Annabelle is so unbelievably grounded

She will never leave the house again unsupervised. She has a back yard, but I'm not so sure I'm gonna let her out there without a leash. She ran THROUGH the screen of the screened-in porch today in pursuit of the goddamn stray cats that, come to find out, the neighbor is feeding. I like cats. I like animals. You know that. But when the neighbor is feeding FIVE stray cats that taunt my dog and make her run THROUGH the screened-in porch, well, that's just no longer okay. I'm taking the selfish road on this one. I'm calling animal control. There's a leash law in Normal, even on cats FOR THIS VERY REASON. There are no less than seventeen stray cats in this neighborhood, five of whom are getting their regular meals next door. ARRRRGHHHHHH

So Annabelle was gone for MORE THAN TWO HOURS, the longest she's ever been gone. It was getting dark. She's black. She's fast. At the two-hour point, I was planning to cancel tomorrow's class and hole up in bed because my dog had died. I was crying, trying to continue calling her name, which isn't easy when you're blubbering. Julia came over to help look for her and, what do you know, Julia finds her on the way to my house and coaxes her into the car. She said Belly looked scared. She smelled awful. She got a bath and she's in bed. Never to leave the house again. We begin potty training tomorrow.