Another kitten picture?

Sorry, but the answer is yes, it's another kitten picture. Couldn't resist this one of Autumn playing cat and mouse with, well, my mouse. And you'll understand why I had to post this after you scroll down and read my story...
There are a few people who know all the dirty (and I do mean dirty) details of this post. For those of you who I haven't had the chance to tell, here goes:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl (okay, it was me) who loved animals. Her parents got an Irish Setter as the family dog when the girl was four, but that was never enough. The little girl LOVED cats, kittens especially (really, what little girl doesn't?). But the girl's dad was allergic, so any kitten who found its way into her home (by way of cheese and milk handouts to all wandering strays) had to remain an "outdoor cat". Thus, most of these cats met their maker early. Jumping onto the highway from a moving truck, getting caught in the truck motor (where they apparently were just trying to get warm), jumping into the yard next-door and getting eaten by the neighbor's Great Dane (yep, the girl witnessed that one...traumatized, wasn't I, Michelle?); the list goes on. The worst story is one of Midnight, the girl's one and only "indoor cat", who fought a battle with the clothes dryer, and lost. After a while, the strays stopped coming around (can you imagine why?), and the girl lost hope of ever being a cat owner. There was a "Klenk curse" rumor spreading around the alleyways: if you value your nine lives, stay away from 105 Westfield Drive. (Oh, that's a catchy phrase, I like it). Eventually, the girl grew up and became a Kelsey, and the curse ended. Or so she thought.

The point of this intro is to explain to you why I am not surprised when crazy things happen to my cats. The surprising thing to me is how Sugar (our outdoor cat) has survived eight years in our family. Incredible, really. When Autumn joined the fam as our indoor cat (and mainly Isabel's, at that), I kinda forgot about the curse. Until Sunday.

I left for work at 2pm. Around 9pm, I get a call from Isabel, to say goodnight. She happens to mention that "something bad happened to Autumn tonight". She says it in such a calm voice, I am not really that worried. Until the story progresses to "she had blood coming from her ear and now she won't walk or eat and her pupils are dilated" (yes, this is my eight-year-old talking). I tell Isabel to "put.your.Dad.on.the.phone." Joe gets on the phone, and here is the adult version. Let me just preface this by saying that Autumn is fine now. Given the A-OK by our vet. Truly, she's fine. This being said...

The house was quiet with the older two kids gone, and Gabe was taking a nap, so Joe decided to take a nap, too. Autumn snuggled on the bed with him, and he fell asleep. About an hour later, he woke up in a fog, needing to pee really bad. He jumped up to the bathroom, lifted the lids, and proceeded to, you know, pee. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, midstream, the kitten jumped into the toilet! Joe's kneejerk reaction was to grab the kitten out of the toilet and toss her onto the floor. Except the toss turned into a slide, and when Joe looked down, Autumn was knocked out cold with blood coming from her ear. He totally thought he killed the cat. Just then, Isabel walked in, saw her "dead" kitten, and ran screaming and bawling into her room. After a few minutes, Autumn woke up, but she wasn't quite the same. She couldn't/wouldn't walk or eat, and her right ear was drooping down. I was pretty much convinced she had suffered a head bleed, and in my sick mind, was even thinking about her needing a "CAT" scan. I made Joe check on her all night into the morning, to make sure Isabel didn't wake up with a dead kitten in her bed (she insisted on keeping her in her room, where Autumn normally sleeps). By the morning, she was walking and eating, but still pretty lethargic. By the afternoon, she was running in circles, a bit calmer than before but acting pretty normal. Isabel and I took her to the vet, and after a thorough neuro exam, he declared that after losing lives 1 through 6, Autumn should be fine.

Joe is sighing a huge sigh of relief right now. And I'm here hoping the Klenk curse is over for good.