I too have gotten “the swish” early in the morning. Also, early morning face washings. There’s nothing like being woke up with a little cat tongue washing the nostrils of your nose.
Awful. Not sure which is worse, that, or having the inside of your lips licked. Either way… alright alreafy, I’m up, I’m up, I’ll fill your dish! Jeez!
Wet noses shoved firmly in the ear are quite unpleasant too (my Madam seems to have worked out that taking a drink gets her face all cold and damp, and makes me far more reactive than just fur…)
Love, it, and it is so universally true! My cat (Olive) has taken “wake up the human” to the next level. She has figured out that I can ignore her pretty well and keep on sleeping regardless, so she goes and wakes up my one of my kids – and once they get up, I *have* to get up.
My current cat Maxie is pretty good about letting me sleep. But if I get up in the middle of the night for some reason she then thinks I should pet her when I get back to bed, because obviously I am awake. 🙂
My husband very unfortunately got up one night at around 2 AM because our older cat, The Grey Mouser, kept batting him on the nose with her paw, trying to wake him up so he could feed her. Unfortunate because, having done it once, he now has to get up *every single morning* at 2 AM-ish to feed all three – and has had to do so for about the last 4 years or so! He may scream when he sees today’s strip {g}….
Jake will jump up on the bed and start walking on me. Then he’ll stop and start kneading. Elwood is a late sleeper. The thing is, there is plenty of dry kibble in their bowls. Also, Jake’s as likely to do this at 2 AM as he is at 6 or 8 AM; I think he just likes to pester me at odd hours of the night. =^..^=
My younger boy does laps on the bed (with pauses to knead on me) and cries until one of us gets up. He also cries, runs out of the bedroom, runs back into the bedroom, and sticks his head in my hand. Over. And over. And over. It’s a good thing he’s cute. 😉
The best wake-up was from our old Tortoiseshell, Raquel. She discovered that if she sat *just so* on Daddy’s CPAP machine, he’d wake up. He watched her do it the third time. She also completely pulled at his blanket until he was completely uncovered once. She was an insistent little thing. <3
Loved the comment on the CPAC! One of our cats, Connie, figured this out, and decided she would turn it on or off whenever she wanted. Thank goodness the new machine seems to be cat-proof!
Our Finn, a big ginger boy, comes in “singing the song of his people,” as my husband calls it. Most mornings, its very long and quite involved, with sounds we never hear from him otherwise! Meanwhile Zoey, a little black & white tabby, gets our attention with her favorite hobby of knocking things off the dresser. Wouldn’t want it all any other way!!
My cat, DJ, will knock things off the dresser to wake me up. He used to knock down the alarm clock until I put that non-skid shelf paper under it. Now he knocks things down knowing I’ll get up before he gets to my earring tree. Purrl just meows in my ear.
I had a cat that used to knock things off the dresser in the middle of the night. I tried to keep as little as possible on it so he didn’t have anything to push off.
This is Lupin in our home. Lupin has a particular “trick” of pushing our bedside lamps off the nightstand in such a way that the light bulb either shorts or smashes. 🙁 It’s one of the boys’ quirks that I debate including in the comic, because it’s almost too much to believe!
Ooooh, I believe it. I totally believe that!
The first time DJ pushed stuff off my dresser, I woke up to see him next to the earring tree, staring at me, one paw hooked around the bottom leg. I got up SO FAST!!!) (OK, it’s a wire CD rack but it’s GREAT for holding hook earrings). So I have to make sure there’s something on the dresser for him to knock down. Just to give me warning.
Doesn’t surprise me in the least. One day – not even in the middle of the night, although they are terrible then as well – one of our black cats got bent out of shape for being scolded by my Mom, so he marched right over to our upright piano, jumped on top and swatted one of her prized elephant figurines right off onto the floor, glaring at her the whole time. It was as if he was saying, “Hey lady, you seem to need a reminder about just who owns whom in this house.” Luckily, the floor is carpeted and well-padded, so the elephant didn’t break.
Anyone with a cat in the house knows the truth of the saying, “Dogs have owners… cats have staff.”
Oh you mesig! (That’s Swedish for a wimp). To be able to sleep in until 8am, such luxury! Are you sure you really have cats? I get home at 2am and feed and play with the cats, then at 4am they start their protest to get the wife up to feed them again. Even if I’m still up and putting food out for them, they won’t touch the food until the wife gets up and walks into the kitchen with them. Nearly every morning it is this routine, then she goes back to bed for an hour until it is time to get up for work.
