Almost every day, a gray cat comes to a man’s house. There’s one thing the cat and the man have in common: both of them have problems with their left legs. The gray cat only has three functioning legs. Its front left leg was amputated a year ago after a fierce duel with a neighborhood cat. The man’s left leg is broken from being hit by a motorcycle. Fractured tibia and fibula. He can barely walk without his crutches.

Almost every day, the gray cat with three legs comes to the man’s house. The cat knows there’s a bowl full of cat food waiting inside. Every morning, the man prepares food for his two cats in the kitchen. He sets out the bowls on the floor, the same ritual every morning. There’s a window the gray cat uses to sneak inside, the same window the man sometimes forgets to close.

The gray cat is not his. It belongs to his neighbor.

Almost every day, the man with a broken leg drives the gray cat with three legs out of his house. He doesn’t like it when the gray cat eats food that isn’t meant for him. His own two cats just stand there when the gray cat sneaks inside. They don’t protest or hiss. They simply back away from their own bowls as the intruder eats, as if they are afraid of him.

At first, the man just shoos the cat away, waving his hand and raising his voice. The gray cat runs out immediately, hobbling on three legs. But with every passing day, the gray cat grows bolder and bolder. When the man shoos him now, the cat barely flinches. He continues eating, one ear flicked back in acknowledgment but otherwise unbothered.

Now the man has to chase the gray cat out of his house. It creates a comical show: a crippled man pursuing a crippled cat. The man lurches forward on his crutches, trying to corner the thief. The gray cat limps away, unable to run quickly, but still managing to stay just out of reach. They move through the kitchen in an awkward, stumbling dance—both of them dragging their bad left legs, both of them refusing to give up.

Sometimes the man remembers to close the window. On those mornings, he sees the gray cat sitting outside, staring at the window. The cat waits. The man eats his breakfast and pretends not to notice.

But sometimes he forgets.

Almost every day, a man with a broken leg chases a gray cat with three legs out of his house.

The gray cat always comes back.