I crawled in bed around 10:30pm last night and grabbed my HP Lovecraft anthology. I know that reading Horror right before bed is a dangerous prospect, but it's also more effective to read horror when you're in a silent house late at night. Until last night, this hasn't really been a problem.

Until last night.

Last night I started reading The Rats in the Walls, wherein we get a long build up of the haunted nature of the house before our protagonist actually begins sleeping in the house. Lovecraft uses the protagonists' cats as the omen of fear in the story. A cat sleeps across his ankles at night, but when the supernatural stuff starts happening, the cat on his ankles freaks out at the rats skittering and wakes him up.

Ok, it's spooky, but nothing that should really freak you out.

Except that MY cat, Artemis, decided for the first time in a week to sleep... yes... on my ankles.

Ok, it's spooky, but really just makes you a little uneasy.

Except that my cat woke me up when she freaked the hell out as squirrels leapt onto the roof and started skittering around.

Waking up to your cat freaking out and the sound of little animals' claws scratching everywhere after falling asleep while reading The Rats in the Walls... is not cool.

Not. Cool.