She stepped out onto the platform on her twiggy legs. They still looked weird to Kate, even if her knees really did bend forward.

“I don’t suppose you come to Bhutan very often,” the heron said.

“Not really.” Kate hadn’t actually been aware until that moment that Bhutan was a country.

“Not a lot of people do.”

“I guess that makes it a good place to be a heron,” Kate said.

“Exactly.”

“I’ll try my best to keep humans from destroying everything. I really will.”

The heron nodded her beautiful crested head.

“I know.” She brushed Kate’s hand with her wing. “It may be too late for us. The last white-bellied heron will probably die in your lifetime. We were beautiful, and we hurt no one, but that wasn’t enough.

“Just promise me you won’t give up. The world has lost its old balance, but it’s not too late. It could still find a new one.”

She spread her wide wings and flapped away, gliding to land on an old log in the river, where she began searching the water for fish.

When the heron was gone, Kate walked back to the library car. Only the fishing cat and the porcupine were left. Even after Tom came in to join them, it felt very empty.

Kate sat down on the couch, and for the first time ever the fishing cat came and sat in her lap. She was so big that she overflowed Kate’s legs on either side like a big dog.

“Would you mind terribly much,” the cat said, “scritching me behind my ears?”

“I was just going to ask if you’d mind if I scritched behind your ears.”

Kate scratched gently.

“Mmmmmm. That’s good. I can do it myself with my hind leg, but it’s so much better with fingers.”

She started to purr—a deeper, louder, more rumbling purr than a house cat’s. Kate had never heard her purr before.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Kate said.

“There are two kinds of cats in the world: roaring cats and purring cats. You can’t do both. Lions roar. Tigers roar. But fishing cats are purring cats.”

Kate was glad fishing cats could purr.

All too soon the train slowed down again. Kate had known these animals for only a few weeks, but somehow she felt closer to them than she did to anyone in the world except her family. Now she’d probably never see them again. Kate bent down and smooshed her face into the fishing cat’s furry neck, and a couple of tears leaked out.

But it was so amazing that she’d gotten to meet them at all. She would always have that. When it was time, the fishing cat jumped lightly down from her lap, and together they walked forward to the passenger cars.