Shiver me Timbers!

And not from the weather (we finally got our heat turned on!)--we have a one-eyed cat. And by "we," I mean our building. I've seen this cat before, but today definitely made it official. I actually met said cat way back in September upon returning to the building after a red eye flight from the US  ... at 5am. If you know me, you know I am not really a cat person (I'll tell you the story of cat-sitting "hissy cat" another time) so it wasn't exactly the welcoming committee I had in mind.

Since that day, I've bumped into this very clean and large (read: well-fed) cat in our front garden numerous times. Today was a little different, though, since the cat has now taken to cat napping on the front doormat, creating a new, daily obstacle for me that just happens to have one piercing, green eye.

But it gets better. After posting an image of my favorite cat on Facebook, my friend Katie from this summer, provided me with a little more information:

If you live at my old house in Jebel Webdeh, that cat is Capitain and owns the building. He must be treated with utmost respect and fed or bad things will happen. Seriously, my housemate made fun of him and the next week everyone got sick. He is the spirit of the building. We have an oral history about him that goes back at least 5-6 years.

So now I not only know that Katie lived in the same building as me over the summer, but I'm even more terrified of this cat. It doesn't help that one of my neighbors is really sick right now. Coincidence? Or Capitain?