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My oldest cat has always had a very definite sense of herself. She has rules of behavior for herself and for me when dealing with her. She takes herself quite seriously.

When she was about 2 years old, just getting totally past the kitten stage, she started assigning herself duties. And she was very dedicated to fulfilling what she considered were her jobs.

At that time, I was working a midnight to 7 am shift. I got up at 10 pm. After a while I noticed that if I wasn't up within 10 minutes of my alarm going off, Luna would be there working at waking me up. She started nicely, licking my eyelids and if that didn't work she progressed up the pain ladder. It starts with a few slaps across the face, and progresses on up to the one that always worked - a claw inserted into my nostril and pressed down.

I left that job and started working 2 part-time day jobs, each with different starting times. Within a week she had my schedule down pat.

She knew what time I usually went to bed each night and if I didn't make any moves at that time, she would start patting me on the leg, meowing and trying to lead me to the bedroom. She knew what times I got up on different days, and once again I got 10 minutes leeway from the time the alarm went off to get up.

After a while I didn't need an alarm clock, she knew the time and got me up. I was never late for work.

The only unfortunate part of this is that cats don't know about statutory holidays, and I was always woken up even when I could legitimately sleep in.

I never get sick, have never had the flu, can't remember the last time I had a cold, so this next self assigned duty came as a surprise. One evening I ate something that was bad and I spent most of the night with my head in the toilet. During the whole sorry episode Luna was there with me. While I was hanging over the toilet bowl, she was sitting beside it. When I staggered back to bed between episodes she walked with me. When I dropped, in a drained, weakened heap on the bed, she stretched out beside me. And when I was running to the bathroom, she was running too. She never slept or left my side the whole time. It was very sweet and totally unexpected.

My other cat is still too young to feel the need to do anything but eat and play. So far his job is just to be cute, and give a lot of kisses. But I'm wondering if he too will eventually decide to assign himself a job; or whether Luna is unique in this way.

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