I still miss my Golden, lost him a few years ago to cancer. Best friend I ever had from day he was 8 weeks old and died at 10 years. Have his big pic and ashes on my PC desk. What a ;partner to share life with, so smart and always loved me 24/7. Heck he loved everyone.
I had a cat that woke me up like that for years. He slept on the top shelf of my floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Every day, about 2 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, he'd jump straight down on to my stomach. It was a real eye-opener.
It was only after I retired and started sleeping odd hours I realized that my alarm clock made a small "click" about 2 minutes before the alarm went off. That was enough to wake up the cat and he'd leave the room so he didn't have to listen to the alarm going off.