Fortunately, my girls don’t wake me up to get fed (they have dry food all the time, and get a smidgen of wet food for dinner, NOT breakfast!). However, they do like to wake me up. One wants ALL THE PETTINGS, and if I’m asleep and doesn’t respond, she’ll just flop against my face… which makes it very difficult to breathe. And the other will paw at my shoulder trying to get under the blanket… but just the top blanket, which means I can’t just lift the whole thing up, I have to work my arm out, get the blanket out from under the fold of the sheet, and lift THAT up… and frequently get the other arm to rub my fingers together under the blanket so she’ll stop rubbing against my hand holding the blanket up and go under.
I get up at the same time every morning, and the batcat starts his protest at the same half hour before I get up every morning. For the past 5 years. Neither side is ready to concede that half hour, so we’re in a deadlock.
Our first cat, Inky, would sit on my dad’s chest and put his nose right in front of dad’s. Now 20 lbs of feline sitting on your chest can make breathing difficult, so before long my dad would wake up.
To see EYES. Right. There.
For a while I could tell when dad woke up by the shouting.
Classic! Classic! For my cats its a wet nose touch and head bop at 4am, and again and again until they are fed then its back to bed for them and I am up at 5, but I still love them both. Happy Memorial Day!
“Sitting” on the bladder? How about JUMPING on the bladder? Funny how they seem to have an innate knowledge of exactly where to pounce for maximum effect!
Oh yeah, I’ve been there!
I usually get my face patted (no claws).
I used to use my cats as an auxiliary alarm clock.
Wasn’t late for work once they were trained!
I have been laughing and giggling for the past ten minutes and will probably end up chortling at intervals all evening. I have been swished too. Georgia, you are amazing and I so look forward to each new strip. You are wonderful!
His Majesty runs a tight ship over here. At 1, it’s time for petting, at 4 (or hairball o’clock according the BCN team) it’s time for petting, and then somewhere after the last pet has been given, there’s a three minute lull while he marshals his forces to get me up for good. This occurs sometime between 4:30 and 5. My job, then, is to follow him into the kitchen and tell him there is food in his dish. he has kibble 24/7. I quit feeding him his FF for breakfast because I thought they might stop it. I was wrong.
After he’s been up an hour or so, it’s time for him to settle in for his morning nap. I lie down on the sofa and finish my night’s sleep then.
My Tuulikki has *me* spoiled. She loves sleeping in late with me and only when I start stirring will she wake up. I’m often out of bed before her but she quickly joins me letting me know she’s STARVING.
She initially tried waking me early when I rescued her but I knew if I pretended I was still asleep (pulling the blanket over my head if necessary), I could train her to sleep late too. Oh, the joys of being retired! 😎 Come late afternoon though, she thinks I need to feed her every couple of hours to make up for her long night-to-late-morning fast.
I used to have a cat who had a truly devious way of getting the humans up for breakfast. He would take one claw and poke you right in the small of the back. That wakes you up pretty fast! LOL
Commiserations! My dog wakes me up with a shoulder-drop to the torso. 45lbs backed up by the boniest elbows known to canine kind. If that doesn’t work his signature move is burping in my face.
Haha! I feel like I have been lucky that mine don’t do this! At least, not to any real effort… Uma, our oldest kitty, likes to announce to everyone in the household when it is 6:30am, then she will go curl up with the dog, or sit in a window, and wait for everyone to wake up. My mother and grandmother’s cats however, are another story. Their cats have the humans very well trained indeed, and I just love to hear how they are awakened each morning by their insistent felines.
Love it! It takes real dedication to keep sleeping with three cats meowing and stomping around on top of you. Just another day in the life of cat people. 🙂
My current & previous cats are/were patient because I could leave dry food out for them, so they weren’t *actually* starving. With my 2 previous cats, though, the 20# one would walk repeatedly across my stomach (although I did manage to train him that I wouldn’t get up until he lay quietly beside me for at least 5 minutes) and the 6# Abyssinian at first washed my armpit (until I learned to sleep with my arms down), and once that was no longer an option, would delicately poke my nose with 1 claw….
My mother’s alarm always went off at 4:30 am, and heaven help us if she hit the snooze button. Our tabby cat Trouble would be sitting outside her door cat-erwalling for breakfast. Then she’d start clawing the album cover’s on the shelf if mom wasn’t moving fast enough. What really annoyed mom was if she and dad went out of town, Trouble never pulled the same stunt with me. I tended to get up at 8:15 and usually I’d have to go find her and wake HER up to announce breakfast was served. What mom didn’t realize is that Trouble and I had our own routine. When I came home at midnight, Trouble would hear my key in the door and assume the position in front of the refrigerator, staring intently at the top, to remind me I wasn’t going to bed without paying the toll of a few kitty treats.
OMC! (Oh My Cat) Angel here in Sacramento Ca my human is awaken at precisely 4:55am Sunday thru Saturday. I walk from window sill to night stand to face lick. Back to window and repeat. I guarantee it works……..
