One cat, Calliope (aka Callie), brings leaves from the fruitless pear tree into the house via the cat door in the dormer window.

Not just any leaf, mind you. These are perfect leaves, each one colored in summer a uniform deep green. Later in the summer/autumn, she will be choosing bright red ones, perfectly shaped. The only thing unusual about them are the two fang marks, signs of the LeafBringer.

At first, I thought she was just dropping the leaves wherever she landed, after jumping from the window down onto the box that holds shoes below.

But then I noticed the pattern. The leaves were evenly spaced from the window and from each other, making a line from window to doorway. Well, she just got tired of carrying each one and dropped it, I mused.

Not a bit of it. Her patterns are deliberate and artistic. Yesterday morning I was treated to the sight of a leaf neatly placed in the center of the threshhold of each doorway--bedroom, computer room, bathroom.

The day before, there was a leaf by each chair and one on the bathroom rug by the toilet. (I guess she perceives the toilet as a kind of chair).

Today the leaves--each day, they number from 3 to 5--were in a circle by my bed, just where I put my feet. Almost a perfect circle, too.

She puts a lot of effort into her artistic/geometric creations, and I give her special pets before I pick up the leaves and discard them. Imagine scouring the roof for the perfect, unblemished leaf, bringing it in through the cat door, then making an arrangement to suit the sensibilities.

Maybe she's the reincarnation of an artist who died too soon.