Yet another midnight mystery

although this one happened at about 10:30 -11 pm.  We were in bed watching TV, when there was a HUGE thud and then kitty scrambling.  I popped out of bed, and walked calmly (didn't want to add to any hysteria) down the hall in time to see Skippy scrambling like cartoon character who just ran off the side of a cliff.  We have hardwood floors, so when they aren't paying attention, they easily can loose their footing.  He was puffed up to twice his normal size, and completely freaked out.  I looked around, and had no idea where the thud came from, but thought it wise to do a head count.

The only way to do a head count in our house is to throw some treats on the floor.  The sound of the door that the treats are kept in (why is that door sound different then others? I have no idea) usually peaks interest, and the rustling of the bag or container they are in will get me a musical cacophony of "oh please mommy!!" mews.  Where as the sound of the treats (usually just straight up dry food) hitting the floor gets them all happily munching and kitties in the far reaches of the house will come flying.

Not last night.  Everyone was so pumped from what ever happened, they were a little reluctant to eat.  Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your perspective) Muffin doesn't have that problem.  I have never seen her turn down the opportunity to eat.  Her eating, led to Jack eating, which led to Fleurp, which led to Ollie.  Skippy came out of his corner still quite puffed, and I could hear him thinking "well if they are eating, I guess the world isn't coming to an end"  DH was out and about trying to do a head count as well. He's not as good at it because he counts who is in front of him, and gets lost.  I however start at the oldest and work my way down, and we figured out that Kit was no where to be found.  We searched upstairs and down, then switched and then met up again in the kitchen.  I then spied her little head peeking out from behind the sofa.  DH came walking over (not very calmly) and she hid again.  I told him he freaked her, so he stopped, and she peeked out the other side.  I calmly talked to her, and indicated him to slowly walk to see her (since she loves him, I thought seeing him would calm her) but she refused to move.  He walked to the front of the sofa, and she hid under it.  I went to the back side and laid down next to it to see her.  I eventually was able to get her out from under the sofa, which I'm not usually inclined to do with a scared cat, but I needed to make sure she wasn't injured before we went back to bed.  Her eyes were huge, and you could tell she was ready to bolt if I gave her the chance.  I gave her a quick once over and then held her close and tried my best to soothe her.  After five minutes or so, she seemed to be ok enough to let go, but she immediately headed at a quick pace (at least she wasn't bolting blindly) to go hide.  We went back to bed, calling her as we went so she would know where we were.  After 10 minutes or show she showed up on the bed (on top of DH of course) but you could tell she was still quite wary and was waiting for what ever happened to happen again.

Fortunately this morning all was forgotten about the turn of events, and life was back to normal.