My backpack dropped heavily to the floor, and I turned to an expensive-looking red single-seater sofa. The occupant opened one eye to stare coldly at me.
"Oi!" I nudged him with the back of my hand, and he stretched but remained in position. I cast a quick glance to one of the other sofas, where a ball of dark-grey fur of various shades slowly expanded and contracted in one corner. "[Leonard] doesn't need an entire chair, and neither do you. Move."
A small white face, bearing a pair of lime green diamond-shaped eyes, tipped with soft pink nose and tiny black moustache just below it glared back at me as I proceeded to sit down anyway. The animal rolled to the side, appearing on the arm of the chair a moment later. I opened the package in my other hand, and began disassembling its contents. The cat dropped from the arm of the chair, and crouched a few feet from my feet. He sat there, silently, eyes fixed on me for a while, then observingly swept his eyes over the rest of the room. I shrugged, and ignored him for the time being to concentrate on the item I was working on in my lap.
An hour or so later, our positions were reversed, me sitting on the floor where there was more space, and the cat sitting on the chair behind me. I pushed aside a handful of pieces of electronics, yawned and stretched. My head jerked forward, and eyes flashed open as my hand came in contact with the side of the again attempting to sleep cat. "Oh, sorry."
The cat rolled over, showing his belly, and reached out his front paws for my hand. Playfully? I wasn't sure, this was the most uncommunicative cat I'd ever met. His face was expressionless, eyes penetrating and relentless. "Why so serious?" There was of course no response. "You don't talk much, do you?" I looked behind and beside me to where a lady sat with an Eee on one knee and her other cat, Leonard, on the other. She absent-mindedly stroked the back of his head, her eyes fixed on the computer screen, and he purred softly, a happy purr like the sound of idling large diesel machinery. Not a sound came from the fuzzy mass of black and white stretched beside me.
His name is Hitler, I wonder why.