I woke up this morning, as I have the past few mornings, to a herd of elephants masquerading as an unknown number of small children stampeding back and forth across my ceiling. I was also snuggled by two cats, so the morning wasn't a total loss.

I let Thena out on her harness and leash, as she regularly insists I do, and settled on the couch to get in some serious cross-stitching time, something I haven't had the time to do much this weekend.

All was going well, I'd opened the window for Venus to look out of, it's a beautiful day out, Venus came over a few times to cuddle on my lap (and interrupt my cross stitching time), and then the calm was broken by someone outside screaming epithets.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time this has happened, so I didn't pay *too* much attention to it.

Until the words sunk in: "You cocksucker! You just ran over a cat!"

Cue me, racing to the backdoor to check on Thena, slipping on the floor in bare feet (a feat, pardon the pun, that I hadn't achieved before).

Thena comes in, the guy is yelling how he's sorry and hadn't seen it (this probably happened before I opened the door; I don't operate well in panic mode), and a few other neighbours emerged to see what was going on. Maybe hoping for carnage, I don't know.

I did overhear someone making a phone call and talking about an emergency, but I don't know if they were calling the emergency vet clinic or what.

I threw on some clothes (bright pink pyjamas aren't the best for wandering my streets), and walked up a block to see if I could see anything, but didn't. Either the cat was taken by someone to a vet, or it didn't happen on my street (or the portion of it I saw), but I went back inside. And lectured the kitties on how this is why I get mad when they run out the door on their own (okay, just Thena does this; Venus is a chicken), hugged them, and started crying.

My adrenaline is back down again, and I can hear periodic yelling, but no words. For all I know, it's coming from upstairs, which again, isn't surprising.

And yes, Thena was fine.