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“Come on, fella. Some of that grime is com-ing off.” He fishes his sundries out and dunks a towel, then wipes the wet towel over the irritated cat. The cat calms.

“Meow.”

“Just let me get all this off you.” The towel stains yellow-brown as he rubs into the fur.

“Meow.”

“You are really nasty, cat. Anybody ever tell you that?”

“Meow.”

“That’s what I thought.” The cat seems to like the dry towel even better, and growls. Is it a purr? With balls that big, it may be as close as he gets. He licks himself and watches TV with Alex. When Alex heads for the bedroom, the cat follows and Alex lays out a blanket under the bed for him. They curl up and sleep.

It’s three a.m. and Alex is wide awake. The stench is awful. The cat’s by the closet. So is a huge wet turd. He gets some toilet paper to pick up the warm dropping.

“You did have to go on the carpet didn’t you?”

The cat stares, flicks his tail.

“Don’t you know what a litter box is?” Alex gets most of the turd, but some sticks to the carpet.

“Shit. You asshole.”