How I learned to live with love and loss this Valentine’s Day

Lolly as a kitten. My daughter is in the background a with a bin of toys.

She was never going to be mine.

This tortoiseshell cat with piercing green eyes, I did not want.

She sat in a cage in a Birmingham pet store and looked up at me. I did not want a pet store cat. If I wanted a cat at all, it would come from the animal shelter. But there she was, a kitten separated from her siblings who were huddled in…