The Sèvres Cat
The ceramic collector felt his heart was going to jump out of his chest. Upon passing by the small antique store---actually a trinket store as he had already labeled it in his head when he first glanced at it---he observed a scrawny and dirty cat drinking milk slowly in an authentic Sèvres plate that was placed in the entrance of the store. The collector went up to the corner and then turned back, trying to appear annoyed and indifferent. Reluctantly, he stopped in front of the store window and looked from above his shoulder to see all the junk being displayed there: old violins, chairs and tables with missing legs, porcelain figurines, faded oil paintings, pieces of supposed Mayan or Incan pots, and the infinite amount of trinkets that usually pile up in stores of this type. From the corner of his eye, the collector glanced once more at the plate the cat was sipping its milk from. There was no doubt about it: a legitimate Sèvres, possibly from the second third the 18th century. "