No swishing here… when he decides it’s time to rise and shine (and feed), Dexter pulls books off my bookshelf, one at a time, quickly glancing at my face every time one hits the floor, waiting for me to open my eyes. 🙂
Be glad you weren’t in my shoes and had a cat meow for attention at 4AM.
Then she jumps on my bed and kneads the sheets near my belly. I’m half asleep.. Then she plops down, aiming the hind end in my face…IM AWAKE!!!
Weird, my cat is usually just silently sits there, watching my face. Although at the very sign of waking up starts the screaming, still, he’s rather patient at that.
Watcher would bite my nose. If I lay face-down she’s sit on my back and reach around with one paw to try and (gently) open my eye.
Clueless Morgan would gently bite ears…and then -pull-…hard!-
Georgia, I used to have a cat who figured out that the CPAP was important. I currently have a cat who can open cabinets, drawers, and pocket doors. I believe you about the lamps.
Little cat tongue, heck. My late cat Sebastian used to wake my husband by trying to jam his whole head into husband’s nostril. It didn’t fit, but that never discouraged him from trying.
One of my girls used to run her claws down the Venetian blind every morning, so the whole thing would rattle, incessantly. How did it even cross her mind that this would be the worst form of torture, and bound to get me out of bed. The creativity of a cats imagination never ceases to amaze.
Mine crawls up on the headboard of the bed and sticks her paw out, poking my forehead , face or head. She has her claws unsheathed just a bit, & slowly just pokes when the alarm goes off (several times in most cases, as I hate mornings and love the snooze button) Enough to annoy, but never enough to break the skin. If I seem to be making a good faith effort, I am graced with a swish to the face.
Our kitty takes the direct route. The dog sleeps at the bottom of the bed, so he jumps up, walks all over everyone while shouting, and if that doesn’t work fast enough he’ll pick a fight with the dog. Nothing like a fight in your bed to get the body moving.
We all complain about our cats waking us up and mine is no different. But when mine woke me in time to get to work this morning and I had forgotten to set my alarm, I’m pretty thankful for that!
My Paige doesn’t wake me for food – she’s very patient and will wait until I leave the bedroom before sprinting at high speed to the kitchen. I did wake up this morning to discover she’d somehow maneuvered her way onto my pillow so I only had a tiny corner and she was stretched out like a queen. That’s some impressive negotiating.
They’re such good boys (at least compared to mine)! Sisko wakes me up around 5AM, and uses claws if I don’t get up immediately. Sometimes on the weekend he’ll let me sleep until 7 if I’m lucky.
I use the auto feeder to dispense breakfast kibble so I needn’t actually get up. But I still get demands for strokes and general petting at random times during the night! Bless her. 🙂
Ahh, yes! There’s nothing like being awakened in the morning by the feel of sandpaper being scraped up and down the side of your face by a furry child who has the nerve to demand you get up and feed him. LOL!!
My cat doesn’t swish she bunts and, not 8am but, between 4:30 and,5:00
She gets very aggressive until one of us gets up usually my husband
(The Man) I totally love the swish.
When your people sleep bare, the Feline Whisker Torture is very effective.
Slip under the covers and apply whiskers to sensitive areas until you get the desired response. Works especially well on the Man.
Her Rotundity, Jingle Bell Katz
Lily will occasionally hook one claw in my nostril and pull upwards. Chester just “RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRS” for 10 minutes straight.
Our 16 year old Jack has arthritis and is not able to jump on the bed any more. He stands up at the side of the bed at my husband’s head and meows loudly to be picked up. Many times during the night. Then he takes over the pillow, leaving my husband a small corner.
We have friends who had lamps on their night stands that you just touched to turn on. It didn’t take their cat long at all to figure THAT out!
Georgia, to quote a wise cat, “I’m sure you hear it all the time, but keep up the good work!”
We have had to resort to keeping a dish of kibble on the cedar chest in our bedroom for night feedings. However, that does not stop Jellie, our tortie, from yelling if the dish is not full enough, usually around 3 AM. Earl loves wet food for breakfast and yells and carries on if we try to stay in bed a little bit longer. As we say at our house, “T C A W” (the cat always wins).
Today I deleted BCN from my GoComics daily page. It’s OK, I’m not sad, because it means I’m all caught up and I’ll receive notifications of new comics via email (which I’ve done all along anyway). Going directly to the site gives me an excuse to read the comments, which I love.
I am a catless person; Lupin, Puck, Elvis and the crew are the only cats in my life, which makes me happy and sad at the same time. (I should mention Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy, but I think he’s the worst of all possible cats, though I read that strip daily.)
My white cat, Izzy, does this with anything on my nighttable, which usually includes a glass which may or may not have water in it, depending on how much I’ve needed to drink in the night, or when he gets up to shennanigans. I now count the days between “Izzy-Related Water Incidents.”
Fortunately for me, he can’t knock the Tiffany-esque lamp off, because it has a brass base that’s about as heavy as he is!
