Sunday, 30 March 2003 | Visitor

I let a picture into my apartment. It happened months ago, and for some reason I never told you about it; I only mention it now, because I just got back a picture I took of it, sprawled out on my kitchen floor with an arrogant sort of lean.

It was a Saturday, sometime back in January, I think, and it had been howling all morning. I'd wrongly assumed that the noise was coming from outside and I'd managed to ignore it, until I walked in the kitchen and noticed the echo bouncing off the walls in the hallway. I opened the door a sliver, just enough to see it and for it to see me. It ran over and butted its head against my outstretched hand, making me pet it passively as it bumped my fingertips with its hard and soft head. I quickly closed the door, and put some dry pebbles on a plate and stuck the plate in the hall. No interest. Next, I dropped wet food on the plate, shaking it from a sticky spoon, and set it back in the hall. The cat completely ignored the wet food, something I hadn't anticipated, since, my cat, in contrast, will eat almost any food that's put in front of her at any time, often eating so much that she pukes.

Without giving it much thought, I closed my cat in my room and opened my apartment to the intruder. It was not particularly interested in me, but was fascinated by lots of different smells I probably don't know about. I watched as it inspected corners and shelves and furniture, combing my place over, cataloguing its odors. It would find a comfortable spot, stay there for 30 seconds, and then circle the living room and kitchen again. It was pretty clear to me that it had accidentally escaped from another apartment (otherwise it probably couldn't have gotten in my building), and I had no intention of keeping it. So I let it back out.