While Cochin was relating story after story of her adventures, and I was bringing her up to speed with what had been going on back here, I wondered at her new-found confidence and loquacity. Before, she seemed all unchanneled id, willing to do anything just for the sheer joy of experiencing it. Now, it seems that irrepressible enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat with the wisdom that experience brings.

I am a little sorry for that. While the new Cochin seems like she will be a more level-headed ally in the current crisis, I – somewhat surprisingly – find myself wishing that nothing had changed. At least not to her.

I wonder, as well, if I am changed by my adventures. I think not. A cat’s great strength is the ability to live in the moment, without fear of the future or regrets of the past. We are who we are, and the world flows around our rocklike self-confidence.

That confidence has been shaken in me, I must admit. Too much changing too fast. Perhaps, as ludicrous as it seems, once this is over I may pay another visit to Argenta and her uncountable cousins. Dark and damp their city might be, but their problems are not my problems, and we cats can forever ignore with regal aplomb issues that only affect other people.