Lol, love the man’s bed hair. Do they usually just target him or do you get the swish treatment too?
i’ve never had to deal with the demands of a cat like that… well until Stitch accidentally scared a snake into the house she had slept in the living room with the chicken, but since then she’s been using it as an excuse to run past me and claim a place on the bed with the dogs. Of all of us though, Stitch is the laziest and sleeps through. i have had to deal with 3am whiny basset puppy and ear nibbles off him though. Which is usually followed by being slapped in the face with wet ears as punishment for taking so long once he’s done -_-
I don’t have this problem with my cats. However, I feel guilty if they don’t get their food by 8am. So, I get up feed them and go back to bed until 10:30am. I’m retired so I can sleep until then.
Lol !! Seems like every cat has their own “wake up !! ” technique. Louis tickles my face with his whiskers, Scooter dive bombs me from the window perch, and Vito pushes his bowl down the hallway !! 😺
my cat which is basically a ball of fluff with eyes, nose, mouth, tail and ears, would sit on my head and do the swishing of the tail in my face. Then turns around to start batting my face X3
Although other times she uses her disability to wake me up immediately…
We rescued her when she was a kitten, the mother abandoned her and left her in the rain halfway in a puddle. Now she has a nasal infection which will never go away. So to get me up she starts sneezing. I swear she uses that as a weapon! When my other cats try to get her food, a good couple of sneezes in the direction get them running XD
My husband gets up an hour before I need to, but our cat Marty seems to think, “Hey, he’s up, so you should be to.” And he will then proceed to bug me until I get up as well.
My cat Sookie got in a habit of riding the bedside tree lamp to the floor. Not surprisingly, neither lamp nor bulb could take too many iterations of this. My dad and I built a shelf lamp so she could have a place to stand without shattering lightbulbs. Now she knocks things off the top shelf. Since the shelf lamp is stable and the bulb fixture is built in, she doesn’t break a bulb too.
They are ‘live’ now on Go Comics…..why not here yet. I love reading all the comments here. Good luck with the daily strip…if you do it. Personally I like the long strips, give much more of a story with feelings.
One of our cats had a habit of curling up on your chest sometime between 6 and 7 am and just purring. It was a very gentle, yet effective way of demanding breakfast.
My best friend’s cat tried the gentle nuzzle approach. If that doesn’t work she gets mad and opens the (loose) top drawer of her dresser, hooks her frilly underwear with her claws and throws them on the floor. Seriously smart cat.
I too have gotten “the swish” early in the morning. Also, early morning face washings. There’s nothing like being woke up with a little cat tongue washing the nostrils of your nose.
Awful. Not sure which is worse, that, or having the inside of your lips licked. Either way… alright alreafy, I’m up, I’m up, I’ll fill your dish! Jeez!
That and whiskers up the nose. geez.
Wet noses shoved firmly in the ear are quite unpleasant too (my Madam seems to have worked out that taking a drink gets her face all cold and damp, and makes me far more reactive than just fur…)
Whiskers up the nose.. Glad someone else’s cat does that too.. Sigh..!
I once had a cat pacing back and forth across my face until I finally acknowledged him. Never had the nostril- or lip-washings, tho…
Oh boy, does this look familiar. Mine get up on the bed and just poke me and poke me and poke me! lol
So funny! Especially how they’re targeting The Man, instead of The Woman. They should train The Toddler to get their kibble!
Love, it, and it is so universally true! My cat (Olive) has taken “wake up the human” to the next level. She has figured out that I can ignore her pretty well and keep on sleeping regardless, so she goes and wakes up my one of my kids – and once they get up, I *have* to get up.
8:00 AM? They have been waiting to be fed since 4:30 AM! The poor babies must be starving!
My current cat Maxie is pretty good about letting me sleep. But if I get up in the middle of the night for some reason she then thinks I should pet her when I get back to bed, because obviously I am awake. 🙂
Ah, yes the Infamous swish. My current 2 favor the ” loud purring in the ear”, followed by the bite on the neck. (I think Pippin is part vampire).
Silly Man! Doesn’t he know that “staff” don’t get to sleep in?
So true. Dogs have owners, cats have staff.
My current cat lets me sleep in, but unfortunately our little Jack Russell terrier does not.
Occupy Bed Room protesters 🙂
This reminds me of the many Christmas mornings we were woken up by my daughter at 3:00a.m., to go see what Santa brought.
My husband very unfortunately got up one night at around 2 AM because our older cat, The Grey Mouser, kept batting him on the nose with her paw, trying to wake him up so he could feed her. Unfortunate because, having done it once, he now has to get up *every single morning* at 2 AM-ish to feed all three – and has had to do so for about the last 4 years or so! He may scream when he sees today’s strip {g}….
