Purr-sistent Knocking

I met my husband in college when we were both freshmen. After knowing each other for a month, we were dating; shortly after that, we knew there was something serious. During winter break, we both went home to our families, and arranged that I would visit him for New Year’s (my parents lived closer to our college, and he had come to Thanksgiving with family).

I met his parents with the expected nervousness, and they were gracious and pleasant. We had a nice afternoon and evening together, and I retired to the spare bedroom to get some sleep.

I was awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a knock at the bedroom door. Confused, I opened it.

I found myself face-to-face with my then-boyfriend’s father. He looked INCENSED. In the fraction of a second that followed, I frantically thought back on the preceding few hours. What had I done wrong? What had I done that was so offensive that he was waking me up before sunrise?

And then he swiftly crouched down to the floor and picked up the family’s cat, scolding it.

Boyfriend’s Father: “You woke up our guest! Naughty cat!”

The cat, I learned, had a habit of reaching its paw under closed doors to shake them. The “knocking” that woke me up was actually the cat shaking the door. The sound had also roused my then-boyfriend’s dad (who I’d startled by opening the door). He’d rushed out from the master bedroom to try to stop the cat, just a moment too late!