Tuesday, December 31

Yesterday evening we heard a cat miawing somewhere nearby. Irma miawed back and the cat’s cried moved nearer. Within a few minutes it had arrived in our garden.

She seems about three or four months old. She has endless curiosity, an extraordinarily gentle nature, and a keen intelligence. She also appears completely unafraid of us and happily jumped onto our laps and crawled all over us.

Irma decided that we should call her Helsinki.

She spent a couple of hours exploring the territory and working out every possible way to enter and leave the building, and then settled down right next to us.

Since the heat demands that we keep many of the windows open (they have bars to keep burglars, monkeys, and other unexpected visitors away) we could not throw her out with any expectation of success.

She spent the night here, and will seemingly stay here as long as she wishes. Since she appears no trouble at all, I decided that this seems like the first happy surprise of the new year.