The Purr of Hope

A book of photos of pets that survive disasters, thereby symbolizing the fact that life goes on:

It would be bogus. It would be touching. It would be sociological.

I might buy it, at least when it was remaindered.

I saved the photo above to send to various cat/pet-loving friends and now wish to link to it, but it seems to have gone away.

So I must steal it. I'm sorry.

But for all my cynicism I do find it touching when a child gets his dog or kitty back after having lost everything else. After the Oakland hills firestorm in 1991, some of the saddest stories involved the search afterwards for lost pets -- if we had only had the courage to stay another 30 seconds Rover would have bounded into the car -- and among the gladdest were those that described the return (all too rare) of some doughty animal that hid in the culvert until the flames passed.

I still remember one such story. A TV cameraman acccompanied a couple when at last they were allowed to return to the ruins of their home. And out from somewhere nearby came a singed kitty.

Tears all around, on the screen there and in the living room here on Paloma, far from the flames.