Jake will jump up on the bed and start walking on me. Then he’ll stop and start kneading. Elwood is a late sleeper. The thing is, there is plenty of dry kibble in their bowls. Also, Jake’s as likely to do this at 2 AM as he is at 6 or 8 AM; I think he just likes to pester me at odd hours of the night. =^..^=
Actually those are all even hours of the night 😉 Sorry, had to take that opportunity!
GRoan!!! 🙂 Tia, that made me laugh out loud, thank you!
I get the “Let’s Stand By The Bed and Whine Til She Moves” treatment. And always 5 minutes before my alarm! XD
Our cat Vincent, an otherwise lovely tuxedo cat, sticks his nose in my ear when he thinks I’ve slept too late.
Here it’s either the very loud purr in the ear or the whiskers tickling the nose from Mickey. Either one is quite effective for jolting me awake.
My younger boy does laps on the bed (with pauses to knead on me) and cries until one of us gets up. He also cries, runs out of the bedroom, runs back into the bedroom, and sticks his head in my hand. Over. And over. And over. It’s a good thing he’s cute. 😉
The best wake-up was from our old Tortoiseshell, Raquel. She discovered that if she sat *just so* on Daddy’s CPAP machine, he’d wake up. He watched her do it the third time. She also completely pulled at his blanket until he was completely uncovered once. She was an insistent little thing. <3
Loved the comment on the CPAC! One of our cats, Connie, figured this out, and decided she would turn it on or off whenever she wanted. Thank goodness the new machine seems to be cat-proof!
Our Finn, a big ginger boy, comes in “singing the song of his people,” as my husband calls it. Most mornings, its very long and quite involved, with sounds we never hear from him otherwise! Meanwhile Zoey, a little black & white tabby, gets our attention with her favorite hobby of knocking things off the dresser. Wouldn’t want it all any other way!!
Mine just stand in the doorway and whaling till we can’t take it any more. Unfortunately for me, my other half can sleep through it, I can not!
My cat, DJ, will knock things off the dresser to wake me up. He used to knock down the alarm clock until I put that non-skid shelf paper under it. Now he knocks things down knowing I’ll get up before he gets to my earring tree. Purrl just meows in my ear.
I had a cat that used to knock things off the dresser in the middle of the night. I tried to keep as little as possible on it so he didn’t have anything to push off.
This is Lupin in our home. Lupin has a particular “trick” of pushing our bedside lamps off the nightstand in such a way that the light bulb either shorts or smashes. 🙁 It’s one of the boys’ quirks that I debate including in the comic, because it’s almost too much to believe!
Ooooh, I believe it. I totally believe that!
The first time DJ pushed stuff off my dresser, I woke up to see him next to the earring tree, staring at me, one paw hooked around the bottom leg. I got up SO FAST!!!) (OK, it’s a wire CD rack but it’s GREAT for holding hook earrings). So I have to make sure there’s something on the dresser for him to knock down. Just to give me warning.
Doesn’t surprise me in the least. One day – not even in the middle of the night, although they are terrible then as well – one of our black cats got bent out of shape for being scolded by my Mom, so he marched right over to our upright piano, jumped on top and swatted one of her prized elephant figurines right off onto the floor, glaring at her the whole time. It was as if he was saying, “Hey lady, you seem to need a reminder about just who owns whom in this house.” Luckily, the floor is carpeted and well-padded, so the elephant didn’t break.
Anyone with a cat in the house knows the truth of the saying, “Dogs have owners… cats have staff.”
I thought it was just my cat who did that!! Boo will knock anything moveable off the bedside table to get me up.
Then once they realise jumping on me won’t work, the three of them start wrestling so I have to get up and split them up!!
8AM? I wish. Often 6AM, and the protests start at the latest by 7AM. Which beats the 5AM previous cats used to do…
Oh you mesig! (That’s Swedish for a wimp). To be able to sleep in until 8am, such luxury! Are you sure you really have cats? I get home at 2am and feed and play with the cats, then at 4am they start their protest to get the wife up to feed them again. Even if I’m still up and putting food out for them, they won’t touch the food until the wife gets up and walks into the kitchen with them. Nearly every morning it is this routine, then she goes back to bed for an hour until it is time to get up for work.
Fortunately, my girls don’t wake me up to get fed (they have dry food all the time, and get a smidgen of wet food for dinner, NOT breakfast!). However, they do like to wake me up. One wants ALL THE PETTINGS, and if I’m asleep and doesn’t respond, she’ll just flop against my face… which makes it very difficult to breathe. And the other will paw at my shoulder trying to get under the blanket… but just the top blanket, which means I can’t just lift the whole thing up, I have to work my arm out, get the blanket out from under the fold of the sheet, and lift THAT up… and frequently get the other arm to rub my fingers together under the blanket so she’ll stop rubbing against my hand holding the blanket up and go under.
