Word Count 919

I wasn’t really surprised when what appeared to be a tiny woman in a catsuit showed up on my doorstep with a note reading “Please take me in.  I’m Kitty and I need a good home.”  You have to understand that I live in a very liberal part of a very open city in a very accepting state.  The Lone Tree neighborhood of Fortland is also the home of the largest furry organization in this hemisphere, so seeing humans dressed as mammals, birds, or reptiles is not unusual.

Since I live by myself and don’t have many friends, I was glad to take a furry in for company.  She looked hungry so I put out a bowl of milk for her which she eagerly lapped up.  After she had her fill, she looked up at me expectantly, so I showed her around my small house.  There is only one bathroom, but two bedrooms.  I showed her the bathroom and the bedroom she could use, after which she crawled up on the couch and fell asleep while purring.  While Kitty was napping, I cleaned up my messy bachelor house.  It had been so long since I’d had company, and I had neglected the place.

As a few days passed, Kitty showed more of her human side.  Notes became tedious, so we started talking in our normal voices.  She used a normal human bathroom (she had a flap on her cat suit, so I assume there was no problem).  On her third day with me she ate human food rather than milk in a bowl on the floor.

She still did cat-like things.  During the day she would crawl into my lap.  Based on her weight, I assumed there was a quite small woman inside the fur suit.  At night she would sleep on top of the covers next to me.  I confess that the inside of the cat suit intrigued me, but I was not sure how approaching the question would be answered.  Even though we lived in a permissive area with a lot of furries, I don’t know if human-furry, shall we say intimacy, is viewed.  Good sense triumphed over attempting certain fantasies I had.

When we went for out walks, she walked standing up.  On our second outing, she pulled me to a neighbor’s door.  We had seen the new resident, an attractive apparently single woman, on an earlier outing.  After Kitty rang the doorbell, the woman came to the door with a “no salesmen” look on her face.  After seeing who we were she changed to a smile and said “I wondered when I’d meet my new neighbors – A good looking man and his good looking cat”.

After she let us in she said “My name is Sally.  I just got here from Southern Illinois because my friends here in Oregon tell me it is a good place to live and I just had an ugly breakup with a guy named Bill.  I’m a remote worker on an AI startup.  Tell me about your selves.”

I told her that I was an actuary named Duke, and that my work was as incredibly boring as was I.  My history of casual dating was a painful story I had no interest in sharing.  Kitty silently observed our extended conversation.   Sally and I exchanged phone numbers.

When we returned home Kitty surprised me by saying “I’ve always loved cats and wanted to see what a cat’s life is like.  I’m sure it’s good if you are a cat, but I’m reverting to human as I see it only works if you really are a cat.”  She had never opened up to me like that before.  After that she didn’t cuddle in my lap or sleep beside me on top of the covers anymore.

The next day Sally invited the two of us over for tea after my work.  Kitty decided to take a cat nap instead.  When I got to Sally’s place, she had prepared a variety of teas including chai, and a turmeric combination.  At first I was sitting in a chair about ten feet from her.  I asked if I could sit beside because the noise from crunching numbers had impaired my hearing.  Sally looked nonplussed at first and then spit out a mouthful of tea.  She then produced a strangled combination of coughs and laughs.  I’d taken to Sally and decided to go big or literally go home.  Before she got her speech back, she patted the seat beside herself.

It was a delightful afternoon.  I’m keeping the details to myself.

When Kitty heard about my new love, she was really pleased.

The next day Kitty was gone, but left a note.  “Duke, I’ve learned a lot here.  I enjoyed being your cat, but it’s time to go back to my day job.  We will get together again, Sherry Royce.”

A blissful month later, while perusing my newspaper entertainment section, I saw the following:

“Sherry Royce, top selling mystery writer of the Blaze Emmons series has started a romance series in which the continuing character is a matchmaking cat named Kitty.  Her first book is “Duke And Sally” about two lonely characters who were brought together by Kitty.

The next day, I got a phone call from Ms. Royce.  Sally and I are getting treated to an all expense trip to Los Angeles and staying at Sherry’s mansion.  If you ever see a cat that wants to live with you, let it in.

In Coin-Op Zine. Written to their theme. Don’t really know that much about furries. Postage costs more than the paper story, so I won’t be ordering my second Coin-Op Zine. Starting now WordPress has made the simple picture addition and tags insanely difficult, so I probably won’t do either in the future.