I have never owned a cat and probably never will. I have nonetheless been living with six or seven of them in the years since my wife and I renovated our Brooklyn garden and added a reflecting pool, where felines come to lounge and drink. They believe that the pool was put in expressly for them. And they get testy when things are not exactly right.

I learned this earlier this year from Captain Keyes, the big black cat from next door. He started to glare scornfully in my direction back in March. It took some weeks to figure it out. But he was angry because I had failed to fill the pool and start up the frog-shaped fountain from which he likes to drink.