Nothing ever did. Newton had decided that Elmer was rather silly. Now that Elmer was gone, Newton thought of the house, whisker deep in mess and debris, as his very own Personal Retreat and Hunting Preserve.
Of course, Newton had another house where the people who fed him food from a can lived. But that house was infested with an annoying yappy sort of dog which is apt to pester one when one when one wishes to nap. So Newton spent most of his days and some of his nights blissfully stalking the vast tumbled terrain of Elmer Snow’s House.
At first, after Elmer’s departure, there had been a few marauders in the house; big children who smashed the windows and scavenged amongst Elmer’s detritus, and little children who came in and immediately frightened themselves away again. In the last few weeks however, Newton had been inconvenienced in the practice of his sport by two people, a man and a woman, who just walked right in to the house. These people had no obvious objective; they just hung around, staring at the walls and floors and talking. Newton was relieved when they failed to harvest the mouse whom they surprised gnawing on an ammo box on the dresser. Apparently they weren’t there to hunt. But they did not leave in a hurry, and kept coming back. What would this passive invasion lead to?