In the event of an intruder...

One of the things I've always wondered is how the cats would react if someone broke in. Would they saunter up to the guy, meowing for attention? Or would they run and hide?

Last night I was having a dream that someone wanted me to follow her because she wanted to show me something she had that was just like mine. I followed her to a wall where she pressed a blue button. "See?" she said, "That sounds just like your door buzzer."

"Oh, you're right!" I exclaimed. "It does!"

"No, that is your door buzzer," she said. "Wake up!"

I sat bolt upright in bed, trying to decide if the buzz I'd heard really was my door buzzer or if it was part of the dream. I had just decided that it was a dream and that I should go back to sleep when my buzzer gave a long bleat. I looked at the clock - two AM - and then scrambled for my glasses and robe. Quickly, I ran downstairs.

While I was dressing and getting downstairs the buzzer went off twice more, short blips as if the guy was pressing hitting my button by accident while pressing someone else's. I looked through my peephole but didn't see anyone in the hall. My buzzer kept going off and I could hear my neighbor shouting through the wall.

"What the hell do you want?" my neighbor asked.

"Lemme in man, lemme in," said the voice through the intercom. He sounded drunk. My buzzer kept going off.

While I was keeping an eye on the peephole Cider walked up behind me and sat down, eyeing the door. I was surprised since normally she hates the sound of the door buzzer and runs away whenever it goes off.

Things calmed down for a moment and I walked away from the door, thinking about going back to bed, when Cider suddenly stood up and murmured. I went back to the peephole and saw what Cider had heard...one of my neighbors had come up and was opening the hall door, looking for whoever was outside in the lobby. I watched through my peephole. He left, unable to find the guy who had been ringing our buzzers.

At that point Cider turned around and walked back upstairs. I wanted to stay downstairs for awhile longer - although I felt the guy wasn't a serial killer or anything, I know that a belligerent drunk and a woman living alone are rarely a good combination - but instead followed her to bed.

I kept a light on and slept fitfully until 3 AM when I heard the hall door open. Someone walked up to my door. I heard some rustling and clicking. I looked over at Cider, who didn't twitch an ear. For the second time that night I grabbed my glasses and robe and ran downstairs. When I looked through my peephole I didn't see anyone, but then I realized that if he heard me running up to the door maybe he ducked below the level of the peephole. I dropped down to the floor to see if I could see anything through the crack at the bottom of the door.

I did see something.

My newspaper. Sheepishly, I went back to bed.

Now, I'm not saying that Cider would defend me to the death or anything like that. I'm not sure if she would even hiss at an intruder. But it's interesting, and slightly reassuring, that she seems to know when something's up and should be investigated.

Oh, and where was Rusty during all of this?

Asleep.

Oh well. I guess I can count on one of my cats to be my burglar alarm.