April 28th, 2010
Insane conversation in my hallway just now
From beyond my apartment door: incessant meowing
(RR opens door, cat comes scurrying down the hall to greet her.)
RR: You’re a cat!
Cat: Meow meow meow!
RR: What are you doing here? Where are your people?
Cat: Meow etc.
RR: Where do you come from? (RR begins walking down the hall; cat trots along eagerly, doglike) I don’t know where you come from. Is this your door? (pointing at door) This one? Do you live here?
Cat: Meow, purr. (rubs against RR’s legs)
RR (continuing down the hall; no doors are open; it is too late to be knocking on strangers doors): Is this your house? Where do you live?
Cat (appears to recognize nothing; purrs)
RR: Well, I don’t know. (returns to apartment) No, you can’t come in–you have to stay out here so they can find you! No, I’m sorry, you are a very nice cat, but your people will want you.
Cat (sadly rejected, goes away)
????
RR
Note 1: Yes, this conversation happened out loud, not in my head.
Note 2: I have lived in this building since 2004 and never before tonight been to the other end of the hallway.
Note 3: Having a nice little cat appear at my door and volunteer to live with me is a longstanding fantasy of mine, and it pretty much crushed me to turn it away.
Buy the book:
This cat wasn't by any chance black, with yellow eyes, was it?
I ask because yesterday afternoon the neighbour popped by to see my new pup, and as I opened the door, said black cat darted through.
"Is that your cat?" said the neighbour.
"I don't own a cat," I said, and retrieved it from my bathroom. In fact, my wife is allergic to cats.
I turfed the cat out. It hung out on my porch until nearly midnight, and made three more forced entries.
And this morning, it was gone. So….
April 28th, 2010 at 2:43 amThis is pretty much exactly how I got my cat, Molly, except I was at a payphone outside my apartment. Took her in, put up posters for a month. Nobody claimed her, so she's been with me for close to six years now.
April 28th, 2010 at 5:31 amOh RR, how did you possibly resist!
April 28th, 2010 at 9:23 amThere is a cat missing from Pearson Airport.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/801372–cat-missing-in-westjet-mix-up-at-pearson?bn=1
Maybe you found it?
April 28th, 2010 at 12:36 pmi like 'meow etc.' this is how i am going to start answering the unanswerable questions of my undergraduates.
them: 'i do not understand, um, phonology? could you explain it again?'
me: 'meow.'
them: 'what?'
me: 'meow, etc.'
April 28th, 2010 at 4:27 pmRR: You're a cat!
Cat: Meow, meow, meow.
Thank you for the best laugh I've had so far this week.
April 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pmDon't worry for me, guys–that cat had disappeared by the time I went out the next day, and I'm pretty sure it went home to its owners (and was not, as a friend suggested, a "ghost cat." And then Wednesday evening, coincidentally, was the night that my friend dropped of her cat to stay with me while she's on vacation. So I am sufficiently catted–for now.
AJ, that's a very very weird coincidence. I wonder if all MR winners were assailed by cats on Tuesday. We should ask Amy!!
April 30th, 2010 at 5:50 pmRR
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