A Crappy Tuesday Morning

I went to bed shortly after 9 last night and woke up at midnight to use the bathroom. About 20 minutes later I was awakend by the light turning on. I sat up and opened my eyes, about to ask the husband what he was thinking, when I realized the person standing in the doorway wasn't the husband. There was a strange black man in my bedroom doorway and he'd turned on the light in the hall behind him - all I could see was a silhouette. I didn't scream, but I did yell "Hey". Then I yelled to the husband that there was a guy in the house. As soon as I made a noise, the guy took off. He was probably down the stairs before the husband got out of his study.

We chased him downstairs but he was gone out the back doors, which he had left wide open. We spent a few minutes collecting ourselves (at this point, Sofie decided to bark, but only once) and looking around to see if anything was missing. Not much was... about $80 in cash out of my wallet and my cd case. We didn't realize that was actually gone until later, but I knew it wasn't in sight and that bothered me. Then we stopped and realized we'd better find all the animals. Sofie was with us. She'd been in bed with me and followed us downstairs. I went up and checked under the bed and found Baxter and Quincy, but no Darby. We couldn't find her anywhere.

We searched all over the complex for her and nothing. She's not afraid of going outside and we assumed she took the chance with the open doors.

When the cops came and we told them what had happened, they said it sounded like the same guy who had been in an apartment one street up. Two guys were on their balconey when they realized someone was rifling through their living room. They asked him what he was doing and he took off... Considering there were lights on in our place, the guy was either high or has balls of steel. We're lucky he didn't have a weapon or anything. That's when we figured out the cd case was missing. The husband had stacked some library books on top of it and those books were on the floor when we ran downstairs. We figured the guy took the cash then went upstairs and got busted. On his way out he grabbed the case and dropped the books. Why else would he leave behind the husband's wallet and my digital camera?

Anyway, after the cops left we went to Kinko's with our missing cat flyer and had them printed. Then we drove around putting them up all over the neighborhood. It was about 3:30 by then. In my desperate search for Darby, I investigated every little movement - saw a raccoon. We went home and sat together for awhile, all 5 of us. The husband finally made me go to bed around 4:30. I slept with the lights on.

I got up at 8 to call into work and let them know I would be late, then took Sofie for a walk. I kept looking for Darby everywhere and nearly lost it as I passed the fliers. I went back to bed until about 10 and decided I couldn't take it anymore, that I needed to go to work and get my mind off of it, that it all seemed like a bad dream. Baxter came in and sat down by the bedside table while I sat on the edge of the bed talking to the husband. I don't remember what I was saying, but I noticed him walk past me towards the foot of the bed when my mind did a slow motion thought process where I said to myself "that should be Baxter but it has spots." I swooped down and picked it up and it was Darby! I held her out to the husband and started crying. We don't know for sure where or why she was hiding, but it was her.

She was pretty spooked and kept going back under the bed. The husband said she hadn't gone downstairs at all today (he found a pile of poop in the bathtub, which is something Darby doesn't do). I don't know what that bastard did to her to freak her out so badly.

In the end we lost $80, some cd's and several hours of sleep. We also spent $20 on fliers and will probably have to rearrange the bedroom furniture. But we are 6 again and that's about all that matters.