Friday and Saturday we finally got some rain. Lots of rain. Lovely, slow, steady, soaking rain that turned everything green again. Because that rain came from the edges of Hurricane Isaac, there was also a lot of wind. I worried about Mean Little Marie out in the rain. (I don't know if I told y'all this or not, but about two months ago MLM decided to be an outdoor cat. She will not come in the house anymore at all.) It was windy and kinda cold Friday night, so I ran outside in the storm, scooped up Marie, and put her in the house. She stood at the back door yowling until I finally let her out again. Strange little cat. About 2 a.m. Saturday morning when the wind was really blowing I went outside again to try to make her come inside. In the process of "rescuing" her, I stepped on her tail and she bit me. After that, she went missing until about 10 p.m. Saturday night. Then she showed up at the back door, meowing in her cranky voice, indignant because her food bowl was full of water and not kibble. I never, ever, ever leave kibble in her bowl at night because our neighborhood is overrun with possums and raccoons. (And apparently, rats, given what I recently found in the basement.) Just this once, I thought it would be okay. When I set out the bowl of kibble, Louis Cat ran outside. Louis is a mostly-indoor/sometimes-outdoor cat. I decided to leave Louis and the bowl of kibble outside for about 30 minutes.
When I went to check on Louis about 45 minutes later, I did not have my glasses on. I'm at the age now where reading my Nook is easier without glasses. So I opened the back door to call Louis and then saw him eating out of Marie's bowl. I leaned down to pet him and said something like, "Louis, my sweetie, come in the house." Then I noticed the big furry tail. It was a raccoon! A little raccoon, about half-grown. It looked up at me with an "oh crap" expression on its face. I looked back at it with the same expression. We both stood there, frozen like that, for a few seconds, and then I very intelligently said, "You are not my Louis" and the little raccoon trundled off through the yard, climbed the picket fence, paused at the top to look back at me, and then jumped down and ran off across the alley.
Three things occurred to me:
1. I will wear my glasses at all times forever more.
2. I really need to get some electricity on the back porch. (There's only one outlet besides the washer/dryer hookup. No lights.)
3. I feel like the woman in this commercial: