Every day before today...

... I awake with the fear of a cat attack. It starts off small -- a scratching at the door, a meow here or there -- then becomes a full on assault. As I'm walking downstairs, he'll walk one step ahead and wait until my foot is nearly on top of him, then bat at me to trip me up. While I'm pouring a glass of water, he alternates using the cabinets and my legs as a scratching post. During my morning yoga, he'll pace next to my mat, and just when I think he just wants some exercise too, he'll swipe at my fingers, or a piece of hair dangling down and end up scratching me. When I put him outside to escape his behavior, he scratches endlessly at the door, or worse, meows/howls. We have a screen door that he is fond of clawing at and banging it against the door frame to let us know he wants to come back inside and continue his streak of terror.

This isn't my cat, the horrible beast belongs to my roommate, and last night, I told her I've had enough. So in lieu of finding an appropriate sedative, she agreed to bring him outside with her when she left for work this morning so he wouldn't be around to bother me as I went about my routine.

He didn't start rattling the door until I was almost done with sun salutations and since he thought no one was home, he stopped after only 5 minutes -- so that was a relief. I wanted to let him in before I showered, but he wasn't on the porch by the time I had finished my meditations. As I was walking out the back door to work, I heard ferocious meowing. I walked down to the basement door, and nothing. I looked around the yard -- nope, not there. I walked back up to the porch to lock the door, completely befuddled as to where he was and how he could possibly be making that much noise. I took one last glance around. My eyes were drawn to the neighbors porch -- it's only a few feet away as we live in a row-house. The cat was sitting there, meowing at their door. Obviously, he couldn't hear me (he's deaf) and didn't notice me banging the door to get his attention less than 15 feet from where he sat. I began to walk through the yard, down our stairs and back up theirs, and just as I was heading into their gated yard, he spotted me, and ran back through their fence, up the stairs, and then patiently waited for me to come back and open the door for him.