We have a Roomba. A Roomba is a low driverless vacuum cleaner. I have programmed it to vacuum our living room early Friday morning. It wanders under the sofa. It bumbles around chair and table legs. When it’s done it finds its hutch and plugs itself in. The cat is dubious.

On Thursday nights I must remember to close the doors between living room and hall. The cat can open these doors. They are French doors with friction latches and the cat has found if it gets up a nice head of steam and slams into said French doors, they will open. This is, I think, how Roomba escaped the first time. Friday midday I noticed Roomba was absent its hutch. I found Roomba in the bathroom, its battery depleted, the door mostly shut. The cat was conspicuously absent.