Is there any other animal that cannot bear its own company? Certainly not any cat. Cats spend much of their lives in contented solitude. Yet they can grow fond of their human companions, and may treat the sick unease in them that humans themselves cannot remedy. Johnson appreciated this power in his cat, and described him as ‘a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed’. Hodge gave him something human company could not supply: a glimpse of life before the Fall.
