Ruby has noticed the same gray cat all over her neighborhood lately. She sees it outside the bakery in the morning. Then it appears near the school gate at lunchtime. Later that evening, it's curled up on a bench by the park. It seems impossible for one cat to be in so many places in a single day.
露比最近发现同一只灰猫在她住的街区到处出现。早上，她在面包店外面看到它。接着，中午它又出现在校门口附近。到了晚上，它蜷在公园的长椅上。一只猫一天里不可能出现在这么多地方。
"Maybe it's a ghost cat," her friend Theo jokes when she tells him about it. "Or maybe you're just noticing it more because you're looking for it now."
“也许是只幽灵猫，”她朋友西奥听她说起这件事，开玩笑道，“要不就是你现在在找它，所以才更容易注意到它。”
Ruby isn't so sure. She starts keeping track of the times and places on her phone. It feels like a joke at first, but the pattern genuinely bothers her. After a week, she has noticed something interesting. The cat by the bakery always has a small white patch on its left ear. The one near the park doesn't.
露比可不这么肯定。她开始在手机上记下时间和地点。一开始感觉像是开玩笑，可这个规律确实让她放不下。一个星期后，她发现了一件有意思的事。面包店那边的猫，左耳上总有一小块白斑。公园那边的那只，却没有。
She brings her notes to Theo, who has always been better at solving puzzles than she is. He looks closely at her photos and laughs. "Ruby, these aren't the same cat. Look, this one's tail is shorter, and this one is wearing a collar."
她把笔记拿给西奥看，西奥一直比她更会解谜。他仔细看着她拍的照片，笑了起来。“露比，这不是同一只猫。你看，这只的尾巴比较短，而这只戴着项圈。”
At first Ruby feels a little silly for not noticing sooner. But then she realizes the real story might be even better than one well-traveled cat. There are at least three cats living around the same few streets. None of the neighbors seem to know about the others.
起初，露比觉得自己没早点发现，有点傻。可接着她意识到，真正的故事可能比一只到处游荡的猫更精彩。在同样的那几条街上，至少住着三只猫。邻居们似乎谁也不知道还有另外两只。
Over the next few days, Ruby and Theo make a simple map. It shows where each cat likes to spend its time. They give the cats nicknames: Patch, Shorty, and Collar. They start leaving small bowls of water near each spot.
接下来的几天，露比和西奥画了一张简单的地图，标出每只猫喜欢待的地方。他们给这几只猫起了外号：白斑、短尾和项圈。他们开始在每个地点旁边放上小碗装的水。
By the end of the month, half the neighborhood has learned the names too. Someone has even put up a little sign asking people not to feed the cats too much food. Ruby still smiles every time she spots one of the three cats. Now she's sure exactly which is which.
到了月底，半个街区的人也都知道了这些名字。有人甚至立了一块小牌子，请大家不要给猫喂太多食物。露比每次看到这三只猫中的一只，都还是会微笑。现在她能确定地分清哪只是哪只了。
