The weekend alarm

It is seven o'clock on a Sunday morning, and the cat just woke me up. He is our weekend alarm. During the week we are up much earlier getting ready for seminary and work, and getting the kids up for school. On weekends though, he is usually up roaming the halls just before seven, calling for someone to get up with him. Summers are even worse, because it gets light so early, that he thinks everyone should be moving with the sun. He is a strange creature, but very patient with the kids. He is a social animal, always needing to be where the action is, but staying apart from it too. He wakes us up in the morning to come and sit in the kitchen while he eats. He DOES NOT like to eat alone. Most days this means I automatically toss him outside. There are time when that is all he needed, for just a couple of minutes. He does not have a little box in the house. We used to, but there have always been little children running around. Once, before a friends visit, we took the littler box outside and never brought it back in. The cat, who has been know by a dozen different name since coming to live with us, almost instantly adapted and has done his business outside ever since. One of the best things about our cat is his ability to adapt.

So now he has eaten, been outside, and is back just sitting on the floor A few feet away. He doesn't often rub up against people, he does keep a little bit of distance, yet he also stays near. Even with tons of kids running around and trying to play with him, he prefers to stay close rather than running off to hide. As much as I sometime complain about him, he is really a pretty good part of the family.