Brooklyn

My plastic box was put back in the metal box, and I yelled at the girl some more...until we finally stopped. She picked up the plastic box and let me out in a big room like I'd never seen before. I was walking on something soft, and there were places to hide - corners I could get lost in.

I immediately headed for the nearest, smallest space I could fit in, and settled in. This was good. This was safe.

I heard the girl say something about needing to give me a name, that Jinx didn't really work. They talked a little as I slowly started walking around them, whining a little bit - I wasn't happy, and I needed them to know it. They tried to touch me, too, but I was having none of that. Hands were scary, and I knew how to bite.

"Henry," the girl called out. It sounded like she was trying to get my attention, her voice and eyes were directed at me, so I turned and meowed softly. She smiled, and said that was it, my name was Henry. I was named Henry Kissinger, after some man, who she said was also little, smart, and a little weird. I was little?

And so I lived with this girl.

One year went by before I knew it, and I was back at another doctor with a cold metal table. I wasn't quite so afraid of hands at this point, but I still didn't like them.

I heard the doctor ask the girl who told her I was a boy. I was a boy?? She told him the shelter had, the vet had... The doctor laughed, and said that I was a little girl.

Well, duh. She could have just looked at me and seen I was a girl...if I'd ever let her get close enough to me to look. Oops. Maybe I should be nicer to this girl.

"You're still my Henry," the girl said to me, "even if you're a girl named Henry. The name still fits."

I guess.

Years go by...