An excerpt from In a Dog’s World. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead to the next chapter.
The cat mixer was in the large back room of a dimly lit tapas bar. Platters of bite-sized chimichangas, meaty albondigas, and fried calamari were set out on tables for everyone to enjoy. There were a dozen or so cats milling around, mostly recognizable breeds like Siamese and Abyssinian. Like Katasha and Corina. Perhaps half a dozen prospective students, each with a parent, littermate, or two. Near the front table, an overweight Mastiff with a booming voice seemed to be running things. He was just about the biggest dog Katasha had ever seen, and he introduced himself as Bruce the Dean of Admissions.
“Let me see,” he woofed. “You must be… Katasha Blake!” he held his massive paws toward both Katasha and Corina. He might be able to guess from the limited number of Siamese cats in the room that she was one of the two, but it was no surprise that he didn’t know which one. Corina placed a paw firmly in the middle of her sister’s back and gave Katasha a shove. She stumbled a step forward and held out her paw. It had never looked so tiny before, but in the Mastiff’s paw, it was positively dwarfed.
“Yes, Sir,” she stammered.
“Ha!” he woofed. “Sir! Seriously, little cat, no need for that. Hey, I remember your application. You’re an engineer.”
Katasha bristled at the phrase little cat, but then her chest puffed up and her tail straightened out when he called her an engineer. “That’s right,” she said. “I’m going to design rocket ships for the space program.”
Bruce’s jowly face smiled. “Well, well,” he said. “Ambitious. I like that. I guess you’d better come to our school then. Isleywood has the best engineering program in the country.”
While Bruce tried to sell Katasha and her Mama on the school that they’d already decided on, Corina slipped away towards a table with several of the younger crowd at it. Katasha was nervous about what exactly Corina would say to these potential future classmates. She wasn’t getting to make her own first impression; Corina was over there making it for her. But, she couldn’t be too worried or upset. She’d got into Isleywood! She was here. Well, not at Isleywood yet. But, she was talking to the dean of admissions, and there were other Isleywood students around.
When Bruce excused himself to set up the slide show he had prepared for everyone, he suggested that Katasha go meet the other prospective students. “There are a couple other cats here who were accepted for next year. You should get to know them!” Then, he added as an afterthought, “And, if you have any questions about student life or classes,” Bruce held out a massive paw, pointing at something behind Katasha. “See that yellow lab over there?”
Katasha’s heart practically stopped when she saw the dog Bruce was gesturing at. He had trim platinum blonde fur, flopped over ears, and a sturdy square muzzle, all dressed up in a closely fitted navy blue tunic with a mismatched green tie. Top it off with a slightly goofy but incredibly endearing grin, and that dog was gorgeous.
“That’s Howell,” Bruno said. “He’s an upperclassman, and I’m sure he can tell you anything you want to know. Now, go meet the other cats! Have fun!”
Katasha and her mama looked at each other a moment after Bruno waddled off toward his slide projector. “I think I’ll get to know some of the other parents,” Mama said. She didn’t say anything about how Katasha should be getting to know the other young cats if she wanted that prom dress. She didn’t have to.
However, a quick look at the table of prospective felines left Katasha feeling scared and shaky. Asking a tom to prom sounded terrifying. Even if she did want to go.
At the moment, Corina was talking to a solid gray tomcat with a single white locket of fur on his throat. There was another Siamese sitting beside her, also a tom. His features were even more angular and Asian than hers and Corina’s. His ears were as large as his head, and his eyes were startlingly blue and a little crossed. The final cat at the table — a third tom — was a Manx boy with tuxedo markings that contrasted amusingly with the completely casual t-shirt he was wearing.
Katasha couldn’t imagine going to prom with any of them. Worse, actually, she could, but she didn’t want to. There was something upsetting about the way that she didn’t even know these toms names, and Corina was already chatting away with them. Dating a cat was too much pressure. The moment Corina brought Erik home, it was like he was part of their family, and Corina had become part of his. It would be weird for everyone if they ever broke up.
And, really, how did it not manage to be weird for them that Mama — and Erik’s parents for that matter — were already making plans around Corina and Erik having a litter of their own some day?
Katasha couldn’t stand that. She didn’t know if she ever wanted to have a litter of kittens. She certainly didn’t want everyone else discussing it and making plans for her. Cooing about how beautiful Corina and Erik’s apricot kittens would be…
“You look upset.”
