What would this time of pandemic and quarantine be without our animals? Our two cats cajole, demand, burrow in, disappear, yowl in circles around our legs while we’re on Zoom, and take their places on the couch—and our laps—when we settle in for the evening. They structure our days. They offer their particular comfort. All around us, other cats are doing the same in other homes.
Jane Hirshfield, long among my very favorite poets, captures this in “A Small-Sized Mystery.”
“In this world where much is missing,
a cat fills only a cat-sized hole.”
