Ginny

Nob Hill
Thursday afternoon

***

My brother Clyde and I were happy living with our human companion. My stomach would hurt sometimes, and so did Clyde's, but hey, we were no longer spring chickens. Some wear and tear was to be expected. Then one day our human was gone, and other humans came and put us in little cardboard boxes and brought us somewhere. I peeked out of one of the holes in the box and saw a sign that read "Pets Unlimited."

Our new life was very different. The first few days were a blur. I remember being poked a lot. Then we were put in a little room with some furniture and toys and blankets. It was a lot smaller than where we used to live. Humans would come in every day and make me and Clyde swallow these little round things that tasted awful, and whenever I would complain, they would say, "I know, I know...". If they knew those things tasted awful, why did they keep making us swallow them every day? But otherwise they were very nice. Different humans would come in to visit us each day, and some of them would come every week.

After a while my brother started feeling worse. One morning, the humans came in and took him away. I kept waiting for them to bring him back, but they didn't. The humans who would come visit me were extra nice to me after that. There was one human, this girl with yellow hair, that would lie down in my room and stay with me a long time, reaching up to rub my chin and my head while I was lying down in my bed. I like having my chin and head rubbed. But then she would leave and visit with the other cats in the rooms around me. I would glare at her through the glass walls, to let her know I disapproved.

Then one day the nice girl came in with two other humans, one of whom held me while the other cut my claws shorter. I didn't like that. The other two humans left but the nice girl stayed, and she told me she was taking me home with her. I thought, "It's about time!" She was lying down, so I stood on her stomach to make sure she couldn't change her mind and get up and go take another cat instead of me.

I like living with this girl. She is always nice to me and feeds me food whenever I want. Sometimes she takes quite a long time to get up in the morning to feed me, but I usually let her sleep as long as she needs to. Unfortunately, she makes me take those little round things too, and I let her know I don't like that, but afterward she brushes me with a great rubber brush, so I forgive her. We live in a place that must be a zillion times bigger than my little room at Pets Unlimited, and we have a big window that looks out over San Francisco. She tells me that someday we'll move to a bigger place that has a better view of the city, but I'm happy where we are.

I like looking out the window. San Francisco sure is pretty. And there are a lot of birds flying around out there. Sometimes when I look out the window, I wonder where Clyde is... I hope he has it as good as me. And then I think about the other cats, and even those noisy dogs, back at Pets Unlimited. I hope that some nice humans come by soon and bring them home, too.

***

Ginny lives with her human friend Patti.

You can see the rest of their photo shoot here.