Using a few ballpark figures, I calculated that in the years we’ve had our two Cornish Rex cats (14 years for the first and 13 years for the second), we’ve spent at least $20,000 (I underestimated, I’m sure).

Wet food, dry food, cat litter, toys, treats, food/water bowls, litter boxes (plastic pans, covered boxes, electromechanical “automatic cleaning” boxes and plain cardboard boxes with plastic liners), cat carriers and medical care combined.

Not to mention developing/storing photographs, washing/drying bedcovers, shampooing the carpet and the cost of tapwater for all of the above, including for drinking.

In cat years, our feline companions are in their senior/elderly phase.

One is covered with “liver spots,” displaying two crooked ears from cat fights.

The other teeters and totters after his latest bout of vestibular disease, he, too, with a crooked ear (from an ear infection).

A couple of mouse-munching, cricket-crunching warriors.

They are unaware of our wars and national elections.

They warm up to us on cool days like this one.

They, like the redbud tree outside, teach me that the obsessions and vivid imaginations of our species are minor in comparison to the actions of the grander universe.

Yet they exist because of our species…

…our desire for change within our comfortable sameness.

A thought to remember again and again when members of our species get out-of-hand and seem out-of-control.