Familiar:: The first argument I remember having was whether animals had a soul. It was late afternoon on a Sunday and we had made one of our erratic, emotion strewn visits to the church seven miles from our rural home. My parents were conflicted about religion. My father was raised Episcopalian. His Catholic parents left the fold after they denied my great-grandmother burial in the Catholic cemetery. A lifelong practicing Catholic, she was from Czechoslovakia and didn't have access to her baptism records. She could not prove she was Catholic in death. My father was an altar boy, but no more faith ridden than the next person. My mother's church attendance was spotty. Her father called himself an atheist--though I know from reading his papers he was a heathen at heart. Her mother felt religious education somewhat obligatory. They didn't go often. And neither did we. I liked some things about church, music and story. But so much of what was offered grew contrary to my conscience and the reality of life in the woods. Like the idea that animals lacked souls. If that were so, how would Rosie Posie, my cat companion since I was four, know exactly when I needed extra love? Why would my horse Trigger (not named by me, but fitting for her personality) whinny expectantly when I showed up, pawing the ground and dancing? Why would she let me spend hours on her back without any tack, just resting and talking to the beings of the land? There was no doubt in my mind that whatever soul was, it was present in animals and plants, creeks and stones, sky, wind, stars, rain, sun...everything. :: Next month is the cat Crowma Trouble Nutball's birthday. In the past year this little kitten has moved twice and ruled each home. She fetches paper toys, attacks me viciously, gives kisses and warms laps. She is in mine now, offering a mild look of reprimand for me not fully focussing on her affections. Women who expressed kin with animals experienced a special viscousness in the witch hunts. FamilIar is our reclaiming of this relationship, of the tenderness in an animate universe where connections like these are vital, central, and thread beyond speciesism into all.