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Hiroyuki Ito went off to Brazil with dreams of being the next great documentary photographer. He came home tired and sick. The call to join Magnum never came.

Yet the same day he was ill in Rio de Janeiro, a cat was born in New York City. Before long, in one of those twists, Hiroyuki — a carefree art student — had better luck with the cat than with his camera.

A tale of the kitten being father to the man.

Mr. Ito recently published a book of this series, “One Cat, Three Lives.”

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