Conference misery::feline_v1

    Holly hates alarm clocks with a passion, and flys away asif the devil
    himself were after her.  The others could care less.
    

Dilly simply sits on the clock radio -- which has effectively RE-SET the
alarm to late morning twice this week....luckily, I wake up by myself at
approx. 7:30 during the week....It's a little late, but as a programmer-type
most of the time, it isn't terminal if I get in at 09:00...

Hannah always gets up off the floor next to the bed (during the summer, anyway)
and puts her front paws on the bed and meows at me to WAKE UP when the alarm
goes off.  AS I sleep on that side of the bed, I wake to her bright blue eyes
looking into mine...and she is talking a mile a minute.  I've heard of worse
ways to wake up.

    Alarm clock?  If Snoopy sleeps in my room, I never get to hear it go
    off.  She always wants breakfast between five and five-thirty in the
    morning, and expresses this desire to me by sitting on my face and
    crying.  (Actually, a lot of walking up and down the bed is involved
    because at five a.m. I tend to dump her on the floor or push her
    towards my feet.)  She hasn't been sleeping with me lately 'cuz since I
    moved I haven't had a place to put her litter box where she can get to
    it in my room, and she really, really needs one at night.

    The alarm clock isn't too much of a problem anymore but the phone
    really gets to two of mine - it rings and they'll walk right up to and
    screem at it - they really get mad especially if I've been holding or
    brushing them.  My other one will make sounds in his sleep when it
    rings - way off in his subconcious I guess he's saying something like
    "pick the dam! thing up - can't you see I'm sleeping".
    
    Giudi +3

    Re: .-1
    
    This reminds me of an old neighbour who had a dog that used to run
    around the house like mad whenever the phone rang, so if they ever had
    to leave the dog in the house alone for eny length of time they would 
    phone up and let the phone ring for a couple of minutes to give him his
    daily excercise!
    
    M.
    

    My Mom's cat, TAFFY figured out how to answer the phone.
    It was so cute...the phone would ring and he would jump on the
    table and pick up the receiver with his paw.   When I knew my
    Mom wasn't home...I use to call just to talk to Taffy....the
    bad part was he never figured out how to hang up!
    
    One of my cats (can't figure out who) has walked on my radio/alarm
    clock in the middle of night and stepped on the button to turn it
    on.  I bet the designer of that specific radio with push buttons
    on the top ...didn't own a cat!!!
    
    Sandy

    My Alarm clock is a "telephone/alarm clock". The cats BOTH know where
    the snooze button is & they step on it if Dave hasn't shut the darn
    thing off within a suitable amount of time. I like that, cuz I HATE
    alarm clocks! I don't need em' cuz I get up on my own (on time, too!).
    Dave sometimes will fall back to sleep & the cat will wait right there
    for it to go off again in 10 minutes. If they have to hear it go off
    enough, they'll jump up onto his belly (& sometimes other places!:*O)
    to tell him, "SHUT THAT DAMN THING OFF, NOW!!"
    
    Other times, they'll walk right by & step on the speaker phone button.
    After they do this, they look back at the clock like, "OOPS! I didn't
    mean that!" and they'll step on it again to shut it off!!! No kidding!
    
    This stuff should probably be in the WEIRD CAT topic!! ;*)

    Snoopy can't answer the phone, but she can leave (and erase!) phone
    messages.  She walks on the buttons--once I came home to a message,
    'Mrow.....mrow?'; she must have stepped on the MEMO button.  After I
    heard her play back some messages I put the machine where she couldn't
    walk on it (she never saves the messages for me.)  She didn't seem
    particularly surprised by hearing voices come from the box--it probably
    never dawned on the dippy cat that it should be strange.
    
    Lisa Dean and Snoopy

    My husband is in business for himself and has his office in the house. 
    The voices of certain customers coming through on the answering machine
    seem to get to the same two cats that yell at the phone when it rings. 
    Ha, they sit there on the floor looking up at the machine and have this
    conversation with the incoming message - it's really funny.  Once in a
    while I'll call from the office and leave a "message" for the cats
    knowing that they are listening - just a little something to let them
    know I'm thinking about them during the day.
    
