Introduce the Cat

An editor reading my novel pointed out that the cat was never introduced. He just appeared—it startled the reader that he was "suddenly" there. I knew there was a cat living in the house, but my readers didn’t. I hadn’t put him on the page for them to know.
 
It was simple to write an introductory scene. First, I thought about when my main character would first come across the cat. If you’re a cat person, you know they often make themselves scarce when someone new is in the house—unless that new person doesn’t like cats! Since she does like them, I went to Cecelia’s second day in the house.
 
Next I thought about how my own cat gets my attention, “Meow.” So now the cat meows and startles my main character. Then Cecelia does what cat people do—talks to him and tries to win him over. It gave me a chance to describe him as I established his presence. And it provided space to clear up a setting issue at the same time.
 
When the editor read the scene, she told me “thanks for writing in the cat.” That and the other addition made the story work better.
 
This is a good reminder for me that I must introduce each character in some way that is memorable enough that a reader won’t go “who?” or “what?” when the character shows up again.