seven.
The cat and my dad share the same
superhero power: They both have the
ability to make me pay lots of attention
to them and be nicer to them than I am to
anyone else. Anyone else not staring
down the barrel of their impending
mortality, that is.
I first realized that my cat was old
and might die soon about a year ago
when, overnight, all his body fat plunged
to his belly region, causing him to swing
it around like an udder and leaving him
with a spine that’s still in shock, jutting
out all spindly and jagged, wondering
where everybody went. This is when the
teary farewells started every time I’d