My brother just got some sad, sad news. His cat PD has cancer and will probably go to the great sun-warmed spot in the sky soon.

I thought about that a lot on my ride home the other night. Came into the driveway and Mookie was looking out the window. I suppose it’s the realization of my brother’s pending loss that made me like Rutger Hauer watching Harrison Ford dangle from the end of a rain-wet girder in “Blade Runner” – I suddenly realized how precious life was.

So after dinner, I paid special attention to my little girl, petting her and talking to her, stroking her and loving her. Eventually we got to playing. I put my all into it. Then I bounced a mouse off her nose and she ran under the rocker and hid, glaring out at me with her tail wrapped over her toes, as if to say, “What got into you tonight? You’re all weirded out.”

We try so hard…