We have all become such creatures of routine that when anybody deviates
from what's expected, we all notice.

Amelia is *always* right underfoot when I'm dishing up gooshy food in the
morning. On the rare occasion when she isn't I'll find she got locked in a
closet, or perhaps slept in a bit. This morning I put the food dishes down
and didn't see her, so I walked through the whole house looking for her.

Trapped in a closet? Nope. Sleeping in? Nope. Sitting in a window watching
birds? Nope. I finally decided to see if she might be down in the basement
using a litter box. As soon as I opened the door to the basement stairs,
there she was - sitting on the top step, looking through the gap in the
door (there's a brick in the door so the cats don't get locked out of the
basement). I picked her up and carried her into the kitchen, and she
immediately went back to sit on the top step.

Ok, now I'm worried. Amelia is a chow-hound. She is always the most eager
to eat when I put down the dishes. I checked her out and couldn't see
anything obviously wrong, so I figured I'd let her be and come home to
look in on her at lunch time. I was hoping that maybe she was just a
little bit spooked by the thunderstorm that rolled through this morning.

Sure enough, when I got home at lunch time she was out and about and
mingling with the other kitties, and came to me for pieces of my chicken
sandwich. Either she was scared by the thunderstorm, or she wanted to
screw with my head.

Dan