It was early when I woke. Cato was sleeping next to me. I hear the barn owl nearby, streaking past the windows, but I couldn't see anything through the skylight. The full moon was hidden by clouds. It had been raining when I went to sleep, but now it was silent outside. I dozed and then came to consciousness and realized there was something scrabbling on the ceiling. No, it was scratching at the wall. No, ceiling, no wall, then – I stood up to get a fix on the sound. The cat didn't moved, instead he snored in the congested way he does. A 'huff, huff', and then a long draw in breath, like he's going to suck the whole room into his lungs.
As I walked around my house to get a fix on the sound, it began to pour. The rain smacked loud on the skylights above where Cato slept. He woke and gave me a half-shadowed yawn. The scrabbling stopped suddenly. So did the rain. Then I heard it; the barn owl. This time the owl was closer; now on the roof. The rain beat again and then there was a loud happy cry as the owl, talons open, swooped in for the kill. Cato smiled……..
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