The voice was a pleasant tenor. When Katasha looked up, she practically jumped. Her fur fluffed out a little all over. It was Howell, the gorgeous yellow lab talking to her. Feeling the blood rush to her ears, Katasha meowed, “Is it always like this?”
“Like what?” he asked, looking down at her with that adorable grin.
“All the cats off in a corner,” Katasha said, gesturing toward the table with Corina and the prospectives. “All of them expected to stick together in one isolated little group. Is it like that at Isleywood?”
Howell looked at her very seriously. His brown eyes were gentle. “I don’t know about expected to,” he said, “but a lot of the cats do seem to stick together. They do have to room with each other, I guess. But, I mean, that’s for your own protection. I mean, dogs are…” He laughed, “Let’s be honest, dogs are big, sloppy brutes compared to most cats. What cat would want a dog for a roommate?”
Katasha skewed an ear. She’d heard about the rooming policy, but she hadn’t thought about it much. “I don’t know,” she said.
“I can tell you, though, I think a cat would be a great roommate.” Howell grinned, his pink tongue visible, framed by the black lining of his mouth. “If I didn’t have a single this year, I’d love to have a cat roommate! I’ll tell you,” he said, “my first year, I roomed with a St. Bernard. He was a nice guy, an engineer, but he took up three quarters of the room!”
“I’m going to be an engineer,” Katasha said, shyly.
“No kidding?” Howell asked. He stuck out a paw, finally, formally introducing himself. “I’m Howell, astrophysicist.”
Katasha held out her tabby striped paw delicately, and Howell engulfed it in his big blonde paw. His paw pads felt rough against hers.
“I’m Katasha,” she said.
“Katasha,” he barked. “You ever shorten that to Kat? A cat named Kat?”
Katasha started to answer him, saying that, actually, her littermates usually shortened it the other way to “Tash,” but the lights went off before she even started. Everyone went quiet and began edging towards the seats as Bruce announced with his booming voice that it was time for the presentation. Howell had a seat reserved for him at the front, since he’d come with Bruce as a representative of the college. Mama was ensconced at a table with other parents. All the seats at that table were taken.
Katasha was still trying to decide if she could avoid sitting at the table with the other prospective cats — where she was clearly expected to sit — when Corina slipped up beside her, took her arm, and guided her through the dark to an empty table off to the side.
Images of Isleywood college — the grounds, the classrooms, the labs, the dorms — flicked across the projector screen in the front of the room, as Bruce extolled the virtues of an Isleywood education. First class facilities. Top notch teachers. And students who would blossom into colleagues and connections who would be the next generation of scientists in this country. Meanwhile, Corina whispered furiously to Katasha about all she’d learned at the prospectives table.
“There are three toms here who’ll be at Isleywood next year,” she whispered.
“The Manx, the super-purebred Siamese, and the gray one, right?” Katasha asked, looking over at the table Corina had recently been working.
“Yeah,” she said. “Those are the ones. They’ll all be in some kind of Suite together next year.”
“They’re going to be roommates?” Katasha asked, feeling like the world of cats was hopelessly interconnected and inbred.
“Something like that,” Corina said. “With an upperclassman. Some Persian guy. ANYWAY,” she said, “their names are Leon, Rover, and Blue.”
“Rover? Geez,” Katasha said. “Someone’s parents went for a traditional dog name.”
“Yeah,” Corina agreed. “That’s the Siamese tom. But I don’t think his name’s as bad as Blue’s.”
Katasha looked at Corina and cocked a questioning tilt to her left ear.
“Oh come on,” she said. “Don’t you get it? He’s a moggie. No particular breed. But his parents must have thought that with his solid gray fur he looked like a Russian Blue.”
“Ah,” Katasha said, suddenly seeing the similarity. Russian Blues and pure gray moggies did look similar. She supposed dogs must have no idea how to tell them apart, but any cat could see the subtle difference in sheen between a Russian Blue’s silver tipped fur and a gray moggie’s flat coloring. “Cute,” she said.
Corina assumed her sister was being sarcastic (although she hadn’t been) and said defensively, “Well, you can’t hold his parents poor choices against him. Besides,” Corina’s voice turned wheedling, “he’s the one I think you should invite to the prom. He’s from a second litter, so he has a really big family. He recited a poem or something about stars. Then, he explained how he was going to be an astrologist and prove there’s life in other parts of the universe.”
Katasha skewed an ear at her sister. “You mean astronomer? Or maybe astrophysicist?”
