Goober
The Cat That Wasn't Mine
One rainy street. One lit window. One cat nobody could quite call theirs. A novel by Wagner Rosati Carvalho.
After a pandemic year back home in Brazil, Daniel returned to Ireland with a bass guitar and started again in Galway.
A small studio, black coffee, a bass on the couch. Cosy, yes. But some nights the quiet felt a little too loud.
Then one evening, with lentils on the stove, two golden eyes appeared at the glass door.
If the cat could speak, it might say, 'Hey, are you going to leave me outside like this?'
He came back the next night. And the next. So Daniel started leaving a small gap in the curtain, just to check.
A silver collar.
Goober's life is a tale written one collar at a time.
A silver collar.
One rainy Monday, it was red.
Then a new one every week. Some with bells, some without. Whose cat is this?
The tag said Goober, with an address two doors down. A dark house where nobody had lived for years.
The morning before Vienna, the tracker was gone. In its place: blue, with bells, and a tiny embroidered cat.
A trip to Vienna with his father. Arias, cathedrals, golden rooftops. And still, his mind drifted back to a cat in Galway.
Home again. A jingle at the door. Soaked to the whiskers, Goober was wearing turquoise.
Whoever changed these collars had a keen eye for detail and impeccable taste in accessorising the enigmatic cat.
Somehow, Daniel had become a suspect.
Then the owners asked him to stop feeding Goober. Daniel closed the curtains and walked to the docks to think.
How could a grown man be heartbroken by a cat?
He wrote a long reply. Then deleted every word.
Days of silence. Then, one afternoon, the unmistakable jingle of a bell.
This time, Daniel followed the tail. Down the dead-end street, all the way to a wooden house hidden in green.
Who was changing the collars? The answer is waiting behind the gate.
Leave the curtain open.
The answer is behind the gate.
Who changed the collars, and why? Find out in a heartwarming story about love, loss, belonging and the quiet magic of unexpected connections.
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The people Goober chose
Goober
Fluffy-tailed, golden-eyed and selective about who touches him. Known to the whole neighbourhood, owned by nobody quite completely.
Daniel
A remote designer and introvert from Brazil. Black coffee, a bass guitar on the couch, and a door he starts leaving slightly open.
Meena and Colm
Forced away by a sudden visa hearing, they return to find their cat no longer remembers them the way they remember him.
???
Revealed in Chapter 15.
“To every Goober across the globe, the unexpected companions who wander into our lives.”
From the dedication · Choose to adopt, not shop
The author
Wagner Rosati Carvalho
A creative professional with a career across advertising, marketing and UX design, shaped by years of storytelling for leading agencies and brands.
Founder of Vegan Jobs Ireland and host of the Manada Podcast, Wagner advocates for animal rights. Through Goober, he bridges the gap between people and the animal world.
The real Goober
Real life, illustrated.
