How do cats know the instant you awake?

Ah! Sunday morning and I start to awaken feeling really rested and comfortable. The switch to morphine from oxycontin is going well and my sleep is much better. Before I even open my eyes the cats start meowing and climbing on me! I swear I didn't move a muscle! When I do open my eyes there are 2 pairs of eyes staring at me! It's a little disconcerting but, I must admit it's also progress of a sort-they seem to have finally gotten the message that waking me means No treats! For a while I was waking up to Pax trying to pull the covers off me! They drive me bananas sometimes, but when things are not going so well they are really a comfort to me. I worry a lot about what will happen to them when I have gone. They have been together since they were kittens and are declawed house cats. Perfect gentleman by the way-not one accident. they are also well enough trained not to do the things like climb on the counters in front of me but the trails of black hair track show what they do when I'm not looking. Anyone who thinks they have trained a cat not to do something and really believe that the cat won;t do it when left alone are fooling themselves.
It's interesting that I have cats at all! When the kids were growing up we had several-but they weren't allowed in my room especially at night! Furry things moving around me when I was sleeping would freak me out! I tracked it back to a memory of being molested in a closet full of fur coats as a child and was able,with lots of therapy and medications to get past those feelings. So now I sleep with two of them!
As I said earlier the Dr has switched me to morphine-45mg twice a day. The first night I was ON IT I passed out twice when I got up so I've learned to move more slowly when I stand and to keep my cane handy. The one thing about the morphine is that it helps to relieve the constant anxiety of not being able to breathe properly. That's called air hunger and it's terrible. I think it must be rather like what water boarding feels like-You know-that stuff that !&*$#Bush said wasn't torture! That was a terrible day! I was so ashamed to be an American. It's strange that in the midst of working toward a loving, peaceful death by learning about forgiveness and letting go of anger just the mention of his name makes my blood pressure rise. As time goes on and different things get less important I've stopped doing some things that I've always done-like watch the news or read the paper everyday. With Obama in office I feel like I can let go of things. I know he's not perfect, and that at some point he will fuck up badly,but he has integrity and a sense of responsibility and that has been missing in politics for a long time. Enough of politics
Some really good things are coming back to me. My all-time favorite job was as a psych tech working with adolescents in a behaviour mod program. And I was good at it-mostly because I seemed to have this instinctive sense of what was happening or was needed. Most of the time I was able to let go of my ego enough to let that work thru me-and it was absolutely the BEST high-because I was letting my strongest and best side out. When I moved out of working in mental health I sort of lost touch with that instinctive, intuitive part of myself. It's coming back to me ans it is So welcome. It's amazing what anger and fear have taken from me and the more I let go of them, the better I feel. I have so much room for joy now! So while dying sucks, and physical problems seem to multiply I am at peace. I hope that you are too.