Wallace

“Agh! There’s a cat outside staring at me,” Alison yelled from the kitchen. I went out to check, and sure enough, there was a massive, tan tabby staring coolly in the back door. We had just moved into our new place. We assumed it was one of the neighbours' cats, and by the look of his expansive and rather regal belly, he probably popped by a few houses for food every day.

It became a routine for the cat to show up every day at around 8:30 in the morning and many evenings. Every day, he would stare in the window, watching us make coffee and toast, and if he felt we didn’t see him, he would jump on the railing and continue to fix his gaze on us until we acknowledged him with a nod. After an hour or so of watching us, he would leave.

Eventually we made the connection between the enormous bag of Whiskas left by the previous tenants and this mysterious, utterly reliable cat, who had lost about ten pounds before we figured out what was going on. He was a stray, who had been regularly overfed by the previous tenants – and nobody else - or perhaps by the general contractor who renovated the place before we moved in. He was getting thin.

“I’m not feeding him that stuff, it’s bad for him” Alison said, referring to the Whiskas. I had already thrown it away, so that night I took a trip down to the corner store and bought $2 worth of speaker cable (nothing to do with the cat) and $0.79 of Fancy Feast. But the cat didn’t come back.

A few days after Wallace’s last appearance, I spotted a sign hastily scotch-taped to a lamppost up the street.

MISSING - TONY

TONY IS A TAN TABBY
WITH WHITE SOCKS

HE HAS BEEN MISSING SINCE MARCH 3

HE IS DEARLY MISSED BY HIS FAMILY

IF YOU SEE HIM, PLEASE CONTACT US

I was tempted to call. I was sure Tony wasn’t our stray but they looked very similar.

Days later I saw another sign posted to another lamppost.

I THINK I HAVE FOUND
“TONY”
PLEASE CONTACT ME AND I WILL RETURN HIM.
HE IS BEING HELD AT 382 PALMERSTON.

I knew it was our stray and not Tony this person had found. Sure enough, two days later, our cat reappeared and while the MISSING signs stayed up, the lone, mistaken FOUND sign came down. Alison fed him a third of a can of Wellness. His breath left a terrible smell on the plate. He had taken on some scratches on his nose and was looking very upset.

Since then, Wallace has shown up every morning at 7:30am for his third of a can of Wellness cat food, except on days when it rains. He hisses when we put out his plate, but then he slurps up that food in no time. Once it’s gone, he licks it clean, turns his tail to us and vanishes back into the alley.