How Does Your Cat Wake You up?


Cats like to wake us up in the morning for breakfast. I suppose a cat wakes up earlier than us; it seems that way anyway. It is probably because they are crepuscular and like to be active at dawn and dusk. So your cat wants to wake you up at about 4 am. How does she do it? There are numerous imaginative ways to achieve this objective. Cats use their techniques intelligently.

Often, some form of physical contact is required as is shown by this bicolor cat in the video below.

My former cat used to do the same thing. However, often it would not work as I refused to respond whereupon she would extend the claw of the middle toe offer are left forepaw and gently nick the skin of my hand with it. A highly effective technique! It was certain to work.

On other occasions, she might walk along my chest and then leaning carefully forward she would nibble my nose. Yes, another highly effective technique to wake me up.

Sometimes cats use less imaginative techniques but achieve results through sheer persistence. What about jumping up onto the bed and while staying at the end of the bed simply meowing persistently until something happens? Some cats will do this at a distance, perhaps in the hall or in another room but it is the persistence of it that wins through in the end.

A refinement on making physical contact and simply shouting at you is to do something which irritates you. I believe that a cat can learn what irritates you and then do it to make you respond which in turn get you out of bed.

So, for example, your cat may know that you don’t like it when she knocks something onto the floor from a bedside table or perhaps plays with a computer cable which is attached to your computer on your bed. He or she will do one of these things and invariably you wake-up and ask her to stop at which point you are then interacting with her and awake enough to get up and give her breakfast.

What sort of techniques to your cat employee to wake you up in the morning?

25 thoughts on “How Does Your Cat Wake You up?”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. I have to admit I have 3 cats but they don’t really try to wake us up however if we do wake up they ensure that we don’t go back to sleep! MC Ozzie will sit on the bedside table meowling and Alfie will pace up and down the bed. Often when I open my eyes naturally Alfie shocks me into being wide awake in a split second by being about a centimetre from my face looking at me as if to say ‘ah good you’re awake – about time’

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  3. Crikey, DW! You’re right, of course! At least I more or less remember Yoko Ono’s name! Was never crazy about them ‘back then’ but Paul McCartney has mellowed: his singing is extraordinarily pleasant, at least to my eardrums. Don’t know what happened to Ringo, or if he’s still recording, but Paul apparently composed a symphony in the classical style several years back. Interesting guy…guess his young wives have kept him equally young, except for his voice – that is – which has faded in a beautiful way…sorta like a Matthew Brady sepia-tinted photogravure, or a pressed flower in a century-old family album.
    !

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  4. Howdy, pal Ruthie — I laughed at your description. Such a dear little Wee it is. Pet them both whilst you have them.

    I have a couple of e-mails from you. Checked this morning, and my $640.00 brand-new machine actually let me onto the e-mail screen, but not into any of the documents, of course. Unreasonable of me to have hoped that it would. Must learn to be grateful for what I have here. Will try to wamble up the road to the library tomorrow – though we’ve had a cloudburst for days. We broke a 30-year heat record last week, and I nearly keeled over. Can’t take the heat since moving down here, and have learned to love the rain.

    Ruthie — this is off the subject for a cat website, but did you say once you listen to the radio now and again? Have you heard Sir Paul McCartney? He’s been recording a heck of a lot lately. Yes – I prefer Bach & Rach(maninoff)…and yet…HE IS NOT HALF BAD! His voice is enfeebled and epicene, but surprisingly endearing. The guy is ear-candy! I still remember Ringo’s assassination. I was sipping a glass of H.B.C. in a nightspot with this harmless old swain, when the bartender announced Starr’s death.
    xxx

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  5. My cats never slept in my bed. Neither did I ever read library books in bed. Was never into digital flesh-pressing strangers in churches where it was a tradition. Have never strolled around the house barefoot then climbed into bed. While my cats were dainty and immaculate, they lolled on the rugs.

    Public sidewalks are plastered with gobs of spittle and worse, wads of chewing gum, MRSA microbes (Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), antibiotic-resistant, resurgent TB, every variety of STD, whiskered rotifers (albeit lifeless) that infested the puddles in parking lots, vermiform microorganisms of every description. Oy gevalt. My old-country Japanese friends had the right idea: they removed their shoes on the porch and wore sandals indoors.

    My cats were devotedly cherished in their lifetimes and mourned every day since their death, but slept upstairs in their own bedrooms amongst an array of snuggy-loos, pillows, afghans, blankets, toys and saucers of multi-flavored cat food – canned and fresh – to sustain them during the night.

    And every morning, they beat on my door at 6:30 a.m.

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  6. well….. usually they meow loudly or scratch at the hallway door, or come around to my bedroom window outside and meow and moan really loudly!!! till i have to give up. As my cats are indoor and outdoor cats well at least 4 of them. With jasmin being too young still i lock the cat door at night which she hates but its to protect her as dont want her going outside a night. She wakes me up by giving me a paw in the face on my eye or she cuddles up and licks or she play fights.

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    • It seems that your cats employ the usual techniques. Persistence and if needed physical contact. I am always impressed by a cat’s persistence. I learnt from that 😉

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      • yea they learnt very well. Like if they cant get an answer from me from the kitchen area they try the other way i.e the bedroom window. when i know i have get up, as the meow is more should i say urgent!.

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  7. Bigfoot wakes me up a minimum of four times a night. Usually by crawling over my body. He weighs less the 8 pounds now, but still, depending where those big feet land, it is a rude awakening. He usually just wants to be pet. So I do. We get into our cuddle position, and I usually drift off again. Then I get the head bump “don’t stop! don’t stop!” He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…etc.

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    • Bigfoot wakes me up a minimum of four times a night.

      Help…..! How do you cope with that? God, though, he is gorgeous. Such a beautiful relationship you have with him. Very tender. Your comment is very descriptive.

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