Every morning Jeffery has a battle of wills with the kitties. He feeds them at the same time every day, once in the morning at 630 a.m. and a second feeding at 630 p.m. We both are generally awake long before 6:30 a.m. Prior to my boot camp class, we both would get up about 4 a.m. and work out at the gym. Jeffery continues to get up at 4 a.m.-ish, while I sleep in until 4:40 a.m.
Apparently kitties don’t understand the concept of feeding times because they incessantly meow from the minute we get up until the food hits their plates at 6:30 a.m. The two sister kitties aren’t all that meowy to begin with, but Simon – the lone boy kitty – meows enough for all three of them. He has one of those long, drawn-out, whiny full-mouthed meows. It was cute for about three days, but now eight months later, it’s lost its cute appeal. Especially at 5 o’clock in the morning.
Another thing about kitties… yeah they don’t understand about weekends. Their little internal clocks have set themselves to 4 a.m. ish – the time the alarm clock normally rouses us humans from our nightly slumber – and that’s the time those adorable balls of fur expect us to get up. If for some reason we don’t get up during that time, like said weekends, they rouse us themselves, all I’m sure in the name of being helpful.
And they are persistent little fuckers too. They are not deterred by yells of “shut up” or slaps off the bed or even items thrown at them in anger. Nope, they pop back up on the bed a few minutes after we fall back asleep. The only thing that works is to feed them. With their little bellies all full with kitty food, they cuddle up contentedly next to a warm body and go right back to sleep.
Here’s where the battle of wills comes into play. Jeff believes in the two feeding times and no matter what – that’s when those kitties get fed. To him, feeding those kitties before that 6:30 cut off means defeat.
So we hear a lot of meowing – full-mouthed, spine-chilling meowing – from Simon the cat. It’s endless.
Me? If I’m alone in the house and I want to sleep in – I feed the cats. I don’t look at it as defeat. I look at it as happy sleepy time.
To each his – or her – own.
