Like Bob Dylan says ...

So, Tinks was out all night last night, which is not all that unusual, but it worried me a little, but the weather was so warm I figured he was out getting his hurrahs on while he could.

Soda is my bed cat - Unless it is uncomfortably warm in the house, he will curl up next to me and sleep all night long.  At night, I'll be watching TV and he'll be sleeping on the coffee table (no, I don't know why), and I'll get up and shut the TV off and get ready for bed and then go back out into the living room and shut off the light, at which point he'll wake up and hop off the table and follow me into the bedroom and jump on the bed and wait until I get settled and then curl up next to me, and we're really just like an old married couple except one of us is a cat.

And Pony?  Since he got shut out of his favorite sleeping spot, a cat bed in the foster room (he could still go in there at night but he won't because pesky KITTENS), he has taken to sleeping in the pet bed underneath the kitchen table.  (I don't know WHY they choose these places; I really have no idea.)

But Tinks?  He's an outdoor boy at heart.  Born outdoors, raised outdoors until he was taken into rescue, he prefers to be outside at night, or at least out in the garage, where he sleeps on top of the dryer.  (I told you; I don't KNOW.)  I keep some beach towels folded up there for him.  I think he likes it because it's by the back door, and he can monitor nighttime comings and goings.  He usually comes in at some point in the night, hopping up on the bed and then right back down again.  I think he's checking up on me.

Anyway, I woke up at five this morning and realized that he hadn't done his usual bed check, and I got up and flipped on the light to the garage and he wasn't there either, so I was a little worried.  As long as I was up, I fed the other two, who become restless right around that time anyway, and checked on the fosters, and went back to sleep, or at least back to bed; I was still worried about Tinks and making up all the ridiculous scenarios that one does when someone is not where they are supposed to be.

Of course, about a half an hour later, in he came, and then pretty soon it was time to get up for real, and then SOMEone brought in a mouse, which Tinks disposed of in about three big gulps, and when I left for work, they were talking on the radio about storms today, but it wasn't until after I GOT to work that they started talking about high winds and tornado watches and heavy downpours and a severe drop in temps and it was right about then that I realized that I'd left just about every window in the house open to catch the last of the warm weather.

So at lunchtime I headed back home to close some windows, and then the rainstorm came, and I was up on Windy Hill when the wind started, because I am not the brightest of people, and when I made it home there was an inch and a half of rain in the rain gauge, and two out of the three cats were in the house but soaking wet, meaning they got caught out just like I did, and I shut all the windows and wiped up the water and shut the pet door so they couldn't get back out into the maelstrom and headed back to the office, which took twice as long as usual because there were downed power lines and flooded streets and oh my goodness I am tired of driving in wild storms, which seem to come more and more often, and

that is my Monday.  So far.