The world almost ended this morning.

You're lucky if you didn't realize it, that adrenaline rush is rarely fun unless there's a pony waiting for you at the other end. Here, though, we couldn't avoid the terror.

You see, once Harley wakes us up (rather closer to sunrise this time of year than one might normally want), Bruce goes downstairs, lets Harley out of his cage for his Enormous And Inspiring First Morning Poop, starts the hot caffeinated beverages for the humans and the hot herbal beverage for the avian, puts together Harley's breakfast, and sets the bird and the food on the top of his cage. By this time I'm downstairs, just in time to see Bruce go into our basement office for work.

Today, however, Bruce came back upstairs almost immediately to see why Harley was making an Enormous And Terrifying Din. Although some of his vocalizations can be quite piercing, Harley isn't usually loud, so this morning was quite unusual. Loud. Very loud. Incessant. Angry. Loud. Did I mention loud?

Bruce came upstairs full of questions, but I had a pretty good idea. "Did you give him toast this morning?" I asked.

"No." Bruce replied. "What does that have to do with all this noise?"

"I'll bet you a dollar he wants toast. He got toast yesterday, right? So he wants toast today."

Guess who quieted down once he got toast? Guess who got a dollar? Guess who gets toast every morning from now on? Because we'd hate to be responsible for the end of the world, after all.

And aren't you glad we didn't forget his tea? I'd hate to imagine the repercussions from that one!