Training a cat

Many years ago, there was Levi the Cat.
I got Levi before I was married. He was my first roommate.

Levi and I got along great. However, he had a very annoying habit of pawing at my pillow just minutes before my alarm would go off.
On one hand, this was impressive as he obviously had learned how to tell time. On the other hand, he gave me the urge to make kitty slippers out of his hide for waking me up early.

And I can admit that it's my own fault, because I fell into the habit of giving him food and water any time I woke up in the middle of the night, just so I wouldn't have to bother with the chore later in the morning and generally, he'd leave me alone after getting what he wanted. (Typical male!)
Well, he figured out that he got fresh food as soon as I woke up... hence, wake me up sooner, get food sooner.

So, I set out to re-train him not to do that.

On mornings when he'd let me sleep until the alarm went off, he'd get lots of attention and special, yummy kitty treats.
On mornings when he'd beat on my pillow, he got shoved off the bed and got no treats. "No treats for noisey boys!" (It was probably the only English he ever finally understood.)

We went through this drill for months.
But I was persistant. Dang it, I was tired!

After a year of "training", Levi finally learned.

Because...
One morning, Levi was NOT pawing at my pillow!
Oh no.
He was pawing at my alarm clock, trying to make it go off early.