well, it's official. mike and i will be terrible parents.

charlotte, our oldest cat, enjoys waiting by the door while we unlock it and when we come through with our various bags, mail, transportation devices, etc., she sneaks out the door between our legs and hangs out in the hallway. if we follow her out into the hallway, she trots down the hall and looks back occasionally to see if we are following her.

eventually, she'll trot back to us and lay on the ground, meowing, and begging to be pet. after that, she's ready to come in again.

(can you guess where this story is going?)

the other night, mike came in with his bike really late at night. he found me sleeping on the couch, woke me gently and we both went to bed.

(you should see where this is going...)

the next morning, i woke up because fred was meowing at me and baxter was fighting my foot. turns out, they were just hungry so i went into the kitchen and fed them. the strange thing was that charlotte, who also happens to be our fattest cat, did not show up. charlotte ALWAYS shows up for food. that's when i panicked. i opened the only two doors in our apartment that could have closed on her and she wasn't there. i flung our apartment door open; she wasn't in the hallway.

that's when i went back into the bedroom and flung the sheets off mike. "our cat is missing and i have to go to work so you have to find her!"

he eventually found her on the first floor, cowering in the corner, alive but unhappy.

now i would have thought that she would stop going out after such a traumatic experience. not only is that not the case, but we think she has boasted to fred about her adventure because now he's always hanging by the door when we come in.

i just know that we're going to leave our kids at a gas station someday. good grief.