Have you seen this cat?

We have had a visiting cat since we moved in. She principally belongs to an American man downstairs, but she is a cat of many friends - and excellent people skills. Over the Christmas holidays when we have been around more during the day she has dropped in frequently for a saucer of tuna and a cuddle – oh and the opportunity to sniff around for the perfect spot to have her kittens.

This is Puss on Christmas Day showing off her enormous belly:

The day before yesterday, however, there was no miaowing at the door; nor yesterday; nor today.

We prevaricated a while before going to knock on her owner's door, arguing over who would speak to him (bearing in mind that we don't even know the guy's name, yet his cat occasionally sleeps on our bed at night.) In the end it was a joint effort as only the cleaner was home, and so it took our combined Arabic skills to find out that she hadn't seen Puss for a week - but maybe she had given birth in the doorman's flat. 

We went to speak to the doorman. Now our doorman is a lovely man, but I really struggle to understand anything he says, except "Ahlan, ya helwa" every time he sees me. But what we gathered is that he hasn't seen her either, but that she has probably had her kittens somewhere.

So now we are waiting on tenterhooks for Puss to come back, hopefully with a little line of kittens trailing behind her. We'll welcome them with open arms...and open tins of tuna!