Paw Prints

Most pet doors lead outside. Our pet door leads to our basement. It's not really a pet door because only the cat can fit through it. It's a cat door. We put it there so the dogs would no longer have access to the litter box. Too many in-between meals snacks.

This morning on my way to the kitchen to turn on the coffee and let the dogs out, I noticed a trail of kitty cat paw prints coming up the basement stairs. Wet kitty cat paw prints.

"Huh?" my fuzzy uncaffeinated sleepy brain thought.

"Oh fuck!" my suddenly wide awake brain thought.

We've experienced heavy rain here all week. The drain in our basement stairwell has been struggling to keep up with the demand. We've had to monitor it, bailing or pumping as needed. We cancelled a trip to see The Boy perform this weekend to stay home and keep an eye on it.

But silly us. We went to sleep last night. When we sleep, all four of our eyes close. Unfortunately they stayed closed. So today instead of bailing the stairwell, we bailed the basement.

I am usually an upbeat person. At times, people find my positive outlook irritating. I completely understand their position. Sometimes looking for the bright spot is just not what a person wants or needs. Sometimes we just want to wallow in our misery and whine. (We all know how much I enjoy whining, after all.)

Yet I'm not whining about our flooded basement. I'm giving myself the gift of Embracing the Positive. I am awash in the glow of the Bright Spot. I am donning my Rose Colored Helmet and Cloak of the Silver Lining. And just so my extraordinary effort and how deep I'm digging can be truly appreciated, I will share a related and quite pertinent factoid.

Our house is undergoing renovation, much of which we are doing ourselves. When we first moved in, we put a bunch of our stuff in storage to keep it out of the way. Just last weekend we brought everything home. We put some of it away immediately, but the rest was crowded into... oh I know you can guess... the basement!

So call me Little Suzi Sunshine because I'm smiling! I'm glowing! I'm ecstatic! Our basement is now sparkling shiny clean and neatly arranged, a place for everything and everything in it's place (or close enough). Don't ask about the huge pile of trash out by the curb. Don't stop to wonder if anything important or sentimental was a casualty. Little Suzi Sunshine doesn't care about any of that! She only cares about our ultra-clean, ultra-dry, ultra-neat basement!

Little Suzi Sunshine needs a beer.

.