curiosity (almost) killed the cat 🐈

My neighbor has an adorable, extremely overweight cat that has PTSD from being abandoned by a previous owner. To help him cope, she lets him out into the yard to wander around a couple times a day. Pretty standard hipster Brooklyn stuff.

A few days ago, our cleaning lady was over and doing laundry in the basement. She has worked with our landlady for a long time and has access to the basement, but we don’t, as our landlady keeps her nice stuff and summer clothing down there and understandably doesn’t want it messed with.

As the cleaning lady left, the cat slipped in unnoticed. Our neighbor frantically looked for her and eventually found her in the basement window. We have no key. The cleaning lady with the key was on the Metro North back to NJ and not coming back to the city until the coronavirus calms down. The landlady’s son is stuck on travel ban in Paris. The landlady lives on the other side of the country.

In the middle of a citywide lockdown, a local hardware guy had to come and try to break into the basement to save the cat. The lock almost didn’t open, but when it did we all laughed like crazy people. The cat plodded out, totally oblivious.