You do not need to look like somebody to bear a family resemblance.

You just need to look at them and let them look at you.

Sunny does not look anything like Schwartz.

He is apricot jam on Ritz crackers. She is the quiet first cup of coffee. He is the prize pumpkin. She is the good soil. He has bold features, like a lead actor. She is as soft as a chrysanthemum, and twice as quiet.

Sunny does not look anything like Schwartz, but Sunny looks exactly like Schwartz. Through many happy years, the same person loved them both. She was their Mom and their mirror. Every time they looked at her, they caught their own reflections.

Dancing off her pupils, like light on the water, was the picture of a precious cat. Since they saw it in their Mom’s eyes, they knew it had to be true. One love painted two cats in the same light. They were wanted. Wonderful. Worthy.

But death threw a cloak over the looking-glass.

The vision vanished without warning. Bereaved and bewildered, Schwartz and Sunny were left with only one mirror: each other.

Every memory survived only in each other’s eyes. If Sunny started to forget the kind face of life, he needed only to turn to Schwartz. If Schwartz’s hope grew bleary, she could focus on Sunny’s face.

They swirled into one another, the orange cat and the black, like oil paints trying to make sense of a blank canvas.

Cats and people are always making art, and some of our best brushes are mirror neurons. In the beauty of our brains, we light up when we observe someone repeating our own actions, or when we reenact theirs.

Think of the stranger across the cafeteria, slurping his soup one second after you. Think of the baby on the bus, whose yawn echoes your own. Sometimes it is an “accident” (if you believe in such things). But mirror neurons are most artistic when they are intentional.

We tilt our heads at matching angles and glimpse each other’s good intentions. Kittens imitate each other’s facial expressions while wrestling, in order to say, this is all hee-hee-ha-ha, not mortal combat.

We look at each other, and we start to look like each other.

Down to just one mirror, Sunny and Schwartz stared into each other for strength. Memories daubed them with fraternal fears, neurons sizzling with hope and worry all at once. They were each other’s comfort, but they were both too brokenhearted to see in color. For that, they would need another mirror.

Or, an entire funhouse.

When you become a Tabby’s Place cat, you are enthroned in a hall of mirrors. Staff and volunteers are starry-eyed, jostling for the chance to love you first. People stand on tiptoe just to get a glimpse.

Your reputation has preceded you. You are a celebrity. You were in a “hopeless situation,” but that was just a vehicle to get you here. You are a cat, and you are our cat. You were meant to be here. You are wanted, wonderful, worthy.

You can see it, unanimous, in every giddy pair of eyes that beholds you.

You may not believe what you see, especially if you are still looking down at your own broken heart. Schwartz struggled to look up when we looked at her. We understand. She was the center of love’s attention before. The smiling eyes closed, by no fault of their own. Schwartz was not sure if this new picture was a mirror or a mirage.

But the brother who looks nothing like her, who looks exactly like her, was looking out for her as much as ever.

One half-smidge less timid than Schwartz, Sunny showed his sister the way.

He met a volunteer’s gaze, savored a chin-skritch, then looked to Sunny. Look, sis. It’s good. It’s very good. Look how they love us. Just look. She burrowed in the blankets, and he did not pull the comforter away.

But day by day, Sunny nudged Schwartz into the light.

Just do as I do. See what happens. I think we can trust them, Sun. I think they mean everything their eyes say. I think there may even be a family resemblance. 

But not even Sunny could foresee what happened next.

The visitor did not look anything like Sunny and Schwartz. The visitor looked exactly like Sunny and Schwartz. In the kindness of her eyes, a family formed on the spot. One gentle adopter gazed at two grieving cats and saw forever.

Today, they are true love in triplicate.

So, be careful when you look at someone and let them look at you. You may never be the same. You may never be lonely again.

You may look like your own true face, the one that is loved without limit.

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