A domestic cat has carried out a fourth inspection of a paper bag whose contents and position have not altered since Tuesday.

The bag is empty. It has always been empty. It was empty at the previous three inspections, which the cat conducted with the same intensity.

“He goes in. He waits. He comes out fast,” said owner Petra Sallowby. “Then he looks at me.”

The Institute for Feline Procedure describes the behaviour as jurisdictional rather than curious.

“The cat is not investigating the bag,” said Dr. Cosima Farrow. “The cat is confirming that the bag continues to fall under its authority. The absence of contents is not relevant and has never been relevant.”

Institute records indicate inspections escalate when a bag is scheduled for removal. In fourteen years of observation, no bag has ever been successfully discarded in the presence of a cat.

Sallowby attempted removal on Wednesday. The cat entered the bag.

She has since purchased a bed for the cat, at a cost of sixty-two dollars. The cat has approached the bed once, from a distance, and reported no findings.

The bag remains in the hallway. It is, by every available measure, load-bearing.