At one point, Janet looked out at the back yard and gasped! "Oh, no! Marble Cat got outside!" The last thing she needed was for Marble Cat to pick up another case of mites. She went out, approached carefully so as not to scare her, and picked her up.
As Janet carried her inside, the cat began purring contentedly, which Janet found a little strange because Marble Cat doesn't like being picked up. And just around the time Janet said to herself, "That's funny - when did Marble Cat's front claws grow back?" -- the REAL Marble Cat came around the corner from the kitchen, as if to say, "Hello, everybody! What's going on?"
Janet looked down at the perfectly happy cat in her arms. "Then WHO is THIS?"
It turned out to be some semi-stray cat that lived in the neighborhood, and Janet called her "Christmas Cat". As time went on, she would put food out for the cat, who would come by to eat it and hang around in the back yard. The house cats would come to the window and look at her. Some of them would get mad because they didn't like strangers, but mostly it was amicable.