Last weekend while we were out of town, our cat Caspar disappeared. The petsitter thought nothing of it, but we knew something was up. He vanishes on a regular basis, but he never stays away for very long. It was dark by the time we got home so I searched only in our yard and our neighbors' yards on either side. After a lousy night's sleep, I went looking further. I found him dead in the yard behind our house. He'd been hit by a car and was stretched out in the grass beside the curb. I've never picked up a dead body before. It was reality's slap in the face.

We miss Caspar very much. He and Finn, our other cat, are brothers. Finn still goes out every night in search of his brother, his very best friend.