Sorry to learn of Kim Hirata's passing
We also lost our beautiful, intelligent and loving orange cat to the invasion of a neighbor's vicious dog and I am very sorry to learn about Kim Hirata. I once lost another cat, a black cat who had literally been born into my hands on a Halloween night and the two of us had bonded at the soul. Knowing that he could never, ever, be replaced, I vowed to keep his space in this home empty forever.
But guess what? Even as I have been typing these words, another black cat has been drapped across my chest, paws resting gently upon my shoulder. He was once a pound cat, facing the purple tag of death, but now he and I are bonded, as surely as I was with the one that had been born into my hands, and who, in fact, could not be and was not replaced.