Cat Man Don’t

Years ago, our cat Emoji started spending a lot of time at a neighbor’s house. The neighbor would often call and let me know Emoji had been there for hours (or more), and I’d go pick her up. Then she’d escape and go back. After a few months of this, my neighbor and I had to sit down and have the talk. It was clear our cat preferred our neighbors to us (partly because us included a couple beagles). And so it was that our cat disowned us and moved to a home with humans she preferred. Hence, this article from Lauren Collee in the LA Review of Books hits a little close to home. Except the ugly part. I exclusively deal with hyper-attractive pets. Ugly Cats and the Loneliness of Man. “I felt a weird vertigo; I could sense the neighbors developing the same story about Hildy as I had, except this time, I was the neglectful owner, and they were her happy ending. Sure enough, over the weeks that followed, Hildy began visiting the neighbors for longer and longer stretches, coming home only to be fed. They sent me photos of her lolling about on their laps, assuring me she was safe. Eventually, she stopped coming back to our place at all, and I stopped trying to collect her. We went out to the pub with them and talked about Hildy for hours. At the end of the evening, we invited them to take on full ownership.”