“Hank was not afraid, not in the least. He knew that Dusty, the cat who came before me, was waiting for him at the Bridge, and that when he got there nothing would hurt ever again. And he knew he would see the Younger Human and the People again someday, and he would see me, too. It was what he wanted; he’d been trying for a year to not let the people know he needed to go, because he knew it would hurt them terribly. But it was time; he couldn’t fake it anymore, and seeing him struggle hurt just as much as losing him would.”