Tuesday, 24 August 2004 | Contraption

It turns out that I am not the only one in the building who feeds the gray stray, and, man, am I totally outdone. Lately I've been throwing a handful of food outside my window in Pavlov response to the stray's meow. Of course the food bounces and scatters in the alley, but the cat finds it, scurrying around in what looks like an Easter egg hunt in fast forward.

Today I noticed my neighbor's brilliantly simple contraption, one that even I may have been able to engineer, had I thought of it: a cheap baking pan and a really long string. The pan, which is cradled by the x-shaped string, is filled with cat food and then slowly lowered down from the fire escape like a bucket in a well. Naturally, after the cat is finished eating, the pan is retrieved. I'd be a little jealous of my stranger neighbor's ingenuity, if I weren't so busy admiring it.

I was sitting by the window this evening when I saw the pan float past, on its way up. Later, after dutifully tossing out some food for the cat, I looked up and saw the pan beginning its slow descent.

That animal has no idea what it created.