Great name, though, “Ms. Gruntled.” I remember the moment at which, as a dictionary-obsessed child, I discovered that “gruntled” is a real word, meaning pretty much what you’d expect. I went around using it the entire next week.

Feral cats are generally who they are, from adolescence onward, but domesticated cats can change. About seven or eight years into my relationship with Stella’s elderly cat Tabitha, the latter suddenly decided I was OK, or even better than OK. Now I can’t keep her out of my lap, even when I’m trying to eat.