There's still a little wet food left on the cat's plate from dinner ("With Tuna" reads the can, slightly sinister in its vagueness), and I don't just want to throw it away before I feed her her evening meal, but I've discovered a trick.
I tap the plate with my finger so it rings slightly, and she comes running into the kitchen, and circles her plate warily. Then I pet her while she eats, and for whatever reason, this seems to calm her and make her feel secure so that she can settle in and finish her meal.
I think about the life she must have known before we adopted her, flashing in my mind on a kitchen somewhere else in New York, an old lady, her strong, thin, wrinkled hands petting the cat as she ate, as I do now, and I imagine this memory soothes our cat when she is unsettled, and forgets to finish her food.
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