Cat Adventures
Last night:
I have a terrible time getting to sleep usually. One of the cats (the black maine coon with looong fur)
likes to sleep on the pillow at the top of my head. This usually doesn't harm anything since I use my OTHER pillow. Until he sweeps that long soft fur tail across my face and I itch the rest of the night, that is.

Well, last nite was difficult but at least I got SOME sleep. Some adolescent dweeb set off fireworks in the street (our bedroom is in the front of the house). Woke me up and I had just gotten to sleep. Silently cursed the chinese invention of gunpowder and rolled over and went back to sleep. Lucky me. An hour later they do it AGAIN. This one was an M-80 with a huge loud "BANG" right in front of the house. I about fell out of bed. Thought about what I would do to whoever thought it was a good idea to set of those things after 10:00 pm- (by now it was 1:30 am). IF I could catch them.

An hour later, ANOTHER one goes off, right outside the house in the street again! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! That one got me out of bed and rushing to the front door to see if I could nail whoever was doing this. Not a soul anywhere around. Its 2:30 AM for the love of .......... what the heck are these people thinking. Theres no party that I can hear anywhere near or I would have called the cops the first time.

I FINALLY get back to sleep and here comes the cat. He had been up on his pillow and been off a few times but it generally doesn't bother me. Until last nite. He was meowing in a peculiar way on his way into the room which is what woke me up. I could see in the light from the nite lite in the hallway that he had something in his mouth. I thought "Oh carp, hes got a dxxx bird". This is sans glasses you have to understand and I am blind-I can make out shapes but thats about it. He jumps up onto the nightstand with this thing in his mouth and I could hear this weird buzzing, very fast fluttering noise when it dawned on me "THIS WAS NO BIRD" Its nite and birds are not out for cats to catch at nite and DANG IF THAT NOISE DIDN'T SOUND JUST A LITTLE BIT LIKE A RATTLESNAKE. AUUUUGGGHHHH!

I must have leaped into a full body stand about 5 feet from the bed (I have a bad hip and this had to have been quite the feat, but I don't really remember HOW I got there, just that I suddenly was.) and somehow in there grabbed the flashlite AND my glasses on the way there. Got the glasses and the flashlite on.

He had a Moth. This was no ordinary moth. It was the size of a Gold Finch. I think they are called Pharaoh moths. They are mostly gray and huge-nothing fancy except for a little rust color on the lower wing parts. I remember seeing them all over my mothers honeysuckle at night, some of them were as big as bats there. A good way to catch one is leave some washing on the line all night and you can almost bet you'll find one in the folds if they are around. I found him in the basement a little while ago and took him outside-he seemed none the worse for wear-flew off into the night......

Maybe I can get some sleep tonite. Sigh.