I thought my pets were the only ones with that annoying habit.

Luxury lad. These two start at the whisper of daybreak . . . Unless it's raining.

@FrayedBear Two of our cats insist on going outside whether there is rain, snow or sun. However they don't really care to be outside when there is a very strong wind.

@snytiger6 this morning they started at 4am. I ended up shutting the door on them.

@FrayedBear Today he waited until after 7:00 AM. He is inconsistent about when he comes to make sure I am awake.

@snytiger6 today I was allowed till 6:30 am but then found both had used the bath, which is nearly filled with their litter tray full of sweet wood shavings and just for good measure one also dropped one on the bathroom floor. So I fed them & unlocked their cat flap. Cold miserable day so they let me sleep til 10:30am.

@FrayedBear One of the reasons why I get up to let the cat(s) out is because they have a definite preference to use the outdoor littler box over the indoor one. Whiskers gets me up, but when I let him out, Iris, my nephew's cat, also want out.

There was one day when I procrastinated getting up, and one of them, probably Whiskers, left us a smelly present under the Christmas tree.

@snytiger6 why can't they set their body clocks? Have you tried feeding them much later at night?

@FrayedBear Every cat I've ever had was wanting to eat at least two hours before their food time. Also, if there is more than one person living in the house they do their best to get fed multiple times.

@snytiger6 these two I'm looking after are good then. They only ask ½hour before the time I've arbitrarily alloted for them! Which at night means they get locked in 3½ hours before cat curfew rather than 3!
Depending on location there are different curfews in place:
[portphillip.vic.gov.au]
[news.com.au]

@FrayedBear So, it was 5:00 AM today. I sleep o my side and woke up because Whiskers positioned himself between my legs and my body got sore from not being able to reposition, so I woke up. When I tried to reposition, he was like "Oh good, you're awake" and proceeded to walk on me, plop over on my chest and purr. After a few minutes of getting attention, he decided i was awake enough to get up and let him outside... after he visited the food dish to crunch for a few minutes. The whole things is more delightful than annoying though.

@snytiger6 they have us well indoctrinated.