Stray!

Quick Change

Over the next few days with Donald I found out some things about him. First of all is that he's single. And he smokes something, I'm not sure what it is but it's not cigarettes. He lets me out every day around the same time so I can wander and play around in the neighborhood. Though, he's gonna start noticing that three dollars go missing almost every time. Since I don't go into my human state of being while I'm there, and I hate cat food, I eat fast food every time I get hungry. Then I run it off after I eat. It's getting harder to find safe places to swap between my human self and my cat self this time of year is when all the children and teenagers are running rampant with nowhere to go and nothing to do. And some of them hang out in my favorite alleys. It's also a pain to keep finding clothes. I guess I'll have to go back to Chris. But only long enough to get some clothes and get out of there. He works during the day and he keeps a spare key above the door frame. This shouldn't be hard. I went back to my kitten self and took off in the direction of his home. His car was there but it's getting late so he should be leaving at any time. I hid silently in the bushes near his driveway, waiting for him to come out. I flinched when he opened the door. He looked stressed out and genuinely unexcited about life. That's unusual for him. But it's not my problem anymore. I'm not Patches. I waited for him to turn the corner at the end of the block until I made my move. Dashing into the house naked wasn't as easy a task as I thought, since unlocking a door as a cat was virtually impossible for me. Before anyone could see me I was inside. I grabbed a skirt, long sleeve crop top, and a choker along with some flats and headed out. All in all, I was only in there about 2 minutes and 47 seconds. From what I could tell, he hasn't cleaned up the last mess I made or replaced the couch. He hadn't moved anything, actually. It was exactly the way I left it. Maybe he hasn't had time. I put the key back where I found it and headed on my way. I continued this pattern for a week. I almost got caught a couple times but I managed to escape.

"Hey there pretty lady, you wanna have some fun?" Some sleazy guy called to me from a corner. I ignored him.
"Would you care to help out people in need by donating to—"
"I'm really sorry I don't have any money." I apologized sincerely.

The man ringing the bell stopped and called to another person. I felt that I'd been out for long enough. It was time to go back to Donald's house. I changed back in a safe spot in the backyard. I would just change clothes again tomorrow so I wasn't worried about where I left them. Actually I hid them in the shrubbery by the back door. I wear the clothes from the previous day back to Chris' house where I switch to a different outfit. Wouldn't need Donald finding some female's clothes in his yard and no female. That would be weird.

"Hey, look who's back so soon." Donald smiled, scooping me up in his arms. I found myself purring softly. Something about this man and the way he handles me so gently is...refreshing. I could stay here forever.

Christopher

I couldn't focus at all. It was weird. I lived alone for so long but now that I had gotten used to Cara's constant attention-seeking, my house felt a lot emptier. I needed her to crawl all over my lap for me to be able to focus. My days didn't seem as long when I was working because I had Cara to look forward to see at the end of the day. Onika was now on the edge of my desk. I looked up at her from my blank computer screen. It had gone into sleep mode since I hadn't touched it for a while.

"Chris what's wrong with you? More girl trouble?"
"Kinda...my uh...cat ran away..."
"Um, you've been here since 9am and you haven't done any work...because your cat ran away?" She scoffed, the pitch in her voice started to get higher towards the end.
"It sounds dumb but yeah. I was really attached to her."
"Um...well have you started looking for her?"
"I haven't had the time. God knows where she could be right now..."

I felt my stomach start turning at the thought. She could be hurt, scared, or dead right now. I hope she's okay. What the fuck was I thinking, blowing up on her like that? Why can't I just admit it. I like her. I've become dependent on her. I need to feel her skin when she crawls all over me. I need to smell her, I need to see her. I need her. I want her. I think I love her. What am I saying, I haven't known her long enough to be in love. I don't know anything about her. Where did she come from? How did she find me? There had to be so many people she ran into before me. Why me? I stood up from my desk quickly, causing Nicki to jump.

"What's up, kid?"
"I gotta go. Tell the boss I'm at lunch."
"Uh, alright?"

I took off from my office with one thing on my mind. I have to find her, and quickly. I started to drive around town, stopping at every place she may have been but she was never at any of them. I felt so guilty. It's all my fault that she ran off. If I hadn't been mistreating her all fucking week I wouldn't have this problem. She wouldn't be missing. I wouldn't be stressed to hell because she isn't around. She would be at my house, in my bed, waiting for me to walk through that front door so she could run up to me. She would be next to me begging for me to pet her instead of missing, probably wandering the streets starving. Why did I have to be an idiot. Trying to make an excuse not to commit to her because she's not exactly human. What does it fucking matter? Who has to know? No one would ever find out unless Cara or myself told them. What the hell was I doing to myself? What was I doing to her? She didn't deserve how I've been treating her all week. All she did was love me.

I slammed my hands against the steering wheel in frustration.

"FUCK!"

I was beating myself up when I looked up to see a flyer saying someone found a cat. The cat in the photo looked exactly like Patches. There's no way it's not her. I dug my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number.

"Hello?" A male voice answered a after a few rings.
"Hey, is this Donald Glover?"
"Yeah, who's asking?"
"Yeah hi, my name is Christopher Brown. I'm calling because I saw your flyer saying you found a cat."
"Yes I found a cat. Are you the owner?"
"Actually I was wondering if I could come by and check out the cat. It looks a lot like mine but my cat is really special. I would need to see it in person to determine whether it's her or not."
"Sure. When can you make it?"
"Today would be great."
"Okay sure. Is this your cell phone?"
"Yeah it's my cell."
"I'll text you my address and you can come by today."