As Pearl Lay Dying

I've been looking for a book for a few days.   It's called, Now Boarding:  Next Stop Your Remarkable Life, by Kandee G.  Kandee G sent it to me herself; it's autographed and everything.  I've been reading it, planning to use it as a source book for an article I'm working on.  I remember the last time I was using it, and even remember where I set it down.  But it seems to be nowhere in this house.

As I usually do when things around the house come up missing or have been left undone, I asked the cat about it.  Pearl spends all day inside this house, hanging about like cats do.  She knows everything that happens.  She's a cat.  But then I remembered that there is no cat.  Pearl died a few weeks ago, and I sometimes forget that she's no longer here.  She was with me for over 16 years, and I'm not quite accustomed to having to do things without her.