Photo Credits — AleXander Hirka / Used with permission / How JJ indicated she was ready to eat

The Phantom Cat

She’s gone but she’s not

Last night, I hesitated to take my sushi into the living room before coming back to the kitchen to get the soy sauce and salad. Then I remembered. No cat. For the first time in nearly twenty years, this apartment is catless and it is weird.

My partner, the guy who doesn’t really understand having animals indoors but who is also the guy who took hundreds of wonderful photos of both JJ and Alice, my “invisible” black cat over the years he’s lived here, has also been stepping gingerly into a darkened room to avoid stepping on a no-longer-among-the-living cat.

And we’ve both caught whiffs of phantom cat poop.

Alice and JJ back when they really ruled this roost / Alice bringing dignity to the bathroom

JJ had a bellyful of kittens when she took me hostage back in 2005 / the author took this photo

There should be a word or a term for this experience. Whatever it is, we didn’t feel this so strongly after Alice went her way several years ago. Probably because we still lived in a cat house. Big, big difference between one cat and no cats.

But now there are only the two bipeds left in our little urban nest and boy are we confused! It’s…