What happens when the mice are away?

Andrew was in Toronto all week for IBM Oracle training. Since I was scheduled to teach in Boucherville at the beginning of the week, the kids stayed over at Magdalena’s (their former full-time nanny) until Wednesday. So Tuesday night, thinking I had an opportunity to catch up on my sleep, what with having the house to myself and the bed to myself, too, I went to bed nice and early.
The cat meowed for an hour after I went to bed.
The radio went off in the morning and I rolled over, thinking “I feel like I’ve had no sleep” (or as close to that as one’s brain can think on no sleep). I looked up at the clock – to find the cat sitting on top of the radio, and that it was 4:15 a.m.
The following night, with the kids snug in their own beds, the cat was silent all night. So apparently her attempts at communication on Tuesday were meant to let me know that the kids were missing, and how come I wasn’t doing something about it. She’s a weird, weird animal.
I guess it serves me right, since while Andrew was away, I cheated. That’s right, I confess… I had chicken stew at home Tuesday evening. Since Andrew is vegetarian, based on his aversion to animal cruelty, our home is supposed to be meat-free. So I felt a little guilty eating my can of stew… on the other hand, as I told him when I confessed, I am pretty sure the chicken in question died of old age, so perhaps the stew was chicken-friendly. On the other other hand, given his feelings about animal cruelty, it’s a good thing he wasn’t around at 4:16 Wednesday morning.
Now it’s the weekend, everyone’s home safe and sound, and life is back to normal. Whatever that is.