HUMANS 101

Preemptive Grief

Silly sadness, anxiety, or a means of living and loving more fully?

Sayang at five months old. Picture courtesy of the author.

I have a 10-month-old kitten who I named Sayang — this means “love,” “sweetheart,” or “darling” in the Malay language. I adopted her from a shelter when she was four months old. I have more than 200 photos and videos of her on my iPhone and my husband tells me I should delete…