Question: What is the meaning of “My cat was back and so was I? Had the author gone anywhere? Why does she say that she is also back?
Answer: As the author sat with her friends and the cat curled up in her lap, all the overwhelming feelings of loss and tragedy seemed to diminish. She felt grateful for her life, her new found friends, the kindness of the lady, who rescued her cat, and the purr of her beloved four legged friend, her cat. The line above means that she had secured and recovered her original identity once more. She was once again the junior school girl who loved life. She had not gone anywhere physically, but mentally had got lost in a lonely world with depression as her only companion. With the arrival of her cat, she feels that she has also come back to being herself in every sense.