“This type of thing is far from out of character.”
Last week, high school student Jess Burton was rushing to the bus stop when she noticed a flash of orange and white fur through a window of a nearby house. At first, she smiled, thinking she had spotted her own cat, Bob, grooming himself. But her smile quickly faded when she locked eyes with the cat and realized the truth.
Bob has been a mischievous presence in Jess’s life for the past 15 years. Since he was a kitten, Bob has been a curious and independent barn cat, freely moving between indoors and outdoors. He would often charm neighbors into giving him treats and got into all kinds of adventurous situations. But nothing Jess had experienced with Bob could prepare her for what she saw that day.
“I walked past the house and thought, ‘That looks like Bob!’” Jess recalled to The Dodo. “I turned back to take a photo for the family group chat. It wasn’t until after I snapped the picture that the cat looked up, and I realized it actually was Bob—who immediately looked guilty and meowed from the other side of the window.”
To Jess’s astonishment, Bob was inside a stranger’s house, more than a mile away from home. While he initially appeared guilty, Bob quickly broke eye contact and returned to his grooming session.
“I told him he wasn’t supposed to be there and needed to leave, but he just ignored me and kept licking his back,” Jess said. “When I got closer to knock on the glass, he jumped off the windowsill and casually wandered off.”
Bob had a history of sneaking into neighbors’ houses and gardens, but this was the first time he had been so obvious about it, lounging in someone’s living room window. Jess panicked—she had to catch the bus, and no one seemed to be home at the house.
“I knocked on the door, but no one answered. In the end, I had to just trust that if he got in, he could figure out how to get out,” Jess explained. “I figured he probably snuck in through a backdoor cat flap and helped himself to someone’s food.”
Frustrated but helpless, Jess ran to catch the bus, hoping Bob would find his way home. She was confident that, since he often roamed the area, he knew the route back. And sure enough, later that day, Bob strolled back home as if nothing had happened.
“You would have thought nothing was out of the ordinary. He strutted back in, smug as ever, and asked for another serving of his favorite food,” Jess said.
That night, after a delicious meal and a stern talking-to from his humans, Bob settled back into his bed. He hasn’t returned to the stranger’s house since, but Jess isn’t sure that means he’s learned his lesson.
“Bob is a well-loved, happy, and cheeky senior cat. This kind of behavior is definitely typical for him,” Jess said with a grin. “I haven’t seen him in that house again, but maybe he’s just gotten sneakier about it!”