Before Sarah fully understood quite what had happened, she had moved all of her stuff into Simone’s spare room, gotten out of her lease, reclaimed her security deposit, and gotten a key from Simone. Throughout the process, she got some odd looks from people—the landlord, the movers—at her ears and tail, but nobody actually said anything.

Then she was sitting on the sofa in Simone’s living room.

“Simone, how could you do this to me?” Sarah wailed. “I thought you were my friend.”

“I am, silly!” Simone said. “Do you think I’d want a complete stranger for a pet? Don’t worry, I’m gonna take great care of you.”

“But I don’t wanna be a cat!”

“You liked it all right yesterday!” Simone giggled again. “But don’t worry, you won’t be a full-time cat. I can’t have full-time pets, it’s against my lease. So no litterbox or food bowl to clean up. I get to pet you when I want to, and you can be human the rest of the time.”

“Mostly,” Sarah said, looking at her tail.

“That’s so you don’t forget!”