“Yeah, whatever,” Corina said impatiently. “Star scientist. He seemed like a real sweetheart.”
Katasha left her first ear skewed, and then flattened the other one too. “I dunno,” she said. She felt cornered, having her sister pick her date for her. “What about the Manx?” she said, looking for a way to reassert a sense of control over her own life. Besides, she got the sense from how he held himself — relaxed and confident — that she liked the Manx tom’s style. “Leon, right?”
Corina twitched her tail irritably. “No go,” she said. “He has a girlfriend.” Before Katasha could even ask about Rover, Corina continued on, saying, “And Rover’s a handsome guy… but… no social skills. Seriously, he speaks in this complete monotone and was ignoring everything I had to say.”
Sometimes Katasha wanted to ignore everything Corina had to say, so she had some sympathy for that. On the other paw, she knew her sister well enough to trust her social intuition. If Corina didn’t like Rover as a potential prom date — even with the prom this close and the pool of candidates so limited — then he probably wasn’t the kind of guy Katasha would enjoy being saddled with for a whole evening.
Nonetheless… She really didn’t want to ask Blue. It’s not that there was anything wrong with him. She just couldn’t get excited about the idea. At all.
Instead, she kept picturing Papa meeting Blue and calling him, “Son.” He wouldn’t mean anything by it, but, then, neither would Dmitri when he would invariably start discussing the statistical probabilities of a moggie and a half-Siamese having kittens who still had the traditional Siamese point markings. Dmitri was just interested in that sort of thing. It was because he was the only one of them who didn’t have the Siamese markings. And Katasha knew that. Even so, she didn’t know if she could stand it.
That’s why she hardly looked at tomcats anymore. She didn’t want anyone talking about some hypothetical litter of kittens that she never even wanted to have.
Corina was looking at her expectantly. “Do you want me to ask him?” she said, drawing Katasha back to the here and now. “‘Cause, I can ask him.”
“No,” Katasha said.
“Are you worried he’ll find it weird if I do? I know you worry about that stuff, but he’s from a second litter! I’m sure he’s used to that sort of thing.”
Katasha glared at her sister. Blue eyes stared down blue eyes. Katasha folded first. Looking away, she said, “Just give me a minute to think, okay?”
Corina twitched her tail, but then she dipped her ears in assent. The two sisters sat quietly beside each other, pretending to listen to the end of Bruce’s slide show. At least, Katasha was pretending. For all she knew, Corina was actually learning about this school her sister would be going to next year. Katasha, however, had decisions to make and courage to bolster… and not a lot of time.
In the reflected light of the slide show, Blue really would have been mistakable for a Russian Blue. Katasha didn’t care about breeds and pedigrees, but she had to admit he was a reasonably nice looking cat. He had even, slightly rounded features, green eyes, and apparently a mind for poetry. That was cute. However, Katasha didn’t care much about poetry, and, honestly, searching the skies for signs of alien life seemed like a poetic but silly waste of a solid Isleywood education to her.
Of course, Howell had said he was studying astrophysics. He didn’t seem silly. Katasha turned her eyes toward Howell. He had an arm over the back of his chair, paw draped carelessly over the edge. When he saw Katasha looking at him through the dark, he squinted a little, trying to make her out with his weaker, canine night vision, and then smiled.
Katasha knew what she was going to do.
She could hardly breathe through the last few minutes of the presentation. As soon as the lights came on, Katasha stood up and started moving through the rising crowd. Corina saw her sister moving with a clear purpose and left her alone, having half an idea of Katasha’s plan. But only half.
Walking over to Howell turned out to be the easy part. Once she was standing beside him, looking him straight in the eye even though he was still seated, she realized that her plan involved actually speaking, making her tongue work and properly form words which she suddenly couldn’t recall… Her mind blanked, and she stood there, swaying slightly, near moments away from panic.
Then at the very moment Howell began to ask, “Did you like the presentation?”, Katasha realized she could feel her sister’s eyes on her. Her courage began to fail. She nodded mutely.
“So, Kat,” Howell said, “What else can we do to convince you to come to Isleywood and become Kat the Isleywood cat.”
Howell meant: what questions could he answer, what concerns could he address… But Katasha saw her opportunity and burst out, “Go to prom with me.” Katasha wasn’t sure how much of the room had heard her. She was sure Corina had. Her ears burned, and it seemed like it took Howell forever to respond.
