So here I am dozing peacefully with the window open, 3 am, and Sei jumps up and runs to the window, tail bushed.

Now Shu, the Night Fury, our fierce black Bengal that no stranger should try to touch, is great at attacking people IN the house, and will defend a hotel room against all comers, is ok with most anything going on OUTSIDE.

Sei, our marshmallow, never bites, never hisses, gentle-natured Scottish Fold, is the one that will alert on anybody approaching the house in the dark. Sei was the one who caught the thief trying to make off with the snowblower. He bushed up, flicking his ear at the front window (hey! there! there! there!) and I got up from my easy chair and scared the blighter out of a few years of life. I did get a look at his face before he ran like a rabbit.

So I take it seriously when Sei alerts. And he was telling me there was something wrong in the garden. But I’m not the spring chicken who’d go on burglar patrol with a firearm back when I lived on the undeveloped edge of town in Oklahoma. I just turned on lights that shine into that space, and alerted Jane, who turned on the front lights. But I wasn’t going out there in the cold dark, hunting for a prowler.

Neither was I getting much sleep, because Seishi wasn’t giving up his watch on that window. By now I figured it wasn’t a human intruder, who’d, unless he was stoned out of his mind, not likely hang about when the lights went on—but I didn’t want a raccoon taking after the koi, either.

So I watched a number of hours of How the Universe Works, wide awake, with a very jazzed cat, until the first of daylight, at which point Sei wanted out of the room and I finally tried to get some sleep.

Went out this morning to do a tour and figure out what was going on…and the only thing amiss was the tarp blown off the fridge and range we have sitting out on the patio waiting for Habitat for Humanity to come get them. We presented ourselves with a nice new set, but could not stand reasonably ok appliances being carted off to recycling. So we called Habitat, and yes, they’d take them. So there they’ve stood through several rains, with another possible, and they should get them this week.

I think that made a noise Sei didn’t like, though he couldn’t see it from my window. At any rate I feel as if I’ve been run over by a truck and hope that as the day progresses I’ll wake up and function.

Sei still gets credit. He’s a good watchcat.