Revenge of the Alarm Claw
Jun. 2nd, 2011 03:13 pmAs I may have mentioned previously, every morning at 6:00 a.m., I am awakened by what I call "The Alarm Claw." In addition to lovingly applying his claws to my face, Chip basically starts to do his best impression of a mountain goat by bouncing repeatedly onto my head. If I scrunch down to hide under the covers and Chip can't scoop me out, he goes over and starts to do the same thing to
invisiblebf until the latter roars out something like, "Get up and feed the cats!" except with a few more expletives.
Meanwhile, Sprat just sits patiently and quietly nearby, supporting the wall in the way that he does. He has only tried to use The Alarm Claw on me once and it was more of an "Alarm-Purr." We like to pretend that Chip "deputized" Sprat to give it a shot, but Sprat just didn't pass muster. Maybe it's a very complicated game of "Good Cat, Bad Cat" that they're playing with me... I'm not sure. In any case, I'm not willing to give up my glorious nighttime kitty cuddles, not even for a good night's sleep. Besides, if we close the door, Chip claws at it relentlessly and makes piteous squeaking noises. Thus I live with The Alarm Claw as a fact of life.
So that's all well and good, except a few days ago, Chip decided that 6 was too late for breakfast and started applying The Alarm Claw at 5:00 a.m.! Perhaps this was revenge for the fact that we were gone for three days and my mom came and fed them at odd times (certainly never at 6:00 a.m.!). For the first two days, I alternated hiding under the covers, throwing Chip off the bed, and saying "NO" in firm voice, but all these pitiful attempts to get a few more minutes of sleep failed miserably. This morning, however,
invisiblebf had had enough. After Chip jumped onto his face at 5:05 or so, he got up and ejected both cats from the room. Before closing the door, he cleverly placed two big pillows against it as a barrier to prevent Chip from scratching at it. Ah, blissful sleep...
It was 6:30 when we woke up next. "I guess I'll go ahead and feed them," I mumbled, stumbling to the door and opening it. The pillow barrier had held up beautifully and both cats were sitting to one side of it, gazing up at me with grave reproach. Also in front of the pillows: three dark lumps of poo on the floor. Nooooo! Well, at least I didn't step in it.
"I'm telling you," I said to
invisiblebf, "Chip wore a satisfied look. Like: yeah, THAT's what I think about you and your pillows and closed doors and opposable thumbs." "Chip would never do that,"
invisiblebf replied, "It's my fault. I locked him away from his litter box and he didn't want to use Sprat's."
I was ready to stay grumpy, but then Chip jumped up on my pillow and put his paws around my neck and purred me back to sleep. All was forgiven.
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Meanwhile, Sprat just sits patiently and quietly nearby, supporting the wall in the way that he does. He has only tried to use The Alarm Claw on me once and it was more of an "Alarm-Purr." We like to pretend that Chip "deputized" Sprat to give it a shot, but Sprat just didn't pass muster. Maybe it's a very complicated game of "Good Cat, Bad Cat" that they're playing with me... I'm not sure. In any case, I'm not willing to give up my glorious nighttime kitty cuddles, not even for a good night's sleep. Besides, if we close the door, Chip claws at it relentlessly and makes piteous squeaking noises. Thus I live with The Alarm Claw as a fact of life.
So that's all well and good, except a few days ago, Chip decided that 6 was too late for breakfast and started applying The Alarm Claw at 5:00 a.m.! Perhaps this was revenge for the fact that we were gone for three days and my mom came and fed them at odd times (certainly never at 6:00 a.m.!). For the first two days, I alternated hiding under the covers, throwing Chip off the bed, and saying "NO" in firm voice, but all these pitiful attempts to get a few more minutes of sleep failed miserably. This morning, however,
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It was 6:30 when we woke up next. "I guess I'll go ahead and feed them," I mumbled, stumbling to the door and opening it. The pillow barrier had held up beautifully and both cats were sitting to one side of it, gazing up at me with grave reproach. Also in front of the pillows: three dark lumps of poo on the floor. Nooooo! Well, at least I didn't step in it.
"I'm telling you," I said to
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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
I was ready to stay grumpy, but then Chip jumped up on my pillow and put his paws around my neck and purred me back to sleep. All was forgiven.