Jumpin' for money

Jesse's school is participating in the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope For Heart event. If you'd like to sponsor Jesse, you can donate money at his event site here.

Something seemed amiss this morning when I realized I hadn't yet yelled at our cat Greely for climbing in a drawer or knocking something off the dresser or lying on my work clothes. Greely (A.K.A. Greely Bob Rodriguez) usually wakes me up a few minutes before my alarm goes off by licking me on the face and ears. Then he and Nellie (the other cat, A.K.A. Nellie Precious Snowball, and Nellie Belly) have to follow me into the bathroom to keep me company while I shower. But this morning, it was only Nellie. Then at 7, it finally dawned on me that I hadn't seen Greely all morning.

Our first cat, El Gato Jones, used to disappear on us all the time, but he was old and cranky and would find a hideaway space for some peace and quiet and then refuse to come out. Greely is young and annoying and always underfoot. I asked Jesse if he'd seen Greely, and he said that yes, Greely had been in his bedroom that morning. I asked SkooterPie if he'd seen him, and he said Greely was just in our bedroom. How, I wondered, could they both have seen the cat but I hadn't? They're both full of it, that's how. After 15 minutes of searching the house and calling his name, I finally found Greely in the kitchen, trapped between the wooden door and security door that leads out to our back yard. At about 1:30 a.m., I had nudged SkooterPie awake and told him the dog, Sadie, wanted outside. Greely must have slipped in between the doors at that time, so the poor thing had spent the night there. I have to wonder if Sadie Girl had trotted over there to taunt him throughout the night.