A Strange Visitor

My perspective: Like many nights, I am awoken in the very early morning to the familiar feeling of a cat jumping onto my bed. Of my four cats, Misha is the most likely culprit—she wanders around the house all night, stopping for the occasional nap on the various beds throughout the house. I reach out my hand to pet her, expecting her soft, kitten fur, but am instead greeted by course, wiry hair that I don’t recognize. It’s too rough to be either of my kittens, and the cat’s body is too slender to be that of my older cats. Confused, I open my eyes to a sight that only confuses me more: an unfamiliar black and white cat is sitting on the edge of my bed. It jumps down and exits my room, leaving me completely bewildered in my groggy state. Questions tumble clumsily through my sleepy head; am I dreaming? Did we get another cat that I’ve somehow forgotten about? Or did one of the neighbor’s outdoor cats somehow break into our house and make its way to my upstairs bedroom? I blink the last remaining traces of sleep from my eyes before stumbling out of bed to investigate.

The strange cat’s perspective: I wander around outside each night and have become familiar with the features of this neighborhood, but tonight, something is different. I’m visiting my favorite house—the one whose lawn is drenched in the smells of at least two other cats—and I notice an opening into the house that is not usually present. Some sort of door on the ground had been left wide open, leading down into the home’s underbelly and releasing undeniably intriguing scents into the fresh night air. I do what any self-respecting cat would do and leap right in to explore. It is dark and quiet inside, but my senses lead me up a set of stairs and to a convenient bowl of cat food. I devour it quickly, the hair on my back beginning to bristle with the sense that I am being watched. I continue to explore the house, bounding up another set of stairs and into a small, dark room. It smells overwhelmingly of other cats in here, and I follow the scent up onto a bed. I don’t immediately recognize any cats, and just as I am getting ready to investigate further, a hand reaches out and touches my fur. It jerks back suddenly and I notice the human being that it’s attached to open its eyes just as I jump off of the bed. I should probably get out of here.