Philip and Aurora: The Mystery of the Midnight Panic

Photo of Philip from a random day 'cause he's cute and this post is mostly about him:

We woke up in the middle of the night because Philip was running at top speed between the two rooms upstairs, and it sounded like panic. It took a little while to find him, and we ended up looking under both beds.

Under one bed, we found him crouched and looking tense. It took some coaxing, but he did come out and accepted head scratches. He seemed fine, no injuries or anything.

Under the other bed we found one of Husband's shoes.

Just one.

The other shoe was still downstairs where he left them.

Forgot to take a photo in the moment,
so here is a dramatic re-enactment

We've thought about this a lot, and we're pretty sure Aurora carried the shoe upstairs, because we just don't think Philip could do it while wearing the cone. And there's no way the shoe going upstairs was an accident. It would have needed to go up the stairs, take a hard left, a right, and then another left to be put where it was.

But did Aurora put it in his blind spot like those people online scaring their cats with cucumbers?

Or did she share her triumph over the shoe with him, and he played with it until one of the laces got wrapped around his paw or caught in the cone and he panicked?

Or something else that I haven't thought of?

It bugs me that I can never know what really happened.

Bonus photo: Aurora looking super judgy, but doing it in only a semi-hidden spot.

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Philip and Aurora are fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in either of these cats!