pet raze you should get a pet, she said. a dog or something. why don't you? because, i said. their lives are so short. i don't think i could handle losing something i cared about that much. oh, suck it up, she said. you'll get over it. we all do. i thought about the friends who found me in my own back yard. the baker's dozen i see every day, and the ten or so supporting players who are more elusive but no less important. i thought about what losing little_guy and newsom did to me. about the fierce love i feel for these animals that won't live anywhere near as long as i wish they would. about living with the knowledge that they'll all die before i do. how they aren't pets to me. they're my family. i thought about telling her all of that. but the shape her face took told me she'd only laugh and make me feel small. so i just said sure. yeah. sure. and she let her dog off the leash to wander through a parking lot packed with distracted drivers, paying no attention to her at all. 230102 what's it to you? who go blather from