Morning struggle

Bentley the cat has gotten into the habit of waking me up by nibbling at my face. He thinks I will feed him if he does this. In the beginning it was cute and all (maybe he thinks I'm the mommy!), but still, who wants to get up at 6am to feed the cats?

I try to ignore Bentley as he wrestles with my head and sinks his teeth into my chin. If I don't respond to his behavior there's no point for him to keep nibbling, is my logic. But no. The nibbling has turned into bites instead. He's not puncturing my skin, but it's very, very close. I have red bite marks all over my face as we speak. Pairs of red dots, like the marks of fangs.

I put him in the kitchen this morning and closed the door, but that encouraged the "door game" where Bentley scratches and meows on one side of the door, and Kompis the cat does the same on the other side.

So I asked Sean to get up and feed the cats so that they'd get quiet. This way - if Sean feeds them - there will be no connection between biting my face and getting food; hence, we're not encouraging the biting behavior.

Unless Bentley's brain starts to think: "Biting her face will make that guy serve me breakfast."