Banished

Thing 2 loves to sleep with Olivia, and Thing 2's bed is Olivia's favorite place to sleep, especially in the winter when the electric blanket is on. Win/win, right? No ... because Olivia is a cat, and when she wants out of the room, she wants out of the room now ... and if you don't comply immediately, she starts knocking things off the dressers and beside tables ... until the door is opened and she can leave.

It's not an uncommon to hear Thing 2 yelling at Olivia in the middle of the night, then opening her door and tossing the cat into the hall. Olivia, satisfied that she got her way, sets off to do whatever it is cats "need" to do in the middle of the night.

When she's done, she usually walks around the upstairs hall, singing the song of her people, begging one of us to let her in. It never works ... even when she went through her "I'm-going-to-cry-until-you-let-me-in-even-if-it-takes-all-night" phase. So she lays across the hall from Thing 2's door, positioning herself so that neither of us can miss her when we open our doors in the morning ... trying to look as pathetic as she can to make us feel sorry for banishing her and making her sleep on the floor ... like an animal. I suspect she's slept most of the night in her comfy, memory-foam mattress kitty-cat bed until she hears one of our alarms ... which is her signal to man her post in the hall and look miserable and neglected.

Thing 2 is working full time and going to school full time, When she's not at school or work, she's either at church, with her boyfriend, at her sister's house, or off with friends. She's at the age where a normal night is a late night, even when she has to be up at the crack of dawn for work or school. She's never sorry she threw Olivia out in the middle of the night ... and Olivia is never allowed in my room ... so her morning "patheticness" doesn't phase us in the least.

Thing 2 wised up, and usually banishes her before she goes to sleep. Knowing this, Olivia will race Thing 2 to the bedroom whens she comes home each night, practically knocking Thing 2 down on the stairs. When Thing 2 gets to her room, Olivia is hiding or on to the bed, pretending to be sound asleep. Sometimes Thing 2 takes pity of her and let's her stay, but most nights she's tossed into the hall ... where she has to sleep on the floor ... like an animal.