Here's a strange, but true, story about what can happen in the often amazing world of "private chat rooms."

If you're familiar with the concept of sending and receiving IMs (instant messages) you know you have a Buddy List, which displays the names of friends who are currently online. Just click on a name and you can initiate a conversation. It's also possible to set up a "private chat room" and invite any or all of your online buddies into it.

One evening the following message flashed on my screen:

"Zeena has invited you into a private chat room — will you accept?"

Well, Zeena is a fascinating person whom I had gotten to know through the AOL Poetry & Story Boards, where we both had done quite a bit of posting.

"Why would she be asking me into a private chat room?" I wondered. Zeena and I had done a lot of IMing over the months, but we had never done the "private room" thing (cybersex).

Anyway, I clicked OK and, to my surprise, found myself in a room with several other people known to both of us. In fact, everyone seemed to be there but Zeena.

Naturally, we all said hello and exchanged the usual pleasantries — but finally began asking each other, "Where's Zeena — and how come she invited us into this room?"

No one seemed to know.

Anyway, everyone got to chatting, and some even invited other friends into the room. I visited for a while, then excused myself because I had work to do.

About an hour later a friend invited me back into the room to meet another friend — and I stayed just long enough to realize that people were still asking where Zeena was — and why had she started this chat room??

I heard later that the room lasted for about six hours with lots of different people coming and going — everyone except Zeena.

Well, the next morning I spotted Zeena online and immediately IM'd her to ask why she'd invited all these people into a private room — and then disappeared.

"Oh," she replied, "I heard about that. Several others have also asked where I was."

"But I didn't do it — it was my kitty. She walked across the keyboard and accidentally started a chat room. I saw it come on, but had to leave just then. I had no idea anyone actually ended up going there."

Yep — a true story — a cat started a chat room that lasted for several hours and had nearly two dozen people in it at one time or another — all wondering why they were there.

But the story becomes even more bizarre:

Zeena had been doing some online flirting and suspected her flirtee of doing some flirting of his own. The cat had actually invited Zeena's guy and the other woman into this chat room (well, it invited everyone on Zeena's Buddy List who was currently online) and they were going crazy wondering why Zeena would invite them both into this room — and then disappear.

Aren't computers wonderful?