Porch Intruder

A couple of nights ago, when Sean was out of town, I was closing up the house to get ready for bed.  I checked the front porch carefully and made sure everything was locked.  Then I checked the back porch carefully and made sure everything was locked.  Got into bed with three of the six buddies, all of whom were ill in some way:  Otto's still trying to get his stitches to heal and Wanda and Reggie both have a pretty bad cold.  I read for a few minutes, but was troubled by the fact that I kept hearing peculiar noises that sounded like they were coming from below the back porch.  

I got up, peeked through the window on the porch door, and nothing looked amiss.  The back door seemed to still be closed and it seemed quiet out there.  I got back into bed.

A few minutes later, I heard something that sounded like someone making scratching sounds near the hamper beside the door.  I sat up, turned on the light, looked around.  Otto, Wanda and Reggie were still on the bed, snoozing away.  

Turned off the light one more time and tried to go back to sleep.  Finally, I was wakened out of semi-slumber to hear the unmistakable noise of something trying to get in the door to our bedroom!  Whatever it was, it was vigorously scratching and making a pretty valiant attempt to get in--whump-scratch; thump-scratch.  I was pretty sleepy by that point and didn't think before I went to the door and threw it open.  (It sounded like a non-human animal, after all, and I'm not afraid of many of those.)  Suddenly, a black and white streak ran past my legs into the bathroom and then Sean's office.  Poor Elroy had slipped past my legs as I was doing final porch check, and I had (once again) managed not to do a head count.  It only took Elroy until the next morning to forgive me (unlike other cats I could mention), even though I felt pretty horrible about it.