‘And the cats?’ I said. ‘What about the cats?’ He put his hand to the side of his head and cocked his thumb like a gun. ‘Got rid of them, they did. That’s what happened to the cats.’ ‘So, when the cats were gone, did the wrens come back?’ He looked at me when I said that. Looked at me as if I was crazy. ‘The wrens became extinct,’ he said. ‘Nothing comes back when it’s extinct.’ When I saw the tears in his eyes, I knew that extinct really does mean forever.