Cats and Dogs of a Feather

Michael can sleep through anything. Not me.

So when a tiny muffled meow came from somewhere in the house one night, I was UP.

Lou the cat is not a big meower. She’s more of a snacker, relaxer and hider. But she does like to go “on patrol,” as we call it, in the middle of the night. As soon as the lights are all turned out and things are quiet, we’ll hear the little click-click-click of her claws on the hardwood floors, climbing the stairs, finding out what she may have missed during the day.

But meowing? Never.

So even though it was 3 am, I was instantly up, trying to clear out the sleep in my head and figure out what was going on. I went to her usual hangouts – the guest bedroom, the upstairs den – no sign of Lou, but I could still hear the constant meowing. By this point, even Michael was awake and beginning to become alarmed.

Lou had me to herself for ten years before Michael came into the picture, so they pretty much have a love-hate relationship. (Mostly Michael would love for her to stop hating him.) When even he started sounding concerned, it was enough to move me towards full-blown panic.

“Do you think she could have gotten out somehow? Maybe she’s on the roof?” he asked.

Well, no, Michael, I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for putting that scenario in my head.

We decided to divide and conquer, exploring the house separately, with Gibson the puppy now awake and getting excited that there might be an opportunity for some late-night wrestling and running around.

Where could she have gone? I still hear the meows, but I just can’t detect where they’re coming from. As I’m looking through every potential hiding place in the utility room, I suddenly hear Michael call out, almost blasé: “I found her.”

Turns out Lou was in our closet with the door closed. From what we could tell, she’d been in there when the air conditioning kicked on, which caused the barely-cracked-open door to shut behind her, trapping her inside.

The next day, as I was on the phone with a friend telling her about our late night adventures and how silly ole Lou managed to get herself locked in our closet, the air conditioning kicked on.

A few seconds later: The muffled sound of a puppy barking.

This time I knew immediately where to look.