Someone stole my houseplant.

Sitting outside my apartment door, getting good sunlight through the exterior window. It happened a few weeks ago, I suspect it was "guests" of the party-animal woman about my age by the looks of her, who recently moved above me.

She is either a bartender, or just keeps odd hours, and brings her friends home around bartime. And... they don't take off their shoes/boots when stomping on the wood floors. Rude, really.

But it's the plant that bothers me. Had it for years and years, and while I have cuttings and other large plants of the same type growing, I miss it. I don't have children of my own (but I've been blessed to be an aunt of 3 of the best); no pets either, being a renter and occasional traveller. But the houseplants?

Love em, care for them as needed (less is more!), and you can't tell me that healthy houseplants -- I prefer the tropical variety -- just don't dress up even the shabbiest place (I rented in Madison student stock too). They look great with wood, the greens and decent pots and saucers underneath 'em. (The thief left the large saucer; how will he/she know to water from below, letting the roots absorb only what they need?)

Taking from others is lousy. Especially something living and loved, even if it's just a carefully nurtured houseplant, over time. I hope my plant is still alive somewhere out there -- when I gave a smaller one to the neighbor across the hall last year, I showed her how easy it is to root the cuttings, and hers has prospered.

All it takes is one lousy neighbor -- inconsiderate of, or perhaps ignorant of the need to respect neighbors. (One woman works the morning shift at the local radio station; she leaves about 3 or 4 am, and must be getting to bed early too. The single dad upstairs works 4 10-hours with Fridays off, and he's up and out by about 5am too. His son is a freshman who catches the bus by our mailboxes around 7:30am -- it's generally a quiet building on the weekday evenings -- really, the weekends too.)

My plant was taken on a weeknight, and did I mention the fire extinguisher in the hallway disappered the same night? Drunks who don't control their guests... you wish she was either smart enough to consider who she's bringing home, or had some set of personal principles -- ie/ No Stealing. -- that she enforced on her guests too.

One bad egg doesn't spoil the bunch though, and I'm hopeful things will get better as opposed to worse. Still, it's lousy when people take from you, especially right outside your door, something living and loved. I can't imagine what people who lose pets -- or god forbid, children -- feel about their loss weeks later.

And here I'm only worried about overwatering.