When the girl is six years old, she uncovers a grey and white kitten in a sagging cardboard box in her local park. She’s walking there with her mother and their two large dogs, but despite this the kitten follows them out to the street, trotting three metres behind on the footpath like they’re trailing a fuzzy ball of yarn.
Once the kitten reaches their front porch, the girl’s mother prepares a saucer of watery milk and the girl pleads to keep him. A cushioned nest is made for him inside the house. The girl snaps photographs of him with her film camera. He is so tiny. She hopes he is hers forever.
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Ephiny Gale was born in Victoria, Australia, and still lives there, alongside her lovely wife and a small legion of bookcases. She is the author of more than two dozen published short stories and novelettes that have appeared in publications including PseudoPod, Constellary Tales, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and of course, Stupefying Stories. Her fiction has been awarded the Sundress Publications' Best of the Net award and has been a finalist for multiple Aurealis Awards. More at ephinygale.com and @ephiny (Twitter).
Ephiny has given us some wonderful little stories in recent years, including “Solace,” “Inheritance,” and the deeply disturbing, “Restoration,” but of them all, “This Is (Not) My Beautiful Cat” remains my favorite.
by Ephiny Gale
Ephiny
Gale’s debut short story collection, Pick Your Potion, was release last September. Look for it on Amazon, or wherever e-books or paperbacks are sold.
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