VOLVIÓ/HE'S BACK

Volví de viaje un día antes por que me llamó una desconocida de capital diciendo que le pareció haber visto a este sujeto en la plaza cerca de casa... y cuando subí a la terraza me recibió sentado igual que en esta foto, pero flaco... sucio... la voz entrecortada por el hambre: "Hola soy tu regalo de cumple, dame de comerrrrr!" Un mes y dos días desaparecido Marley, la gata que te parió!!

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I was at the beach a five-hour bus ride away on the Argentinian coast when I got a call from a stranger in Buenos Aires, responding to one of the zillion flyers I'd posted around my hood: "I think I saw your cat in such & such park," so I came home a day early i.e. today, my birthday.

I greeted what's left of my four-footed family... ran to the park to look for him: no luck... came home with a heavy heart... unpacked... made coffee... was about to go online,

when almost as an afterthought I went up to the terrace: the sorry-ass ritual with which I've begun and ended every day this past month since Marley decided to go on a rooftop walkabout.

I opened the door... and there he was, sitting neatly in his library lion pose as if he'd never left. "Happy birthday bitch... now what's for dinner?" he said.