I get up at the same time every morning, and the batcat starts his protest at the same half hour before I get up every morning. For the past 5 years. Neither side is ready to concede that half hour, so we’re in a deadlock.
only two cats, but I’ve been subjected to that protest.
Omg this made me laugh so hard! This is my life 7 days a week except it’s at 5:00AM!!!
Hahaha, that’s kitties for ya! Universal!!!xxx
Yup…the story of our lives! 😂
It’s called “Tail Spanking” in our family. Not all cats can do it. I’m sure Elvis is an expert.
Tee hee, feed us dude!! My cat Whisk likes to leap up in the air, land on my side and smack with his paws, no claws just paws!! And, unending meow!!
Our first cat, Inky, would sit on my dad’s chest and put his nose right in front of dad’s. Now 20 lbs of feline sitting on your chest can make breathing difficult, so before long my dad would wake up.
To see EYES. Right. There.
For a while I could tell when dad woke up by the shouting.
Where is Puck’s tie in panel 2?
Same place as his collar? Maybe he’s in his T-shirt and then finishes dressing before his next onscreen moment.
I thought that since he was turned we couldn’t see that part of his shirt and tie.
Oh, good catch! I hadn’t even noticed that!
The swish is awesome. Kind of like when Puck was tapping ‘The Intruder’ ever-so-gently in the face with his tail. <3
Classic! Classic! For my cats its a wet nose touch and head bop at 4am, and again and again until they are fed then its back to bed for them and I am up at 5, but I still love them both. Happy Memorial Day!
What about “sitting on the bladder til you get up” followed by pacing up and down the body.
“Sitting” on the bladder? How about JUMPING on the bladder? Funny how they seem to have an innate knowledge of exactly where to pounce for maximum effect!
Oh yeah, I’ve been there!
I usually get my face patted (no claws).
I used to use my cats as an auxiliary alarm clock.
Wasn’t late for work once they were trained!
With mine, it’s a case of, “She’s still in bed, bite her head”.
I have been laughing and giggling for the past ten minutes and will probably end up chortling at intervals all evening. I have been swished too. Georgia, you are amazing and I so look forward to each new strip. You are wonderful!
A very similar report went out on Breaking Border Collie News this morning. Ever been “stared” awake? 🙂
I used to have a cat that would stare at me when I was trying to go to sleep. Even when I closed my eyes I could feel him staring at me.
Good one, Tia. Having cats sharpens our wit!
His Majesty runs a tight ship over here. At 1, it’s time for petting, at 4 (or hairball o’clock according the BCN team) it’s time for petting, and then somewhere after the last pet has been given, there’s a three minute lull while he marshals his forces to get me up for good. This occurs sometime between 4:30 and 5. My job, then, is to follow him into the kitchen and tell him there is food in his dish. he has kibble 24/7. I quit feeding him his FF for breakfast because I thought they might stop it. I was wrong.
After he’s been up an hour or so, it’s time for him to settle in for his morning nap. I lie down on the sofa and finish my night’s sleep then.
I’d complain, but what’s the point.
Lolol
My Tuulikki has *me* spoiled. She loves sleeping in late with me and only when I start stirring will she wake up. I’m often out of bed before her but she quickly joins me letting me know she’s STARVING.
She initially tried waking me early when I rescued her but I knew if I pretended I was still asleep (pulling the blanket over my head if necessary), I could train her to sleep late too. Oh, the joys of being retired! 😎 Come late afternoon though, she thinks I need to feed her every couple of hours to make up for her long night-to-late-morning fast.
I used to have a cat who had a truly devious way of getting the humans up for breakfast. He would take one claw and poke you right in the small of the back. That wakes you up pretty fast! LOL
Commiserations! My dog wakes me up with a shoulder-drop to the torso. 45lbs backed up by the boniest elbows known to canine kind. If that doesn’t work his signature move is burping in my face.
Haha! I feel like I have been lucky that mine don’t do this! At least, not to any real effort… Uma, our oldest kitty, likes to announce to everyone in the household when it is 6:30am, then she will go curl up with the dog, or sit in a window, and wait for everyone to wake up. My mother and grandmother’s cats however, are another story. Their cats have the humans very well trained indeed, and I just love to hear how they are awakened each morning by their insistent felines.
My cat, Birdy, would headbutt me in the middle of the night when I did not leave the window open far enough for her to get out.
Love it! It takes real dedication to keep sleeping with three cats meowing and stomping around on top of you. Just another day in the life of cat people. 🙂
My current & previous cats are/were patient because I could leave dry food out for them, so they weren’t *actually* starving. With my 2 previous cats, though, the 20# one would walk repeatedly across my stomach (although I did manage to train him that I wouldn’t get up until he lay quietly beside me for at least 5 minutes) and the 6# Abyssinian at first washed my armpit (until I learned to sleep with my arms down), and once that was no longer an option, would delicately poke my nose with 1 claw….
