I told you all the neighborhood cats like my house better than their own.

Jason was sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast at about 5:45 this morning when he looked up from his cereal bowl and said, "Hey, the neighbor's cat is outside!" I went over to the door to look, expecting to see stalker cat Coco. Instead, there was little Boots, Crazy Navy Wife's kitten, sitting out on the patio. It was cold, dark, and rainy, so I marched out there in my sock feet, scooped her up, and brought her inside. Apparently, little miss Boots has a penchant for running away. I let a few hours pass before I called CNW and left a message on her machine that I had her cat.

I was thrilled to see Boots again, but my three cats... not so much. Boots spent the morning chowing down on all of the edible items in sight (leading me to believe that she'd been out overnight) and chasing Jacob and Jasper around the house. Lola sat in the corner of the living room and growled menacingly every time Boots crossed her line of sight. She growled even when Boots wasn't in the room, presumably for good measure in case any more kittens were thinking of stopping by. All three of them kept looking at me with a pleading look, like oh please oh please oh please can't you just send her home, already?

My poor antisocial cats don't play well with others. I have no idea whatsoever where they picked that up. Certainly not from me... What?

Not to be left out of the fun, Coco came over, too. I don't know why, since Coco doesn't play well with others, either. It was the meeting of the neighborhood tuxedo cats. I guess Boots won the staredown, because Coco eventually walked away.

CNW came over to retrieve Boots around lunchtime. Our interaction was actually fairly pleasant this time. She even thanked me twice.

Maybe I don't have to deflate her Christmas monstrosities next holiday season after all.