Every day when I go out on my balcony, I’ll turn left and see this cat pointed in my direction. We gaze peacefully at one another in silence. It is a friendly silence. I slow-blink at the cat and the cat slow-blinks at me. That’s how I know we’re friends.

The balcony belongs to my sweet neighbor. She used to have a sort of makeshift sky-bridge that connected her balcony to a nearby tree. This bridge was for squirrels to cross safely and visit her balcony, where she had out a little bowl full of seeds and nuts. But because of the strangely powerful winds that blow through our backyard, the squirrel bridge kept falling four stories to the ground below, so my neighbor gave up on continuing to repair it. I felt despair at this!

About two months ago, I saw that some mesh netting had appeared on my neighbor’s balcony, which I assumed was to cat-proof it. And then one day this cat started showing up and we began our daily ritual of observing one another in silence.

Today I inquired about this dude and received this response from my neighbor:

Baron!

She told me she splits her time between Berlin and a small town in Portugal where she lives in a house with 20 rescued cats. So if Baron weren’t so shy, he’d be living in a big house in the countryside with all his adopted brothers and sisters. Yet I am happy he remains here in Berlin . . . seeing my bro chillin out there high among the trees makes me feel a feeling . . .