What's Lurking?

Ever since I arrived home tonight one of our cats, Ginger, has been stalking through the house. Ginger has been going from room to room sticking her nose in the heating registers, scratching at the floor around the registers, and emitting mournful cries.

Ginger's behavior is making me very nervous. It's not like the cat could be crying over having dropped her keys through the slats in the register. There must be something lurking in the duct work in our house.

Come to think of it, isn't the cat supposed to be silently lying in wait for the intruder so she can pounce on it - leaving me none the wiser? This running around the house wailing out a warning in imitation of an air raid siren isn't helping anything. Whatever is lurking will only hunker down and wait for the lights to out and the house to fall silent.

Now my mind is flipping through the plots of such movies as Aliens, The Fog, Arachnophobia, and Dracula. (Hey, in bat form a vampire can fit in a heating duct.)

At least if it's a bat - or some other flying thing, once it escapes from the nether regions below the floors it will have to go airborne and I'll have a decent chance of spotting it.

But spiders, mice, or other crawly things could climb the bedpost during the night and scurry under the covers. What might seem to be an itch on my foot might be...... I'd rather not think about it.

Aaagghhhh! Jeesh! Ginger just decided to attack my foot. My laptop darned near sailed to the other side of the room.

Cats!