I think my girls have taken a page from your boy’s protest guide! Great as usual!
My mother’s alarm always went off at 4:30 am, and heaven help us if she hit the snooze button. Our tabby cat Trouble would be sitting outside her door cat-erwalling for breakfast. Then she’d start clawing the album cover’s on the shelf if mom wasn’t moving fast enough. What really annoyed mom was if she and dad went out of town, Trouble never pulled the same stunt with me. I tended to get up at 8:15 and usually I’d have to go find her and wake HER up to announce breakfast was served. What mom didn’t realize is that Trouble and I had our own routine. When I came home at midnight, Trouble would hear my key in the door and assume the position in front of the refrigerator, staring intently at the top, to remind me I wasn’t going to bed without paying the toll of a few kitty treats.
LOL! I love this story. 🙂 I can see why she was called Trouble. 😀
OMC! (Oh My Cat) Angel here in Sacramento Ca my human is awaken at precisely 4:55am Sunday thru Saturday. I walk from window sill to night stand to face lick. Back to window and repeat. I guarantee it works……..
No swishing here… when he decides it’s time to rise and shine (and feed), Dexter pulls books off my bookshelf, one at a time, quickly glancing at my face every time one hits the floor, waiting for me to open my eyes. 🙂
Dear Man,
Be glad you weren’t in my shoes and had a cat meow for attention at 4AM.
Then she jumps on my bed and kneads the sheets near my belly. I’m half asleep.. Then she plops down, aiming the hind end in my face…IM AWAKE!!!
Signed
Chef Hom
Weird, my cat is usually just silently sits there, watching my face. Although at the very sign of waking up starts the screaming, still, he’s rather patient at that.
Watcher would bite my nose. If I lay face-down she’s sit on my back and reach around with one paw to try and (gently) open my eye.
Clueless Morgan would gently bite ears…and then -pull-…hard!-
Georgia, I used to have a cat who figured out that the CPAP was important. I currently have a cat who can open cabinets, drawers, and pocket doors. I believe you about the lamps.
Little cat tongue, heck. My late cat Sebastian used to wake my husband by trying to jam his whole head into husband’s nostril. It didn’t fit, but that never discouraged him from trying.
One of my girls used to run her claws down the Venetian blind every morning, so the whole thing would rattle, incessantly. How did it even cross her mind that this would be the worst form of torture, and bound to get me out of bed. The creativity of a cats imagination never ceases to amaze.
I think Puck is facing the other way and looking back over his shoulder at the Man there.
You seem to be on to something there, since it appears his rear paw is on the opposite side. He would need to have his back to us for that to happen.
Mine crawls up on the headboard of the bed and sticks her paw out, poking my forehead , face or head. She has her claws unsheathed just a bit, & slowly just pokes when the alarm goes off (several times in most cases, as I hate mornings and love the snooze button) Enough to annoy, but never enough to break the skin. If I seem to be making a good faith effort, I am graced with a swish to the face.
Our kitty takes the direct route. The dog sleeps at the bottom of the bed, so he jumps up, walks all over everyone while shouting, and if that doesn’t work fast enough he’ll pick a fight with the dog. Nothing like a fight in your bed to get the body moving.
We all complain about our cats waking us up and mine is no different. But when mine woke me in time to get to work this morning and I had forgotten to set my alarm, I’m pretty thankful for that!
OH NO!! Not the swish! Haha!! 😀
My Paige doesn’t wake me for food – she’s very patient and will wait until I leave the bedroom before sprinting at high speed to the kitchen. I did wake up this morning to discover she’d somehow maneuvered her way onto my pillow so I only had a tiny corner and she was stretched out like a queen. That’s some impressive negotiating.
They’re such good boys (at least compared to mine)! Sisko wakes me up around 5AM, and uses claws if I don’t get up immediately. Sometimes on the weekend he’ll let me sleep until 7 if I’m lucky.
I use the auto feeder to dispense breakfast kibble so I needn’t actually get up. But I still get demands for strokes and general petting at random times during the night! Bless her. 🙂
Ahh, yes! There’s nothing like being awakened in the morning by the feel of sandpaper being scraped up and down the side of your face by a furry child who has the nerve to demand you get up and feed him. LOL!!
BTW — Way to go, Tia!
My husband had a cat that would wake him up by chewing on his mustache.
My cat doesn’t swish she bunts and, not 8am but, between 4:30 and,5:00
She gets very aggressive until one of us gets up usually my husband
(The Man) I totally love the swish.
When your people sleep bare, the Feline Whisker Torture is very effective.
Slip under the covers and apply whiskers to sensitive areas until you get the desired response. Works especially well on the Man.
