DAVID FOUND HIMSELF going way too fast on the way home—in no small part because of what he’d read in the college library. For what he’d read made a certain kind of sense: this notion of some cats being almost co-dependent; of feeling a sense of ownership with regards to their human masters. To the point that anything which might take them away could be viewed as a threat, and thus lead the animal to act out ... by defecating on furniture, say. Or dropping severed parakeet heads in their vegetable soup.
All he knew for certain was that he’d had a very bad feeling most his shift—a feeling which had been exasperated when he’d dialed Harry and only gotten his voicemail. Now, as he sprinted up the stairs toward his apartment, he was genuinely worried.
The first thing he noticed was the door t
