Spooked

How freaked out would you be if you had just spent the night all alone in your house for the very first time and when you got up in the morning to use the restroom there was pee in the toilet?

And you knew it wasn't yours, of course. I was brought up to flush, thankyouverymuch.

I was a little freaked, but I'm pretty sure it was Romeo, who always appears slightly disgruntled at not getting to be a human, though I've tried explaining to him that being human is overrated. It's been a few years, but I've "caught" him peeing in the toilet before. I never got a chance to encourage him because he thought he was in terrible trouble and dashed off. I've caught him going in his water dish, too. I think he used the toilet last night because it's cold and rainy and he didn't want to go outside.

Of course, now he's on the bed right next to me, back legs splayed in the air, making enthusiastic schnorking noises as he cleans his nether regions. See, Romeo? I'm telling you, humans can't do that.

My mom was easily freaked out by strange sounds and other odd little things and I inherited that trait from her. She told a story about lying in bed in the dark as a child, petrified with fear, because there appeared to be a burglar smoking a cigarette in her bedroom. (It turned out to be a firefly.) And I remember one afternoon when she had gone out to run errands and I was in the house by myself, I heard a rustling of papers and a low groaning noise from the living room, then footsteps coming towards the room where I was. I ran and hid behind a door and grabbed a broom to whack the intruder with, and it's fortunate that I didn't; because it turned out to be my mom, who had gotten home without my hearing her, and sat down at the desk in the living room to pay bills.

Mom... This morning I woke up from a dream about her. I was in my old apartment, by myself, when the landlord came in to tell my my mother was there to see me. I thought he must mean my stepmother, my mother-in-law, something like that. But it really was Mom, and when I ran to her crying, she hugged me and stroked my hair and told me she loved me and everything was okay.

I don't know if I love those dreams or hate them.

It's cold outside, and rainy and gray. How lovely to have no one to answer to and nothing in particular to do today. Romeo's finished his morning ablutions and fallen asleep. It's a perfect day to stay home and help him hold down the bed.