Scary Cat

I've heard it said that parents can detect the tiny differences in their child's particular cry, so that, even among many other sounds they can pick out a call for distress. I know myself, that even in our noisy house, I can usually hear my kids from one extreme corner of the house to the other and determine if there's trouble. 

My wife has an even sharper sense for these sounds. 

"Which one was that?" I said to her earlier when I heard a heavy sigh from outside our room.

"The girl," she said without even blinking. 

She was correct. I was impressed. 

But as good as both of us are at hearing and identifying our children's sounds, our cat Maggie is even better at imitating those very sounds and fooling us. 

"Ooowwweee," was the sound that got me off the couch earlier tonight and up two flights of stairs at a full clip. When I reached my son's room on the third floor I blinked and searched in the dark for his crib and expected to see a wakeful and upset little boy. 

"Sound asleep," I said to myself, looking down at his peaceful face, "What the?"

"I know I heard something," I said again and looked into every corner for the source of the sound. 

"Ooowwweee," went the sound again a few minutes later, and I ran down a flight to check on my daughter. 

"Sound asleep," I said quietly again. She was sleeping too. 

"This is not a ghost," I said aloud and then again to convince myself, "This is not a ghost." 

I was thinking it might be a ghost. 

It was just as I was thinking that I was loosing my mind that I turned and saw a little pair of shining eyes peeping out from under the coats in the hall closet on the second floor. 

It was our little black and white cat and she'd been making a sound so close to a human voice that I'd been completely fooled. 

I reached under and gave her head a few rubs. I was impressed. 

Happy Halloween Maggie.