Dear Cats- Why did you wake me at 7? And why do I only hit REM after 7?

Dear Cats,
Why do you insist on waking me so early?  Why do you feel 7am is an appropriate time to start scratching things, spazzing around the apartment, digging in your box for no reason other than to make noise?  Why does mommy have to be on your schedule?  I know you're my babies, but you are CAT babies, NOT human babies.   So how come you rule me?

I know I'm destined to be the crazy cat lady, but I don't plan on picking up any extras.  Two seems enough to own me.  I don't throw them, and haven't got a law degree from Harvard, but I'm the new aged cat lady, not the Simpson's one. So of course, I got out of bed, stumbled to the kitchen, and fed them some of their stinky, delicious organic food.  Hell, they eat better than most of the human beings I know.  Then I passed out on the couch for an hour, until they woke me up again.  They like their dry food soon after their wet food.  Then I went back to sleep again.

So how come I only dream after about 7am?  It was pretty awful during Student Teaching.  I felt like I never truly slept.  I'd wake up around 5:30, 6am on weekend, like my dad's always complained about.  It's like living in Alaska, when they get a whole month of night, or day, and people can't sleep right.  That's what it was like, waking up at 5:30, and never, ever, dreaming.  It took about a week after graduation for me to be able to sleep past 6.  It took me two weeks after graduation to start dreaming again.

Now here I am, I dreamt all morning,  Strange dreams.  Naked dreams, social dreams, fantastical dreams and memory dreams.  Like coming back from Oz, "You were there, and you were there, and you!" Familiar, I-know-where-I'm-at dreams, and strange this-isn't-what-it-looks-like-in-real-life dreams.  I went to the museum, maybe I thought it was the one with the gem room, (I think that's Science and Industry?) or maybe it was the Aquarium, but not really.  And there was a tank of cool little creatures that don't actually exist.  This little girl pulled one out of the tank and told her mother she was taking it home, until it jumped into my arms for salvation, and as she tried to tear it from me, it scratched me, and I wondered if I could get rabies, or salmonella, or something else, but promptly forgot as I put its little golden-colored, winged and hoofed, horse/dragon body back into its tank.  Then I found him and someone I didn't know was there came and sat next to me and he took a happy little picture of us.
I was on my porch, but not my porch, and one of my students was my neighbor.  And I was organizing our stash of BBQ condiments that we keep in the ice boxes.  All very strange.

Now I'm drinking my coffee and watching 30 Days of Night, while those lazy cats sleep away the hours, now that they're fed and happy.  Sometimes, I'm very jealous of those cats.  They don't have to comb Craigslist and all the rest for a job and a car.  Too bad they're not better trained- I'd make them get a job!