I can’t think of 2015 without thinking of the two little characters who left this year, Lucie my cat and Max my Lab. I still haven’t written my final farewell entry for Max because there’s so much packed into his 15 year lifespan with us that I don’t know where to start. Trying to write all that down is further complicated by the fact that his passing is still quite painful six months on. Lucie’s passing was equally painful and shocking, but her life with us at seven years was “only” half as long.

I follow science fiction author John Scalzi’s blog Whatever. In one particularly short but poignant entry (for me) written yesterday, he summed up the entry with the sentiment “that pets come and go and you love them while you have them.” There’s nothing truer than that. He lost two cats this year, and then filled their void with a pair of kittens, or scamperbeasts. I’m about to do something similar.

Life goes on. Everyone and everything that leaves through death’s door makes room for the newly born, the next generations. Tomorrow I travel up to see my oldest daughter in Gainesville and take responsibility for a pair of ginger male kittens (seen rolling around above), who I’ve taken to calling Greebo Og (left) and Ponder Stibbons (right). If you’re a Discworld fan then those names should ring some bells. I thus start 2016 with two new little lives.

They are but two out of a litter of five. The other three are calico females; all the females have been placed. I look forward to traveling up tomorrow to visit and then to return with two new lives. I’ve never had kittens come to live with me before, so this should be interesting.

Before you ask, they make a trip to the vets next Wednesday to be neutered.