Another cat? Perhaps. For love there is also a season; its seeds must be resown. But a family cat is not replaceable like a wornout coat or a set of tires. Each new kitten becomes its own cat, and none is repeated. I am four cats old, measuring out my life in friends that have succeeded but not replaced one another.

We who choose to surround ourselveswith lives even more temporary than ourown, live within a fragile circle;easily and often breached.Unable to accept its awful gaps,we would still live no other way.We cherish memory as the onlycertain immortality, never fullyunderstanding the necessary plan.