one of us gets up and opens the door or goes out to feed them. Once they've been fed, they bugger off and lose interest!

It's paw in the mouth here, only to me seeing as I'm the feeder.

If that doesn't work he claws the bottom sheet on Dh's side and gets shouted at.

This is why he sleeps downstairs.

My little one will sit on my back/chest (depending how I'm sleeping) and purr.
Then when that doesn't work will head butt me until I kiss her forehead. She's so loving when I first wake up. All snuggly as she sleeps with me all night

If she wants to wake DP up then she bites his feet she's not very loving to him at all!!