When I went in to wash my hands and face, I just discovered that in the absence of kitty litter, Patches resorted to using the bathtub. Couldn't have been more than 5 minutes ago. There are far worse places he could have gone.

After I saw (and smelled) it, he jumped back in the tub, looked at me apologetically, and pawed at the floor, as if to tell me that he had tried to do it right.

This tells me that he has been trained, and probably does have a home somewhere. For today, I'm just going to put him back outside, and maybe he'll find his way home. I hope.

If I see him around again, then I guess I can assume that either he belongs to one of the neighbors, or he's trying to come back to me. For now, out he goes.

But first, I must clean the mess.