So, I made a friend recently. It happened like this:

When I first visited Vault 81, a cat shot between my legs for daylight and freedom. Nobody said anything about it at the time.

A few game-days later, I was across the map at Revere Satellite Array. I was heavily engaged with a group of Super Mutants, when a note popped up: "Quest Started: 'Here, Kitty, Kitty' ". After the battle, I looked for the cat. But "Kitty, Kitty" was not there. And in fact the quest itself was not in my quest list.

Time passed. I returned to Vault 81. I solved some of its other mysteries, and activated the companion Curie.

Game-weeks later, I was pursuing part of the MQ in a long-disused underground tunnel. I found a pushcart containing a cat carcass, and other meat-blobs identified as "cat meat". I took them all. I don't know why, since I'd be hesitant to eat domesticated animals (it seems rude, when there are so many Deathclaw Steaks in this world).

When I returned aboveground, let me point out that it was in fact a dark and radioactively stormy night. Lightning flashed nearby. I hurried home.

Once I got home, just out of curiosity I went to the cookfire to see if there was a recipe using the cat meat, but I could not find one on the menu...

[For all the cat lovers out there - you gotta hang in there, kids!

I love cats, too!

I would NEVER kill cats for food! It was dead when I found it!

And everything turns out alright!]

...I could not find one on the menu. And furthermore, I could not find "cat" or "cat meat" in my inventory either! Not under AID where I expected it; not under MISC, where it might be if it were involved in a weird quest. And as I was flipping pages, I noticed "Here, Kitty, Kitty" now sitting at the top of my quest list.

I immediately went to Vault 81, and followed the marker to one of the living quarters, where the little girl Erin was waiting. Something furry and four-legged shot between my legs into the room, and Erin hugged it. The quest completed, and I got my XP. But the only "cat" I interacted with - well, you can read the story again if you skipped over it - and all I did to it was soak it in radioactive rainwater and electrocute it a little.

So I made a friend, and then I gave it to a little girl. Anybody else play with their food lately?