“The whole notion of pet having was irrational after all. Why on earth would you attach yourself to something biologically predetermined to die before you? It was crazy. Becoming attached just guaranteed a painful amputation somewhere down the road, and there you’d be, this phantom limb in your head – this active absence – following you around, only to disappear whenever you turned around to look at it. Pets – and the acquiring thereof – was just a setup for gratuitous grief.”