I have a new friend

My neighbor is an elderly man who, to be frank, I worry about frequently. He doesn't seem to be able to take care of himself very well.

Now he's disappeared....the cops actually broke into his apartment on Saturday night to make sure nothing had happened to him, and he was gone. We think he has family, and we hope that they've taken him somewhere. Surely if he'd just gotten lost he'd have been found and come back by now.

Anyway, Mr. Castro apparently has an adorable cat for a pet....a cat that he lets out of his apartment to roam the halls of our apartment building (the stairwell, actually). Well, before Mr. Castro went to wherever he went, he let kitty out, and kitty's been locked out of her home ever since.

A few of us are looking out for her....food has been put down, and not one but two litter boxes have appeared in the hallways. Yesterday morning she was trying to get into my apartment when I was going to work...it broke my heart not to be able to let her in. So I made her a little bed out of a box and a blanket. A neighbor told me she spent much of the day in it.

When I got home from work last night, I didn't see kitty, so I went up the stairs. Up and up and up....all the way to the roof. And who was on the top landing, right by the door to the roof of the building? Kitty. Looking very pleased with herself to have found such a clever hiding place. Well, I petted her for a bit, brought her some food (which she gobbled up) and then, just before bedtime, went up to her with a bed made out of some old rags, a t-shirt and a cardboard box. Judging from how content she looked this morning in her little cat bed, she enjoyed her new accomodations.

Now we just have to figure out where Mr. Castro is. Or I'm going to wind up owning three cats.