Her Rotundity, Jingle Bell Katz
Lily will occasionally hook one claw in my nostril and pull upwards. Chester just “RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRS” for 10 minutes straight.
I have no use for an alarm clock since the arrival of HRH.
Our 16 year old Jack has arthritis and is not able to jump on the bed any more. He stands up at the side of the bed at my husband’s head and meows loudly to be picked up. Many times during the night. Then he takes over the pillow, leaving my husband a small corner.
We have friends who had lamps on their night stands that you just touched to turn on. It didn’t take their cat long at all to figure THAT out!
Georgia, to quote a wise cat, “I’m sure you hear it all the time, but keep up the good work!”
We have had to resort to keeping a dish of kibble on the cedar chest in our bedroom for night feedings. However, that does not stop Jellie, our tortie, from yelling if the dish is not full enough, usually around 3 AM. Earl loves wet food for breakfast and yells and carries on if we try to stay in bed a little bit longer. As we say at our house, “T C A W” (the cat always wins).
Today I deleted BCN from my GoComics daily page. It’s OK, I’m not sad, because it means I’m all caught up and I’ll receive notifications of new comics via email (which I’ve done all along anyway). Going directly to the site gives me an excuse to read the comments, which I love.
I am a catless person; Lupin, Puck, Elvis and the crew are the only cats in my life, which makes me happy and sad at the same time. (I should mention Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy, but I think he’s the worst of all possible cats, though I read that strip daily.)
My white cat, Izzy, does this with anything on my nighttable, which usually includes a glass which may or may not have water in it, depending on how much I’ve needed to drink in the night, or when he gets up to shennanigans. I now count the days between “Izzy-Related Water Incidents.”
Fortunately for me, he can’t knock the Tiffany-esque lamp off, because it has a brass base that’s about as heavy as he is!
In the continuing BCN art series, we see Elvis painting.
Be thankful you do not face “Cat Man Do – Simon’s Cat” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q). There are others.
Lol, love the man’s bed hair. Do they usually just target him or do you get the swish treatment too?
i’ve never had to deal with the demands of a cat like that… well until Stitch accidentally scared a snake into the house she had slept in the living room with the chicken, but since then she’s been using it as an excuse to run past me and claim a place on the bed with the dogs. Of all of us though, Stitch is the laziest and sleeps through. i have had to deal with 3am whiny basset puppy and ear nibbles off him though. Which is usually followed by being slapped in the face with wet ears as punishment for taking so long once he’s done -_-
I don’t have this problem with my cats. However, I feel guilty if they don’t get their food by 8am. So, I get up feed them and go back to bed until 10:30am. I’m retired so I can sleep until then.
Lol !! Seems like every cat has their own “wake up !! ” technique. Louis tickles my face with his whiskers, Scooter dive bombs me from the window perch, and Vito pushes his bowl down the hallway !! 😺
my cat which is basically a ball of fluff with eyes, nose, mouth, tail and ears, would sit on my head and do the swishing of the tail in my face. Then turns around to start batting my face X3
Although other times she uses her disability to wake me up immediately…
We rescued her when she was a kitten, the mother abandoned her and left her in the rain halfway in a puddle. Now she has a nasal infection which will never go away. So to get me up she starts sneezing. I swear she uses that as a weapon! When my other cats try to get her food, a good couple of sneezes in the direction get them running XD
Swish swish swish!
Puck does have his back turned in that panel. You can tell by the position of his single foot.
Stages of Lupin: Curious, Angry, Angry, HAVING SO MUCH FUN!
Cats can’t be trained? Must be because they’re doing the training. Sounds like everyone here has been well trained!
Good news — I’ve convinced a fellow teacher to read BCN every day.
Yay!! 😀
Chuckle!
My husband gets up an hour before I need to, but our cat Marty seems to think, “Hey, he’s up, so you should be to.” And he will then proceed to bug me until I get up as well.
I have been there. My 2 cats do this to me at 5 a.m. 😹
My cat Sookie got in a habit of riding the bedside tree lamp to the floor. Not surprisingly, neither lamp nor bulb could take too many iterations of this. My dad and I built a shelf lamp so she could have a place to stand without shattering lightbulbs. Now she knocks things off the top shelf. Since the shelf lamp is stable and the bulb fixture is built in, she doesn’t break a bulb too.
They are ‘live’ now on Go Comics…..why not here yet. I love reading all the comments here. Good luck with the daily strip…if you do it. Personally I like the long strips, give much more of a story with feelings.
One of our cats had a habit of curling up on your chest sometime between 6 and 7 am and just purring. It was a very gentle, yet effective way of demanding breakfast.
My best friend’s cat tried the gentle nuzzle approach. If that doesn’t work she gets mad and opens the (loose) top drawer of her dresser, hooks her frilly underwear with her claws and throws them on the floor. Seriously smart cat.