Rowdy's routine

Rowdy has figured out the relationship between alarm clocks and people waking up.

Bill's alarm goes off at 3:45. He hits the "snooze" and cuddles with me, for the nine minutes between alarms. Rowdy has other ideas. At 3:30, she pops into the bed, plays with Bill's hair and licks and nips whichever body parts are uncovered. Bill covers up and Rowdy proceeds to snuggle on top of us.

When he does get up, Rowdy supervises his morning ablutions and does the "Daddy, I'm starving" song-and-dance. I suggested closing the bedroom door but Ol' Softy doesn't want Rowdy to think that she's being banished.

The main problem is weekends. Rowdy can tell time but, she can't distinguish Saturday and Sunday. Bill does NOT want to wake up that early on weekends. I'm going to convince him that Rowdy will not be traumatized by being shut out on Friday and Saturday nights.

You have an alarm clock kitty too? Trent does almost the same thing. The only difference is that since they free feed he isn't asking for food.

It took some time, but he did figure out that weekends are different than weekdays. Those three-day weekends really throw him off, though! He still decides that sometimes we sleep too late, even for weekends, and will sit at the end of the bed or by the bedroom door and meow his little head off until one of us (usually me) gets up. He doesn't want anything in particular, just for someone to be up with him.

That's such a cute story! I thought Rowdy was your dog, but I get so confused keeping track of everything!

My cat Tara, who crossed the bridge last year, used to be a silent alarm clock. She would come, sit by my head, and stare at me. I would roll over to the other side, only to feel her walking around me to sit and stare into my face again. Depending on how tired I was, this could go on for half an hour on the weekends. At least she was quiet.

If you do shut Rowdy out, don't be surprised if she wakes you up from the other side of the door.

Many years ago, I had a black loghair, named Scamp. He slept at the foot of the bed. Each morning, my late husband's alarm went off, at 5:00. Russ would hit the snooze and, as his hand came back, he would find a furry head stuck into it.

One morning, Russ decided to see what would happen, if he ignored Scamp and played possum. Scamp sat on Russ' chest and batted him on the nose. Russ stayed still and Scamp batted him a few more times. Finally, frustrated at not getting his due, Scamp nipped Russ on the chin. Scamp got petted!

That is so cute, Cindy! It reminds my of when Trent was still a little kitten. He decided that he needed loves when I was sleeping. He made these little mews, but it didn't wake me up. Finally, he stuck his little fuzzy face, cold nose and all, in mine until I woke up. :tounge2: Silly kitten. We also had a 3-way touch lamp on the headboard at the time, and both of them figured out that if they touched their noses on the top of the lamp it would turn on and off. Sometimes they would wake us up at 2:00 in the morning for loves and play, sometimes they would tell me that reading time was over and it was time to go to sleep. :laughing2:

Nice stories.
I would rather wake up any day to a snuggle or nip than a dratted alarm clock!

Midnight (another kitty at the bridge) used to be my alarm clock kitty. Every morning about 10 minutes before my alarm clock went off she would start purring really loud and start licking me and giving headbutts. The time change every spring and fall used to confuse her, and on weekends and days off she was especially persistent.

Snowball used to just sit quietly and watch while Midnight went through her regular early morning routine. But Snowball does have a routine of his own, he is always up early with me on workdays, and on my days off he usually sleeps in, sometimes until 11 a.m. He never has been an alarm clock kitty!