Artist's commentary
Meeting
On November 5, 2005, my beloved cat died. My wife and I were very sad. It's always so sad when cats die. At the time my wife took the bus to work every day. Five days later, on November 10th, she fell fast asleep on the bus home, so she didn't get off at her usual stop but ended up going all the way to the station at the last stop, so she had to walk all the way back from there. It was nearly winter, cold and rainy. She found a black and white kitten under the canopy of a shuttered up store, mewling desperately, as if to say, "Please, help me!" She cast aside her umbrella and approached it, and even though they'd never met before, the kitten crawled up on her lap and began kneading her arm, as if it felt as safe as could be. So, my wife thought: our meeting must be fate. I went out to meet her there, and I couldn't help but think this kitten seemed awfully used to beng around people. It may have run away. We went around to houses in the area asking if anyone knew anything about that kitten, but nobody did. We put an ad in the newspaper, but were never contacted by anyone who seemed they might be the kitten's owner. A few days after we found it, we named it "Monita" [n.b. after the moni-moni sound effect for cats kneading], and it still lives with us. Now, I can't help but think their meeting was fate as well.