Goober
Misty Galway terraced houses at dusk, with Goober sitting in one golden window.

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.

02 A Galway Evening

After a pandemic year back home in Brazil, Daniel returned to Ireland with a bass guitar and started again in Galway.

The silhouette of Daniel with a bass guitar case walks along wet Shop Street, past silhouetted street musicians and golden lanterns.
03 Feels Like Home

A small studio, black coffee, a bass on the couch. Cosy, yes. But some nights the quiet felt a little too loud.

A small studio with a laptop, potted plant, records, bass guitar on the couch and fields through the window.
04 The First Appearance

Then one evening, with lentils on the stove, two golden eyes appeared at the glass door.

Inside the studio at night, fluffy tabby Goober with a white face, chest and paws sits outside the glass door while lentils simmer.
05 The First Appearance

He came back the next night. And the next. So Daniel started leaving a small gap in the curtain, just to check.

Goober curls asleep on the doormat beside a food bowl, with a gap in the cream curtain.
06 The Collars

It was silver.

Goober sits on the studio couch at night as his collar changes from silver to red, blue and turquoise.

It was silver.

Then one rainy Monday, it was red.

Then blue, with bells and a tiny embroidered cat.

Then turquoise. A new collar every week. So whose cat was he?

07 The Empty House

The tag said Goober, with an address two doors down. A dark house where nobody had lived for years.

An unlit house with closed curtains and an overgrown garden, Goober wearing a tracker on the low stone wall.
08 The Empty House
Rain on a studio window, with blurred Galway houses and one warm window beyond.

Hey, this is Colm. Thanks for caring for him.

I noticed that the GPS isn't transmitting. Did you remove it?

And what about these ever-changing collars?

09 Vienna

A trip to Vienna with his father. Arias, cathedrals, golden rooftops. And still, his mind drifted back to a cat in Galway.

Vienna rooftops, St. Stephen's Cathedral and opera house glow, with the silhouettes of Daniel and his father seen from behind and a thought bubble of Goober.
10 Back Home

Home again. Goober was waiting in the rain, soaked to the whiskers, wearing a collar Daniel had never seen.

Outside the studio door in the Galway rain, Goober in a turquoise collar stands close to Daniel's legs, looking up at him.
11 Hide, If You Can

Then the owners asked him to stop feeding Goober. Daniel closed the curtains and walked to the docks to think.

The small silhouette of Daniel sits alone beside the water at the sunny Galway docks, with the Spanish Arch and colourful houses.
12 Echoes of a Bell

Days of silence. Then, one afternoon, the unmistakable jingle of a bell.

Goober peers through the studio window with golden eyes, a blue collar and a tiny jingling golden bell.
13 The Gate

This time, Daniel followed the tail. Down the dead-end street, all the way to a wooden house hidden in green.

Tabby Goober with white paws and a bushy dark tail leads down a dead-end street towards a wooden house hidden by greenery, with one warm window.
14 The Gate

Who was changing the collars? The answer is waiting behind the gate.

A white picket gate in front of a hidden wooden house with one warm window. As you scroll, Goober leaps over the gate into the garden.Goober leaping over the wooden garden gate toward the house with the warm lit window.

Leave the curtain open.

Get the book Cartoon Goober with brown tabby markings, a white face and paws, peeking over a white picket fence.Meet the author Wagner
Rosati Carvalho

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 case file

The people Goober chose

The visitor

Goober

Fluffy-tailed, golden-eyed and selective about who touches him. Known to the whole neighbourhood, owned by nobody quite completely.

The neighbour

Daniel

A remote designer and introvert from Brazil. Black coffee, a bass guitar on the couch, and a door he starts leaving slightly open.

The owners

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.

The keeper of collars

Mrs. Theresa

A former University of Galway lecturer on art and cave paintings, elegant and lifelong vegan, living in a wooden house behind the greenery.

“To every Goober across the globe, the unexpected companions who wander into our lives.”

From the dedication · Choose to adopt, not shop

Wagner Rosati Carvalho, author of Goober

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.

Vegan Jobs IrelandManada Podcastwrccdesign.com