When Cat first came to live with us, he was so scrawny that a gust of wind could have toppled him over, and Husband was able to lift him in one hand. He proved to have an astonishing appetite though, polishing off prodigious quantities each day. All his portions and some of mine. Whenever he saw me with food in hand, he would plop in front of me, calling meow meow, butting my arm till I didn’t know whether to go on eating or not. With his cuteness, he kidnapped me; with his mischief, he tricked me into funneling him extra food and drink, easily liberating me of my snacks. If you set everything Cat ate end to end, it would stretch as long as an entire train, a different carriage for each kind of food, ferrying all sorts of nutrition.

Having eaten a train, Cat’s body also grew very long, stretching all the way from the balcony through the living room into the bedroom. If we had more rooms, I’m sure he could have gotten even longer. Cat often conducted this train through our flat, hauling his long body behind him. Choo choo this way, choo choo back the other, as if he were chasing something, or maybe being chased. Often I would see his legs in one room and his head in another.

As Cat’s appetite increased, so his body continued elongating. He could loop himself over the laundry rack several times, swinging back and forth. He taught himself to swing, being both swing and swinger in one. After every meal, with nothing left to do, Cat would hang himself up and swing freely, frittering away his time.

I was now dedicating much more time to petting Cat. Each head-to-tail stroke used to last just a few seconds, but now it took several minutes to get from one end to the other, quite a workout. Cat didn’t always stretch out but enjoyed napping with his body twisted this way and that, or coiled around a table leg. For a proper petting, I needed to weave in and out too, moving from one room to another.

Even with his new, longer body, Cat didn’t bring any trouble into our lives. His body was everywhere at once, splayed in all directions, but too soft to get in our way. And even when we did trip over him, he provided a landing as soft as cotton wool, so we never got hurt.

It’s not like Cat kept growing indefinitely. He was able to use his powerful digestion to tailor his length, growing longer or shorter at will. If he got too long to be comfortable, he would simply shrink himself by digesting the excess, maintaining his size. This way, he could go on swinging, never swelling up so it became too difficult to move, free to continue running around, a tiny express train going choo choo.