    Giudi

    Well, I thought I was the only weirdo who called my cats to say HI!
    I'm sure they come out to inspect the area too, because sometimes
    the outgoing message I leave on the machine has been erased. They step
    on the record button & all the caller hears is the cat walking across
    the speaker. It wouldn't be so bad if they'd "MEOW" into the speaker!
    
    We used to have our cable box on top of the TV, but moved it below, 
    because Tabitha would sit on it & change the channel. This was
    completely unintentional at first, but after she realized she was
    getting a rise out of us she did it for kicks!!
    
    Bonnie

    You mean to tell me there are cats in this world that actually
    let their people sleep long enough to be woken up by an alarm?
    
    Usually mine decide to be affectionate about 1 hour before I'm supposed
    to get up.  Or, they decide its too cold on top of the covers and its
    time to get under them.  Or, Amelia wants to be cuddled between my arm
    and my body.  Or, Bailey is ready to be fed.  Or, Carrie jumps off the
    window sill and onto my head.  This list can go on for quite a while.
    
    Jan

    One hour before?  try 3 a.m.,when Little Bit decides it's snack
    time....
    

the person who invents a quality clock radio with no dials on the top of the
box is going to be VERY VERY RICH...all cat owners will be lined up to get
one.

	D-who-is-once-again-late-due-to-Dilly-deciding-to-turn-off-the-alarm

    Well, this morning I was allowed to sleep till 5am.  Onxy kitten
    decided he had to have his affection and he had to have it all right
    now.  I petted and cuddled as well as I could in my stupor until he
    finally settled down next to me on the bed.  About 1 hour later I
    noticed there was something wet next to me.  It seems Onxy was so
    comfortable he decided it wasn't worth the walk to get to the litter
    box right next to the bed.  This is the only part of kitten training I
    hate (litterbox reinforcement).  My comforter is getting quite a washer
    workout in the last couple of months.  They also favor bath towels and 
    the cat beds that belong to Bailey, but, my comforter is still their 
    all time favorite.
    
    Jan
                                                     

    Our clock radio has the tuning dial on the side.
    
    Poppy likes to get on the bureau and rub her head against the 
    clock radio, changing the station from classical radio WCRB 
    (none of this classical stuff for me) to new music WFNX 
    (I'd much rather wake up to the Talking Heads).
    
    Maybe a clock radio in a cat-proof case?
    
    Kate
      

    Well, I have to report that Onyx is pioneering new ways to wake
    me up before the alarm.  Monday morning at 4:30 I heard something
    really loud in my ear and felt something crawling in there.  I woke up
    with a start and realized I had a kitten wrapped around the top of my
    head from ear to ear and as best as I could surmise he had generously
    shared one of his fleas with me.  Said flea was tromping loudly around
    in my ear canal.  Not knowing quite what to do and wanting that flea
    out of my ear NOW! I ran to the bathroom and drowned the little sucker
    in alcohol.  I'll spare you the gorey details but after a lengthy time
    of trying to figure out if Mr. Flea was out of my ear or washed further
    in I finally went back to bed.
    
    Needless to say, I slept with wads of tissue in my ears last night and
    was very glad I did when I was woken up at 3:40am with Onxy snuggling
    up to my head again.
    
    My allergist's assistant check my ear today when I went for my allergy
    shot and aside from scratching it inside trying to get the stupid flea
    my ear appears to be okay.  Will keep an eye on it for a while just to
    be sure.
    
    Jan

    Oh the joys of being owned by kitties..........
    
    :^DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

    Now THAT is quite an alarm clock you've got there, Jan!
    
    :*D
    
    Bon

sounds like you need to de-flea your little "headrest"....

    Believe me Dian.  I am trying.  He's had two flea baths in as many
    weeks...and I've bombed the house and bathed everyone else at least
    once each.  The adults are do for another bath this week.  I'm
    making progress on teaching him to sleep somewhere else although I
    do lose some sleep in the teaching process.  Funny thing is that when
    I do find him curled up around my head now its usually a few inches
    farther away than the first night when he was imitating ear muffs.
    
    Jan

note of experience:

bombs don't do it.  Spray, directly applied to baseboards, carpets, and the
stuffed or caned furniture will do the job...just get you and cats our for
several hours when spraying directly on surfaces.  Don't forget the bed
boxspring and mattress.  Several brands of spray will kill eggs and fleas....
good luck.