Ticker and Tibet were two cats that we adopted from the Burnaby SPCA. They spent their lives together and traveled with us from Burnaby to Boulder, Colorado and back to Burnaby. When Tibet died, Ticker looked for him for days and, when he couldn't find him, when he didn't reappear, became depressed for months. He finally emerged and resumed his life.

Socrates, Nada, Merlin and Shaman will look for Lavone for a fair amount of time because in a very real way, the only real way, she was one of them. It is perhaps the best quality that a human can discover, the ability to recognize our indissoluble connection with all of the expressions of life by which we are surrounded and with which we are united. They will miss her, because in many ways we know deep down in the sometimes unrecognizable depths of our common mind we are the same. As well, however, in those depths, we also recognize our intrinsic union and the fact that, "All things change, nothing perishes." (Niels Bohr).

I dare to put into words what those cats feel; from the depths of our hearts and minds, "Thank you, our Lady!