Ridiculous morning, Louie the attack cat

People, aspects of this morning should be erased from the books. For starters, I slept in the basement because my 8:30 last night, my eyes were spinning in different directions, and I was starting to feel fully crazed with fatigue. I thanked T profusely and told him to wake me at 7 because I had carpool duty this morning which means we need to be dressed and out of the door at 7:45. At 7:20, I awoke to complete silence; I threw myself out of bed and soon after saw the boys drilling into the yard with toy drills, barefoot and in matching bat pajamas, no adult presence to be found. It was slightly feral but I was proud of their independence, I think. No answer met my increasingly confused shout-outs to T, and I finally found him cocooned in our bed, snoring soundly. Percy was mad with hunger, the boys' diapers were near their knees (so full they were), and we had but 25 minutes in which to make and eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth and so forth. In a normal context this would be rushed by totally doable. However, you have never seen snail-pace until you've seen Jack in full-scale, "everything is fascinating" action. Home turned into boot camp, and finally we all bustled out the door at 7:48.

All fine, carpool fine, lovely morning, and so Ol and I took Percy on a walk before coming home to get ready for the zoo (yes, it's another school holiday for Ol). While enjoying our stroll and gathering pretty leaves to make one of those waxed paper stained-glass things, our zen was suddenly interrupted by a woman racing down her front stairs with a broom, screaming bloody-murder at Louie (her small, gray cat) and at us to RUN. Y'all, Louie was hell on wheels. He raced up to Percy, claws bared, hissing to beat sixty, trying to tear my poor, confused dog's face off. Woman with broom is trying to sweep crazy Louie away but to no avail, he was on the hunt. Percy ran in circles, sometimes taking air like a tether-ball. I finally had to pick him up (his heart was about to beat out of his chest) and run pell-mell down the street, just hoping Oliver was right behind me. Louie came after us for a while but at least he didn't want Ol or me. Woman with broom called out "sorry, Louie likes to defend me" as if this wasn't the weirdest effing experience ever and also kinda freaky. And really, that cat shouldn't be allowed out if it takes a woman, a broom and everyone else running the hell away.

Strange. Hopefully nothing strange besets us at the zoo.