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?
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’