Living with Cats

I discovered that the last rule of the Absolute Zero Survival Guide had been rewritten. The original sentence "Never take in any non-human creature" was crossed out and changed to "Must survive with a black cat". At first I thought it was someone's prank, until the cat used its paw to write on my frosted glass: "They're frozen but still learning how to look like us." Tonight, he was squatting next to the thermostat, adjusting the temperature with his tail. And I discovered to my horror that the numbers on the display were slowly rising from -70°C to -20°C. Outside the window, the "neighbors" who were originally stiff began to turn towards my refuge. The cat turned its head, its pupils shrinking into two thin lines in the dimness: "Warmth is the bait, and you are my hook." ............