I’m writing a book about Frieda, and sometimes, she comes to sit beside me. Frieda, like Simon, has been to the dark side of the human-animal experience, and like him she connects very powerfully to people who treat her well. She always seems a bit surprised by love and affection. I love working with her. I am glad to be opening up, moving my computer, trying something new. It is frightening to write a book in a different way for the first time in 23 books. It is important. Open up, I tell myself every morning. Keep going. When your knees hurt, when the world is going a different way. Open up.