“Seriously?” he said. Then, looking at this little feline standing before him, staring at him with piercing blue eyes, Howell said, “Yeah, I guess you’re serious.” He shifted in his seat, tried standing up, but it put him more than a head taller than Katasha so he sat back down. “A high school prom, right?”
“Yes,” Katasha said. “But I’ll be at Isleywood next year. In four months.”
Howell’s brown eyes looked troubled. “I’m a little old for a high school prom,” he said.
“If you don’t go with me, I won’t have anyone to go with,” Katasha said. She could sense Corina approaching beside her, ready to contradict her. With a quick glance over her shoulder, Katasha caught her sister’s eye. The glare that passed between them made it clear Katasha would never forgive Corina if she interrupted her here. They could deal with each other later.
“We can spend the whole time talking about Isleywood,” Katasha said. “Consider it a coaching session to get me ready for my first year.”
Katasha’s heart was pounding, but she knew she’d won when that big goofy grin spread over Howell’s face. He shook his head. “You’re one tough cat, Kat.” He grabbed one of the Isleywood fliers lying on the table beside him and pulled a pen out of his navy blue tunic pocket. “Here’s my number,” he said, scrawling some digits on the page. “When’s this prom?”
“Two weeks,” Katasha said, feeling dazed. She was going to get that perfect, expensive prom dress after all. “I’ll be wearing blue.”
“Perfect,” Howell said, patting down the front of his navy blue tunic. “That’s the color of suit that I have.”
Katasha could hear the jangle of earrings as Corina flattened her ears beside her. She must be imagining prom pictures — with that navy blue tunic and mismatched green tie. Katasha, however, was imagining a whole evening of standing beside this handsome dog. An actual Isleywood student! And he was much nicer than Hickory. And even more handsome.
“Give me a call next week,” Howell said. “And we can work out the details. I have midterms this week, so I won’t remember anything we work out now.”
Katasha took the flier with Howell’s number written on it. She held it lightly, looking at the large, loopy handwriting. Clearly the handwriting of a big pawed dog. When she looked up again, Howell’s attention had turned away. The Siamese tom, Rover, had joined them and was asking in the monotone Corina had described, “You’re the current Isleywood student, right?” He didn’t wait for Howell to answer before plowing on. “Because I have some questions. I need to know about dual majors. See, I’m interested in pursuing both quantum computing and…”
Katasha caught Howell’s eye briefly, but he had to stay and listen to Rover since he was the official student representative of Isleywood. Katasha didn’t. And she suspected by now that Corina would want to have words with her.
Katasha took her precious piece of paper and backed away. She wondered if she’d get a chance to talk to Howell again today, but various parents began to crowd around as he explained the rules for double majoring to Rover. It looked like he’d be busy for a while. Mama was one of the parents who drifted over to listen. Katasha hoped Mama liked Howell, because she wasn’t sure what Mama would think about her daughter going to the prom with a college boy and a dog. There hadn’t been any rules explicitly laid down about either of those situations in her household, and Katasha was relying on the fact that she’d never asked to date anyone at all before to afford her some lenience.
When Katasha finally dared to turn around and face her sister, Corina was staring at her flat-eared and narrow eyed. “I wish I’d known you were going to do that,” she said.
Katasha twitched her tail. She’d never even admitted to liking a boy in front of her sister before. Let alone a dog. She wasn’t sure what to say. She felt both embarrassed and a little angry. “You knew I wasn’t looking for a tom,” she said, defensively.
Corina nodded evenly. She couldn’t deny that. Then she sighed. “I told Blue we’d give him a ride home,” she said. “He lives on the other side of Portcouver, and he came here alone on the trains. I…” Corina hesitated. “I thought it would give you more time to get your courage up.” Corina flicked a ear, catching the light with the row of silver hoops. “I guess you weren’t short on courage after all.”
Katasha appreciated the compliment, but she suspected Corina had a lot more that she wasn’t saying. Katasha was both desperate to know and terrified to find out what her sister must be thinking right now. “I guess, we should go talk to him,” Katasha said. “He is going to be one of my classmates next year.”
Corina smiled wanly. “You and your weird school,” she said. Then, taking Katasha by the arm, she led the way back to the prospectives table where she already had a chair. Katasha had to pull one over from a neighboring table. It was typical that her overly social sister would already have a spot carved out in her future social life, even before Katasha had a chance to introduce herself.
