Ah, poor kitty families.

Oh Theo, serial difficulties suck, and I'm sorry.

Yelling at people to get up is bad for my personal calm, and I won't do it. Because not only is it unrewarding for me (what do I get out of it?), but rather than thanks, I get curses and things flung at me. /teenaged boys. So, no thank you.

I have to say, in college I had the top bunk, and my roommate watched me climb over the foot onto the dresser, down onto the chair, walk across the room and turn off the alarm, cross back to the chair, to the dresser, and back into bed. I accused her of shutting off the alarm--I never remembered doing it. I still keep the alarm clock across the room because if I can shut it off from bed, I won't get up.

Also, previously mentioned teenaged boy's waking was put firmly in his own lap. He elected to find the loudest windup alarm clock, with the bells on top. We called it his cluck, because it didn't tick-tock, it clucked. And it worked, most of the time.

I'm sorry, Theo.

Ginger, that is an outstanding post.

Also, StY found his two-year-old tuxedo boy dead on the floor Saturday morning, and had to go to work. He couldn't leave him on the floor, and wouldn't put him outside because bugs, so he wrapped him in a plastic bag and put him in the freezer, and buried him when he got home from work. Macabre, but prosaic, my boy. He was so bummed because he rescued the kitty, and now he's thinking maybe the cat would be better off if he hadn't. Faulty thinking, but guilt won't be denied.

Thanks for reminding me, -t. That was an amazing post, Ginger. Thank you for expressing it so eloquently.

Sorry to hear about StY's cat. I'm sure he had about two more (and better) years than he would have otherwise.

I'm sorry about StY's tuxedo kitty, too. Sometimes you never know why, but he was surely better off and happier in a warm safe loving home for the years he had. (And really, using the freezer was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, under the circumstances.)

Awww, i'm sorry Theo, and Bev. Losing pets is so hard.

Aw, cats.

I don't know why, but cats make me sadder than dogs when it's their time to go. Probably because I'm a cat person.

I used to do the two clock thing when I was in the Navy. One clock next to me and one across the room set 15 minutes apart. It worked for most of my career; I never got written up!