I own a cat.

At least I think I do. I’m not sure.

It all started one day when I got home in the afternoon. I entered my apartment with a sigh of relief and threw myself onto the couch – survived another day at work. My legs ached from standing around by the factory line all day, so it was nice to spend a few minutes doing nothing before I would get on with the rest of my day. Probably going to watch some TV, or mess around on the internet a little… but then my thought process was interrupted by an odd sight.

When I lazily glanced towards the living room doorway, I noticed that the corner of the carpet was… for a lack of a better word, clawed all over. The fabric had ugly, torn lines across it, and the stitching was undone in several spots. I knew it wasn’t like this when I left for work that morning.

I got up from the couch, curious as I knelt down next to the carpetal destruction, trying to think of what could have happened here while I was out. Did something get in? How? Everything was locked – the door, the windows… Maybe it was something in the air – bad conditions can snap fabric, or so I’ve heard…

Just to be sure though, I went around the apartment to check each room. “Maybe something DID get in somehow,” I thought, but I couldn’t find anything. Before I could get too confused by this mystery though, the doorbell rang.

It was my old neighbor, Mrs. Barnett. She was a kind lady, but the years were getting to her. She was leaning onto her walking stick, holding some kind of bag in her other hand.

“Erwin!” She chirped with a wrinkly smile. “Good to see you! Haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Good day, Mrs. Barnett.” I replied with a nod. “Yes, I’m sorry, I’ve been busy with work…”

“That’s fine, that’s fine!” she said. “I won’t be long, really, but I saw your cat the other day! Very nice kitty, told me you treat him really well!”

“…What?” That confused me even more. Was she imagining things? In her old age, it wouldn’t have surprised me. “Mrs. Barnett, I don’t have a cat.”

“Seemed a little thin, though!” She continued like she didn’t even hear me. “So I thought I’d bring over some food, make sure you got a little until you buy some more. Here!” She raised the bag with her shaky hand. Confused, I took it. Cat food. Rather cheap.

“Uh… um, thank you…?” I said, looking back at her. She looked completely serious about the whole thing, which convinced me even more that she was just imagining things.

“Oh, don’t mention it!” She shook her head. “See you around, alright?” With that, she shuffled to turn around and head back to the apartment opposite to mine.

“Uh, yeah. Have a nice day, Mrs. Barnett.”

After the confusing exchange, I closed my door and looked at the bag in my hands. I thought about the possibility that something might still be hiding in my apartment, so after pondering it for a moment, I headed to the kitchen to grab a small bowl and fill it with the cat food. Might as well. What do I have to lose?

I set the bowl out in the hallway, then went back to the kitchen to make a sandwich for myself and move on with my day. I watched some TV, argued a little with someone on the internet, the usual stuff. When I finally felt tired and decided to go to bed, I passed by the bowl in the hallway. That’s when I noticed – it was empty.

In light of this new evidence, my first thought was that something really did get into the apartment. To test it, I put some more food into the bowl, then went to bed. It was gone by morning. I left out more food over the course of the next few days around mealtime, and each time it was gone soon after, yet I never saw what was eating it. I tried watching the bowl, a few times even from hiding, but nothing happened. Then I left for five minutes and it was gone. The destruction didn’t stop either. I noticed the carpet was more and more scratched up with each passing day. One time I found the toilet paper ripped up in the bathroom, too.

Is there a cat in my house? I needed more proof. A week later I went out to buy more cat food as well as a proper bowl. I bought the cheapest one I could find, an orange plastic one with the name “Tiger” on it. It works. I also bought a scratching post – maybe I could still save what’s left of my carpet’s corner. Before I left the store, I also decided to buy a litterbox. Might as well be cautious and prepared…

From that point onwards, I put some cat food in the bowl twice a day with an amused “there you go, Tiger”, and cleaned the litterbox every couple of days. The food was always gone without exception, and the box and scratching post were used frequently – in turn, my carpet stopped coming apart ever since. I don’t know exactly when, but sometimes along the way it stopped being an attempt to find the loose animal in my house, and became me taking care of a cat that may or may not exist. Despite the circumstances, it was a nice change of pace to have a pet around the house, to liven up my boring days a little... even though I’ve never actually seen it.

A year had passed like this. Then one day… I went to buy more cat food in that small corner store near my home. It was convenient not having to go to the supermarket for it. On that day though, as I left the store, I tripped and dropped the bag. It landed on the asphalt with a thump and a rip. None of it spilled out, fortunately, but it still soured my mood…

It only took me a couple minutes to walk home, but as I was fumbling with the door, I heard a meow. It was an orange tabby cat… seemed like it smelled the cat food from the ripped-up bag, and followed me home.

I glanced at it for a moment. “Uhh… Don’t look at me like that. I can’t keep you. I already have Tiger, and…” But the moment I uttered the name, the cat started purring and rubbed up against my leg.

 “Mmh… alright, fine. Tiger, huh? What a coincidence.”

When I leaned down to pick up the cat, it didn’t attempt to run away. It didn’t even flinch. It just kept staring at my shopping bag that held the cat food. I headed up to my apartment, and filled the cat bowl with food first thing. The cat wasted no time digging in, like it was somehow familiar with the routine already.

Was this all a big coincidence? Was there a connection between my old "cat" and this newcomer? Maybe. Maybe not. I decided not to question it anymore. Tiger making the apartment a lot livelier was answer enough for me.