Counting Noses

Max temp: 30 degrees F
Min temp: 16 degrees F
Wind southwesterly at 40 kts

This morning I dreamt that the kitchen door had come open and we were outside collecting our cats. As is often the case in dreams, while the door was undoubtedly our kitchen door, the outside area had transformed into a version of my Aunt Joy's backyard in Washington, all green lawn and sunshine.

In my sleep, I mentally went down the list of cats...Johnny, Newt, Red Fred. (Apparently my sleeping brain hasn't yet accepted the fact that Newt can't go missing any more. She is where she will be for all eternity now.) I spent considerable amount of time in my dream trying to coax Red Fred close enough to grab.

As a hangover from the dream, when I left for work this afternoon, I gave the kitchen door an especially strong tug when I closed it, making sure it was securely latched.

Still, about five pm, I had a call from Denny.

"How many cats are in the house?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I had the back door pop open while I was out working in the wood pile. I'm trying to figure out if any are missing. How many cats are in the house? I counted thirteen."

Well, I know we have twenty-eight cats but to come up with the number actually in the main house off the top of my head was hard. I started with the ones that would be the most difficult to retrieve.

"Is Grendel in?"

"I've seen Grendel. She's in."

"How about Clarence and Lola? Are the Toe-Wraiths in?"

"Yeah, the Toe-Wraiths are inside..."

"Okay, let's see--Punkin, Dinky, Bunny..."

"Yeah, they're here..."

I finally had to log in to the cats' webpage to get a roll to call. I am sure that given a few minutes, I could have come up with a list but I didn't want to risk overlooking someone, not with the wild winds and weather.

We finally determined that there should be fourteen cats in the main area of the house. Since Pickle Boy had gone into the back rooms to visit with "the bros", that left the thirteen that Denny had accounted for.

Still, I did another nose count when I got home. Just to make sure.

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