the Fuzzy Alarm Clock

I'm never worried about waking up in the morning as my alarm clock is very reliable. I never have to worry about power failures or batteries dying. There are only two things wrong with my alarm clock: I cannot set the time I want to awaken and I can't shut it off. Yep, my alarm clock is Godiva, my fuzzy Siamese. She goes off between 4:30 and 6:30 every morning. Usually she has a snooze button that allows me to go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. If I ever have any hope of sleeping past that time for any reason, forget it.

The earlier time is governed by her stomach. There is usually food in the bowl but she wants me to come with her to make sure. Sometimes I am able to convince her to go alone and check out the food bowl. I accomplish this by shoving her off the bed and waving in the direction of the kitchen. Usually this is easier to do when we are in a smaller location and the food bowl is actually visible from the bed. Otherwise I might have to get up and go with her and stir up the food so she thinks it is fresh. She'll come back in a few minutes and happily go back to sleep until the next alarm.

The next alarm starts silently and builds. First she sits up and stares at me to see if I will notice her. Then she reaches out a paw and taps my face. This is done gently and lovingly until she determines it's not working and then she turns up the "volume" by putting out the claws to "gently" tap my face. This is one method. Her other method of waking me is to sit on my chest and stare at my face. Then the tapping starts again. When she sees that my eyes are open, she joyously wants to lick my nose - which honestly I hate - so that is always successful in waking me.

Job accomplished and I am up, she follows me around to see if I will sit down anywhere - bathroom, office, dining room (when we have those rooms), so she can sit on my lap for awhile and purr and be petted. Then because of all the work involved in getting me out of bed, she's exhausted and really needs to take a nap. She joins her brother, Puff, who always leaves the morning wake up call to her, unless he's hungry.