catnip and coffee

Did you ever go away for an overnight or two and suddenly, halfway there, you think: did I turn off the coffeepot?? Yeah, me too. More times than I’d care to admit. Now I make a point to unplug the coffeepot just so I remember doing it.

Well, I didn’t sleep very well last night because of that damn proverbial coffeepot. In this case, coffeepot = feline. See, while we were loading up our vehicle, getting ready for an overnight at my parent’s house for Easter, the cat was getting a bit underfoot, trying to get outside, trying to trip us, etc. So I put him out in the locked, enclosed porch. He was happy, I was happy. Two minutes later the boy let him in. Dude. So I let him back out. That’s where it got blurry.

Around 10pm last night, that fact flashed in my brain. Was the cat still on the porch? He couldn’t be. Right? I definitely remember seeing that the door was locked. But that didn’t necessarily mean the cat was let back in before the locking occurred. The boy was, of course, already asleep so I couldn’t ask him if he had the opened the door for dear kitty a second time. DH said he thought the cat was hanging around before he left, but was that before or after the second letting out? Was the poor cat huddled in the damp drafty porch trying to keep warm? Were his cute little toes and ears freezing?? Yes, I’m rambling - just to give you a taste of the circular momentum of my brain between 10pm and midnight. and 2am to 3am. Not to mention the nightmares along more horrific lines when I did sleep. Yikes.

There are plenty of nights when my mind won’t stop rolling like that, thoughts about work, paying the bills, oops I forgot…whatever. But at home, I can deal with it. Yes, 2am online bill paying has happened here in the past. Or at least writing down my worries instead of fretting over them helps. Even if I can’t read my handwriting in the morning. (I can’t be the only one who does this? Right?)

So what can you do, what kind of note can you write yourself, when you’re three hours away from home, worrying about how you’re going to tell your kid you killed the cat? Um, yeah, no idea. So I just didn’t sleep.

In the morning, the boy confirmed that he had indeed let the cat in the second time. Later, as we pulled into the driveway, the kitty happily watched us from his top o’ the couch perch in the picture window. <sigh>

Some people would say, it’s just a cat, what’s the big deal? But he’s my cat, and my boy’s cat and he’s laying on my legs right now where he’s supposed to be, and dang, he’s heavy, and he’s family.

All is right in my world again and sure do hope to get a good night’s sleep! Except, boy, I sure do have a lot of work to do tomorrow, and that guy never responded to my email last week, and oops, I forgot….crap.