It was a typical evening, about a year ago, and I was hard at work at the greatest job in the world. Cleaning the cats’ litter boxes.

As I knelt over the two plastic boxes of cat … stuff, scooping away, I was convinced that I was alone in the room. I was wrong.

Suddenly, I heard the scuttling of small feet behind me. Naturally, I was startled, so I turned to see what the noise was. I was just in time to see Olive launching off from the edge of the sink, headed toward … nothing in particular.

As the cat sailed through the air, she extended all four legs and made contact with the wall. Her claws extended and she slid downward. The claws made a scratching, screeching noise as gravity pulled her toward … the toilet seat.

Olive hit the seat with a “smack,” and seemed to hang there for a moment, a look of panic on her face. Inevitably, she tumbled further downward into the water below. “Splash.” I wanted to help her out, but I was laughing too hard. After a few seconds of splish-splashing around, she was able to pull herself out.

I can’t explain why Olive thought this was a good idea. It was just a random burst of energy with no particular direction that happened to lead her to the bottom of a toilet. And a starring role in a webcomic.