Rude Awakenings

I heard a purr in my ear this morning.  I rolled over to cuddle closer to my husband.  The purr followed me into my other ear.  I heard a sniff, sniff followed by a purr with a wet cold nose buried into my ear.  I grumped and tossed the other away.  The wet cold nose followed me.  The purring ensued.

I cracked open an eyelid, it was still dark.  I looked to the clock, it was 5am.  5 in the morning, five, however you may think of it, it was too darn early.  "Gary," I grumbled, "It's too early."  Gary was persistent, rubbing his cold nose in my ear. "Gary, too early," I mumbled into my pillow.  Then came out Gary's secret weapon, that sand paper tongue started to clean the insides of my ear!  Kitty spit dripped into my ears, the purring ensued the whole time!  My eyes snapped open. I was instantly awake. Darn cat!  Gross cat spit in my ears, sand paper tongue licking me awake I grumbled down the hallway to the kitchen. I looked to the food dishes, still had small amounts of food and water, but refilled them anyway.  "There, Gary, you are fed and watered, I'm going back to bed."  I told the cat, reasoning with him, that this will somehow appease the cat so he will let me sleep.

I am happy to say, by the good graces of Gary, I was allowed 3 more hours of sleep before my alarm went off.  What a good considerate cat.  Thanks, Gary, thanks for the thoughtfulness.

Gilbert the Explorer

Gilbert has been a very curious cat as of lately.  Yesterday, I had a blanket thrown over the back of the couch, behind me where I do most of my work from the laptop in the livingroom.  Gilbert jumped up on the back of the couch and shoved his head right into the blanket!  The blanket was moving up and down, up and down where ever his head happen to be.  I had to turn and watch.  The sure mass of Gilbert caused the blanket to shift back and forth and he dove deeper into the blanket.  I was getting nervous for him.

Then all of a sudden, the blanket became unstable when the poor kitty flopped down to get comfy inside his new home.  The whole blanket and 15 pounds of Gilbert slid off the back of the couch onto my lap!  Poor Gilbert was laying on his back all ensconced in the blanket, purring and purring.  He closed his eyes and fell asleep. Well, until I tried to go back to work anyway.  His eye snapped opened, he grumped at me then jumped from the couch. Ha!  Then from the floor he stared at me and started to complain to me.  I, of course, encouraged the conversation with a few, "oh yeah's" and "reallys" to sympathized with him. lol  Oh he let me have it, all right. Ha! That Gilbert!  What a character!

My Cat Alarm

I have been having a hard time waking up in the morning or even waking up after a nap.  It's been very frustrating considering all the work Dan & myself have to get done.  There is no time off when you own your own business.  You never know when the phone is going to ring & when it does, you must be there to answer it.  Poor Dan has been doing the best he can while I have been so tired and sleepy and I often feel guilty for putting so much on him.  This has also caused us problems when we need to be somewhere on time, causing us to either be late or miss important events. For example, last Sunday, I was very upset with myself for over sleeping and missing our Sunday worship.

But this morning I had myself a little helper to wake me up.  I awoke this morning to soft whiskers touching my legs, then little paws walking up my back.  The soft whiskers rubbed against my cheek and I opened my eyes.  There was Gary, rubbing his head against mine, purring in my ear.  I scratched him behind the ears and let him know he was a good boy, then my heavy eyelids fell shut.  Gary wasn't satisfied with this.  He walked again down my back, to my feet.  Gary started nibbling at my toes, rubbed is head against my legs, then back to the nibbling! Gary kept doing this until saw me move, then ran back up to my face to purr in my ear again. LOL, little boy wanted to wake me up and so I did.

This isn't the first time Gary has woken me up and probably won't be the last.  Today, I truly appreciated his persistence.  I managed to wake up before Dan and brew the coffee, something I haven't done in months.  We were able to attend our Sunday worship, afterward make lunch, and now I plan to catch up on some work and possibly do some house cleaning.  All this because my little cat alarm woke me up this morning and didn't give up on me.  His persistence has motivated me today.  I hope my energy matches my ambitions.  Thank you Gary for being such a good boy this morning.

Gary & my husband, Dan Cataldo, on our bed.