“No, they’re not mine. You think I would just let my cats starve?” They all look hungry, but he points to one that looks especially thin for emphasis. “I don’t really care if cats are free or not, but if they look like this maybe they should belong to someone. At least that way they’d get food.”

“But I still get priority, even if they’re not mine,” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, because back home he is used to his needs, however small, being the most important. “And I want to be able to see the cats uninterrupted."