At 3 a.m. this morning, I awoke to every single light on in my bedroom and surrounding areas – think bathroom, hall, night table, etc…and my  husband standing in the middle of the floor looking perplexed. “Uh,” he said, “what am I supposed to do with that?” I, in my half awake state mumbled “What the heck are you doing (or something close to that)?” He replied, “Trying to figure out what to do with the squipmunk.”

Okay, now I’m officially confused and not the least bit convinced I’m not dreaming. First of all, what the heck is a squipmunk and secondly, why are you standing in a well lit room half dressed wondering what to do with it?

“I thought I heard ice falling off the roof,” he said. “I got up to check it out and seconds later the cat came down the hall in a fit of cat crazies (or so I thought). Turns out he was chasing this here squipmunk. Not sure what I’m supposed to do with it.”

“Oh,” I said “You should take care of that.” Then I promptly went back to sleep.

Upon waking this morning both man and ‘munk are missing. Granted, the husband normally goes to work, and his car was removed from the garage. Yet, there was no sign of the regular morning struggle – you know the strewn clothes, the uncapped toothpaste, the toast crumbs. Yup, all missing along with both man and ‘munk. Uh!

And the entrails – shouldn’t there be entrails or blood or some representation of a life and death struggle between cat and ‘munk? Shouldn’t the cat at least be gloating and acting full rather than meowing at the top of his lungs because there are – gasp – only two morsels of cat chow left in his bowl?

Not to mention the dogs. Both greyhoundd bred to chase small creatures were soundly sleeping on the bed with me this morning when I opened my eyes – come to think of it, pretty sure I felt a warm lump last night when all of this was apparently unfolding. Clues, in my opinion, that no struggle occurred. Yet this morning, half buried in the snow, I saw this.

Could it be a shallow grave? Did the squipmunk try to save itself or was it an imprint from my husband’s shoe? We will never know, but dream or no dream it’s lucky for us that the cat and husband were on night watch and not the dogs or I. If it were up to us, the story may have ended quite differently. The real question, if this was not a dream – are there more squipmunks and are they still lurking in the walls waiting for me to nod off?

I think it’s time to invest in another cat.