If you're not a cat lover, and encounter a cat in this way through reluctant circumstance, you somehow begin to love the cat, thinking that it is the best of all the cats, a 'different' cat, an exception. That's the cat virus at work.

We have to specify NO CATS to prospedtive house sitters when we go away - both for allergies, and in respect for local wildlife here in Australia. My husband can't stand them, though having had an exceptional family cat called Smokey, I too have been smitten by a cat who was VASTLY superior to all other cats.