Things that Go Bump in the Night

                You know those scenes in scary movies when people are awoken by strange noises and the husband goes to investigate with a baseball bat and gets chopped up by an ax murderer? Well, if we got up to investigate every thump and crash, we’d never get any sleep.  The cats come alive after our bedtime and create a variety of curious sounds, many of which we probably should check into but just don’t have the energy.

                At least once a night there is a stampede overhead.  It’s the decibel equivalent of three full-grown elephants running at full steam through the bedrooms.  How can 2-3 fluffy little creatures create that much racket?

                There is also the screeching and howling of one good cat fight, random crashes (we’ll just sweep up the glass in the morning—if we can find it), and the creak of doors opening (all but Toby are capable of getting into closed rooms).

                About the only sounds that still get our attention are running water (never a good sign) and the ominous chord of a cat jumping onto the low end of a piano.  The chord is usually startling enough to give me heart palpitations and it’s always followed by the dissonant scales of paws running up the keys and a final high pitched bang as the cat jumps onto the top of the piano. From there the cat can bat down any number of items.

On this night, Finnegan is the culprit

              Usually we try to ignore the commotion until morning when we can face the path of destruction with renewed patience.  Not all things that go bump in the night are harmful, some are just irritating.