Sunny flattens his ears anytime Roadie comes near his food bowl. After all the kitchen, living room, dining room and basement are his domain.

This really is not news to anyone who is owned by a cat. My master Sunny Cosmos has controlled all the members of my family with his purr-cry since day one.

But, I guess it's good to know somebody did a study of this and it is official--my cat is my master.

"The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore. The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex.

"Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom," says McComb.

This is certainly true at our house. Sunny has never adjusted to the time change. Now, instead of showing up at our door at 7 a.m. he arrives at 6 a.m. and occasionally at 5 a.m. and begins his annoying feed me cry.

Since Roadie, our dog (and Sunny's arch enemy) has arrived and taken over sleeping in our bedroom, he views this cat noise as a sign to rise and chase Sunny. In fact, we've taken to leaving the door open wide enough for Roadie to fit through so he can chase Sunny away from our door.

This has saved us a lot of time and effort in throwing pillows and other soft items at Sunny to make him stop his insistent demand for food.

And, for any of you animal lovers out there who think we are being cruel--have you seen Sunny? He never misses a meal at our house or at either of the neighbors' homes that he visits daily.

Nor do dogs, children, squirt guns or hissing noises deter him. In fact, Sunny Cosmos isn't afraid of much. It's one of the kingly traits that help him control his pets.

McComb suggests that the purr-cry may subtly take advantage of humans' sensitivity to cries they associate with nurturing offspring. Also, including the cry within the purr could make the sound "less harmonic and thus more difficult to habituate to," she said.

I have three grown children and three grandchildren and I have to tell you none of them have ever made as annoying a noise on as regular a basis as Sunny does at 6 a.m. Worse--he does it even when he isn't hungry. He just wants to make sure there is always food in his bowl.

McComb said she thinks this cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring, "but we think that cats learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans."

"In fact, not all cats use this form of purring at all," she said, noting that it seems to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners rather than those living in large households, where their purrs might be overlooked.

If this is true, then I guess our household isn't big enough--we have too much one-on-one with Sunny--especially at 6 a.m.

But, after all, what can we really do--Sunny is our master and we are here to serve him.