What would you do if you knew that the world would end tomorrow?

Someone wiser and more famous than I am once responded, “I would plant a tree.”

My wife and I bought a kitten.

I am not saying that the world will end tomorrow. (I can’t say for sure. I am not a prophet.) But my wife and I are well into semi-retirement, and the world might well end for us before it does for the kitten.

Don’t worry. I know that the people reading this are now more concerned about the fate of the kitten than you are about the fate of my wife and me. If “something happens to us,” the children have agreed to take over care of the kitten. It is a condition of receiving their inheritance, as small as that is.

The decision to adopt a kitten was a deliberate one. While some seniors have chosen to retreat into quiet and solitude, my wife and I for the most part have chosen to be surrounded by life. We chose to live in a multi-generational townhouse complex. We attend a multi-generational church.

And having a kitten entices the children and grandchildren to visit more. And more.

Pippin is a two-month-old, one-pound ball of fluff—technically a lynx point Siamese kitten. She is tiny, fitting nicely into one hand. We treat her like a baby. We are pleased to report that she is eating well and using the cat box. She has developed a pattern of playing hard for two hours and then then sleeping for two hours. That works well during the day. Not so much at night. It is like having a baby. (I already said that.) We have learned to adjust to a revised sleeping schedule. And I am learning to shuffle my feet like an old man, so as not to step on her. She is fast and silent, creeping up on me like old age.

The kitten gives my wife something to do while I am holed up in my office writing. Each month, I write a variety of blog posts, articles, meditations, and stories, and I offer links to what I have written on social media. Some of the things I write present penetrating insights into the human condition. Some deal with profound theological truths. Some (I hope) have artistic merit. But I have found that the social media links I post about the important things I write receive far less attention and far fewer responses than when I post a photo of a cute kitten.

As a writer, as time goes on, you learn what sells.