It's 3am and time to yowl.

I have the best alarm clock. It doesn't require batteries or any electrical source whatsoever so I'm not worried about being reliant on power. It doesn't require dusting, either - it is self-cleaning. What's more - it's entertaining as hell, honestly. The only feature I don't have is the ability to program a wake up time.

Yes, today is a cat-related blog entry.

Hobbes has taken to making sure I'm up by 6:15am, which is neat since my alarm USED to be set for 6:45am. So I'm officially getting up earlier daily (including weekends) to do less work each day (less PAID work anyway). What's more is that he's also decided to move his 10am "yowling" to 3am. I don't know what it was about 10am that made him yowl, and I have NO idea why it's now a 3am activity. Other than his new 3am yowling, he is for sure a non-nocturnal cat. He curls up at 10:30pm and I can typically find him in exactly the same position at 5:30am, when I hear the paper being delivered. I'll glance over at him and he'll glance over at me and we'll both decide to sleep for a bit longer. The next thing I'll feel is him oh-so-carefully walking up the side of the bed, being careful to somehow not put his whole weight down with each step.

I don't know how cats do that - how they can make themselves lighter than they really are. Minnie, for instance, supposedly weighs 9 pounds, according to the vet. When she was last there, they weighed her in her carrier and, while she was being examined, they weighed the empty carrier and did some easy math and informed me she was a wonderfully health 9 pounds. Unless you pick her up. Then she weighs about 5 pounds ... 6 maximum. (I don't believe she ever even topped 9 pounds when she was pregnant with her litter.)

Now that the three of us have fallen into a routine, I've noticed how well Minnie has trained me. While it's true she's learned that quiet meows outside my window at night make the door open so she can enter, it's also true that I no longer grumble as I'm stumbling bleary-eyed to open the door. It's been said that dogs have masters and cats have staff - and my two feline roommates prove this for certain but, lucky for me, they're both are very kind managers and we agree about most everything.

Except for the yowling. I still don't know what the 3am yowling is about.