self-portrait taken sometime in 2003

This morning I woke up from a dream in which my old cat was looking down on me, J and our baby. Then I remembered my cat died on this day last year. She was really old and scraggly and I loved her very much. While J dug a hole in our backyard, I bent over her dead body and whispered, “Come back to me!” I was six months pregnant and hoping her kitty soul would reincarnate in my baby so we could still be together. I wonder if several souls can reincarnate into one new life. Kind of like in Being John Malkovich. If it’s possible, I imagine my old cat (for her mischief), J’s grandmother (for her beauty and intelligence) and Freddie Mercury (for his amazing talent) reborn in my little monkey.