Portait of a Midnight Caterwauler, in Repose

Near the village, the quiet village, the lion sleeps tonight . . .

One of the things that has been happening lately is that heavy thunderstorms with loud thunder and strong lightning have been ripping through our area in the middle of the night.

Now, I don't mind a good daytime thunder-boomer; in fact, I kinda enjoy them on occasion. But I don't like my sleep cycle being messed with, and neither does Dexter!

The night before I took this photo, several powerful storms moved through between midnight and 3 am. We were all trying to sleep, of course, and it just was not possible.

Dexter has his own room where he goes at night to sleep. Around the time I go to bed, I put him in (providing a small bedtime snack of dry food and a few treats) and close the door. When I get up in the morning, I let him out.

Thus the sleep of the humans is protected, as is the safety of the tabbycats, as this arrangement ensures that no tabbycats get mistakenly stepped on by half-awake humans who just might get up and wander about in the middle of the night. Everybody wins.

Well, with the storms and all, the night before this, Dexter had had ENOUGH. And so he began caterwauling loudly in the middle of the night and pounding on the door of his room until we let him out into the general population. It was just too much to bear, I guess. And none of us were sleeping, between the thunderbooming and the caterwauling.

And then we all tried to go back to bed, sort of, but you know how it goes when you have been thoroughly awakened at night. Sometimes sleep just doesn't come back. And so all of us were looking rather bleary-eyed on this morning.

This is a picture I took of that snoozing tabbycat shortly after noon on this day. As you can see, Dexter (unlike the humans) is not having any trouble catching up on his Z's.

And perhaps on this night, there will be no storms, and that tabbercat (as I sometimes call him) will sleep as soundly as this. And we will ALL get some rest!!!!

The song to accompany this image is Ladysmith Black Mombazo and the Mint Juleps, with a wonderful rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.