“I’m not sure I understand,” Leon the Manx tom said. He and Blue were clearly in the middle of a conversation, and several she-cats who looked like they must be Leon’s littermates and girlfriend were listening. “I thought you were talking about alien life in the rest of the galaxy.”
“Well, yes,” Blue said. “Of course. But, I’m also hoping to find evidence of a Terran exodus from before the time of feline and canine uplift.”
Approximately half the ears at the table flattened in response to Blue’s statement. Corina only skewed one ear, and Leon laughed without dipping any. But his two sisters and the girl he was holding paws with flattened their ears outright.
“See, some people,” Blue emphasized the word strangely, “believe that humans sent generation ships out into the galaxy before cats and dogs even gained sentience. So, there may be colonies out there, in other star systems.”
“You mean dogs,” one of Leon’s sisters said. “Some dogs think that.”
“Human colonies,” Leon said, ponderously, ignoring his sister’s insulting outburst.
“Yes,” Blue said to Leon.
“You think that humans aren’t extinct? That they’re in space?” One of Leon’s ears skewed now, but he looked less disapproving than amused. “That’s a wild theory.”
“I’m not the only one who believes it,” Blue said defensively. “The whole doctrine of the First Race is built upon this idea. And, lo,” he said, changing his voice to indicate he was quoting something, “the denizens of the Earth were multiplied, and the First saw that their uplifted brethren were good. Gifting the Earth to their progeny, the First ascended themselves, taking unto the Heavens. Proclesius 918.”
“But…” Leon’s sister said, wide-eyed as a kitten, “You’re a cat. I thought only dogs were First Racers.”
“Oh my goodness,” Corina breathed, whispering in her sister’s ear. “He wasn’t quoting poetry. He was quoting scripture. How did I not recognize that?”
Katasha shrugged. She wouldn’t have recognized it.
“There’s nothing in First Race doctrine to prevent a cat believing in it,” Blue said.
“Except of course for the fact that dogs are considered the preeminent uplifted race, and cats are a far second,” Leon said.
“Right, the whole man’s best friend thing,” his girlfriend offered.
“And mixed breed animals are less favored than pure breeds,” Blue said, shifting his paws uncomfortably. “This all makes it terribly ironic that a moggie cat like me would believe,” he snapped. Then, looking down, and letting his ears drift to the sides, he added, “That doesn’t change that I do.”
The table grew quiet in the wake of Blue’s naked confession. Conversations from the rest of the room filled the silence: Rover asked Howell whether he could test out of required classes; several parents commiserated about the pain of watching their litters split up to go to different colleges. No one else was talking about religion.
Finally, Blue managed to straighten his ears out, but he continued staring at his paws.
Leon broke the silence. “I hope you don’t think I have a problem with your beliefs,” he said. “I don’t share them, but, I mean…” He trailed off, unsure of what to say.
“It’s okay,” Blue said.
Leon looked relieved, and the two of them moved on to discussing which amenities each of them would be bringing to their dorm suite. Leon had a mini-refrigerator. Blue had a broad collection of music. From there, they moved on to speculating about the Persian upperclassman who they’d heard about but hadn’t met yet.
“How do you all know that you’re rooming together?” Katasha asked, timidly. She still hadn’t had a chance to introduce herself. It seemed that she’d used up all her courage for the evening — or maybe the year — on asking Howell out.
“It’s in the registration materials,” Blue said. “Haven’t you got yours?”
Katasha shook her head. “I wonder if I’ll have a roommate,” she said.
“I hope so,” Corina breathed. “You’re going to need someone looking out for you.”
It was meant to be a private interchange between sisters, but Katasha could tell that Blue overheard. Throughout the rest of the conversation, Katasha caught Blue glancing her way. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she got the feeling he was judging her somehow. She didn’t like it.
Maybe it was her imagination, but talking to Howell had seemed easier, less claustrophobic than this table full of cats. She couldn’t be sure, because she’d spoken to so few dogs, but Katasha hoped it was because Howell was a dog. All her life, she’d been surrounded by her littermates and their friends. All cats, all the time. She’d never made friends of her own. She hadn’t needed to with Corina, Dmitri, Dominic and all their friends, and their friends’ littermates around. Now that she would be heading off to college, Katasha would have a chance to choose her own companions, and she didn’t think she’d be hanging out with the other cats like all the other felines did according to Howell.
She wondered what Howell’s friends were like.
Continue on to Chapter 5…