The cats decided to become rambunctious at 3 am last night. It started with running up and down the hall. The thumping woke me up, but once I realized it was cats and not a herd of small elephants, I drifted back to sleep … for all of then minutes.

First there was a very loud thump, which I recognized as Ronin jumping off the kitchen table. Then the standard series of thumps as he ran down the hall with a full head of steam behind him. Finally, Ronin smashed into the mostly closed bedroom door with an impressively loud thud, it flew open, bounce off the box behind the door, and swung back again just in time for Myu, hot on the heels of her brother, to smash into the door with yet another impressively loud thud … followed by the door hitting the box behind it and bouncing back and almost closing completely. Naturally, this led to cats clawing at the door to get out before the suction of the air conditioner closed it all the way, which means they clawed and clawed and the door finally squeaked noisily open.

I hissed at them, and they scuttled down the hall and were quiet … for all of ten minutes.

They repeated the entire escapade again, this time with Myu in the lead, and as soon as they were in the bedroom, both of them set to clawing at the closet door like mad things. I tried hissing at them. I tried pounding my hand on the bed. They would not be dissuaded from clawing at the closet door. I finally had to sit up in bed and shriek “What are you cats doing?!” They may not know the meaning of the words, but they do know that particular series of human sounds means they have gone too far and are in trouble.

Myu immediately jumped on the bed, rubbed up against my arm, and threw herself down for belly rubs. As though a cat I just had to scream at was deserving of belly rubs. Well, she got them. What can I say? I am weak-willed where kitty bellies are concerned, and she can be very, very cute even when getting into trouble. Ronin, on the other hand made as much noise leaving the closet area as he possibly could, intentionally opened the bedroom door farther than it was already open and made the door squeak as slowly as he could, and then ambled down the hall squawking loudly and repeatedly. I could still hear his expressing his displeasure when he arrived at the opposite end of the house, where I also heard him dumping out the water bowl.

It took me forever to get back to sleep, mostly thanks to Myu insisting on lying right beside my head while licking every square inch of her body. I kept moving her away, and she just came right back, as though that were the only place on the planet where she could possibly bath herself.

Tonight, in order to avoid a repeat of last night’s unauthorized cat activities, I will be wearing them out with their favorite feather toy right before I go to bed … though I am so tired today, I could probably sleep through any amount of noise they could possibly make.

Got to love them though. Got to! They are my babies, and after all, nothing got destroyed except my ability to get a good night’s sleep.