I've written many short stories but this is one of my most popular stories and definitely one of the best I've ever written. I posted this a while back in my general thread for my stories, but it quickly passed by unnoticed so now that I've been here longer I'm taking another shot. Keep in mind this story is very metaphorical. Comments encouraged and appreciated.



"If you are to grow up you must first become a lady."

My mother played the tape every night over and over again in my ear so that I would learn of her wishes before I could even understand the meaning of the words. Eventually I would fall asleep to the rhythmic sound of her voice and whenever I would get used to the tone of one tape she would make a new one and surprise me with the multitude of voices she possessed. My mother was a lady, but I was a dog who liked to play in the mud.

"Don't you ever want to grow up?" my mother asked me one day after she found me playing in the mud again dirtying my floppy dog-ears. I shrugged and wagged my tail as I answered her.

"Ladies cannot play in the mud so why should I ever give up being a dog?"

My mother reached for her whip and then decided against it once the light in her eyes turned from off to on. She told me that for the rest of the day I was invisible and I could do whatever I liked. I wagged my tail and barked at her but her head stayed looking onwards past my mortal form. I cocked my head and barked again but still her head stayed away. After I walked around her and sniffed I realized that she was a statue and I ran inside on all fours to see if I could leave muddy paw-prints on the carpet.

The disobedient dog, I was an expert.

White did not look good mixed with brown and I soon tired of the reoccurring paw-prints in my stead. I looked for what I could smell from far away, fresh and golden. I found the cookie jar upon the shelf and ate everything inside. There was a very bad dog in the house, and it was I. To be a bad dog was even more fun then playing in the mud. What did the lady expect of a dog? For it to walk itself?

Then the cookies came back onto the floor. The lady cleaned the floor and the dog, my tail did not once wag again that night.

She always fed me broth from then on, a dish that dogs hate. I threw away the spoon and ate with the utensils I was born with. Face dripping wet I wagged my tail at the lady eating the pork. She told me that bad dogs do not get treats and if I growled back she would not even give me broth. My cage was not made of metal but of the food out of the reach of my paws.

When I had grown in bodily stature with my mind remaining the same as before the lady decided to teach the dog to sit.

Instead of treats she offered maturity but I wanted to stay as a dog. That is when I met the Cat.

The Cat had claws and eyes that could see I was only pretending to be a dog. She wore a mask but this was not a fake Cat trying to deceive time from letting it grow up. This was a Cat who would break me if I did not become a real dog. I barked at her and she hissed in reply, her back not arching but her claws poking out from under her paws. I yipped and hid behind the lady who stepped aside immediately.

"For the first time the Cat shall teach the dog." The lady told the Cat. The Cat smiled at me and picked me up with her claws. She did not once look at me as she took me to her den away from the lady where other dogs had come and left in the form of mother. The Cat dropped me on my tail and smiled as I looked around the maze she lived in.

"You cannot leave until you learn to sit." The Cat told me. I barked at her.

"A Cat cannot win over a dog!" I growled. The Cat did not move a muscle.

"So you say, let's play a game of cat and mouse." She said. I bared my teeth at her.

"Why not the dog and cat seeing as that is what we are." I replied. The Cat laughed at my ignorance.

"You are no longer a dog, you are now a mouse."

I ran through the maze but in ten seconds the dog was indeed now a mouse and the Cat had caught me in her claws. I could not escape the claws and the Cat sat perched upon my back in victory. She looked down at me with thought reflected in her eyes. Then the Cat took off her mask and I saw a face like mother?s.

"Why did you run like a mouse?" The Cat asked me.

"Because you have a mask while I only have a tail and ears to prove I am a dog." I replied simply. She sighed and shook her head.

"You ran because you were afraid of being the mouse. If you want to leave then you must learn to lose your fear of being what you don't want to be." I thought for a moment before I parried.

"To lose fear of being the mouse is to lose fear itself." The dog had won for a split second before the Cat dealt me another blow.

"You do not lose the fear you just learn to accept it." She told my child-like form. For the moment I was no longer a dog or mouse but a curious child looking for the answers to what she does not see.

"Then when do you feel fear?" I asked in awe. The Cat smiled down at me.

"I'm afraid when I am the Cat."


It was then that my ears fell off.

I traded in my dog-ears for those of a mouse. Pointy and sharp I was more attune to what the Cat told me but I lost the ability to play in the mud with them. They stood straight up with the inside exposed while with my dog-ears I could roll around and not worry about hurting inside my ear. Now I had traded in part of being a dog to the first step of learning to sit. Rebellion was in me but the Cat saw to it to make me realize that if I rebelled I would have no ears at all.

The days were filled with Cat and Mouse. She taught me to control my fear of being the mouse and instead of running away from the Cat I soon learned to lunge right at her. The clock would tick away as we stared eye to eye: the sharp, piercing eyes of the Cat meeting the wide, vulnerable eyes of the dog. Our battle of wits would last as long as it needed until I buckled to the floor eyes watering from lack of blinking. My fear was still very strong, but at least I could stand up to the Cat.

When she deemed I was ready she began the second step of teaching me how to sit. The Cat would dangle my dog-ears in front of me and tell me to sit. If I lunged for my old ears she would throw them in her safe and begin the game of Cat and Mouse again. If I sat on command she would give them back to me for two minutes before taking them away again and storing them in her safe. After I stopped lunging and began to sit everytime on command she began to shorten my time with my dog-ears. I was down to one minute, thirty seconds, and then one day I did not receive any time with them at all. I asked the Cat why this was over broth that night.

"Why have you denied me my true ears?" I asked her. The Cat looked up at me and smiled.

"You must learn that just because you follow a command it does not mean that you will receive exactly what you want in return." She told me. I sighed as I sipped my broth.

"Then what do I get in return for sitting?" I asked. The Cat pushed her half-full bowl of broth over to me.

"I do not start another game of Cat and Mouse."


When I learned to sit it was then that my mouse ears fell off and I developed those of a lady. I screamed when I woke up and felt my mother?s ears finally attached to my head. The Cat stood in the doorway and smiled as she watched me adjust to the start of Transformation.

"I thought you had controlled your fear of being a lady?" she asked me. My face was etched with horror.

"I controlled my fear of being a mouse!" I exclaimed. The Cat looked confused.

"What's the difference?"


Then the Cat started to make me wear a dress. She cut a hole in the back so my tail could be free but I did not like it all the same. She also combed my hair and painted a new face over my old one. I no longer saw myself in the mirror but instead saw my mother. My terror at this was clear.

"Have you not learned anything?" The Cat asked me. I fought back my tears.

"Why can't I be a dog forever?" I asked. The Cat sighed and continued to comb my hair.

"Because that is impossible. You still would have lost your ears and worn dresses even if I had not taught you about your fear. If I had not you would be pulling off your tail in fear and distress but now you only fight back small tears that will fade by sundown. You were always going to become a lady, that is a fact that every dog must face." She told me. My tears dried up and I looked at the stranger in the mirror wondering where my mother was.


The Cat told me it was time to leave. We did not play Cat and Mouse and she had me comb my own hair and paint my own face on. I did so without question as I pampered the stranger?s face in the mirror. When she told me to sit I did on command and the door opened and she led me through the blinding light back to my mother?s house.

She was waiting for me at the front door with a smile on her face.

"How is my little dog?" mother asked me. I hung my head as the Cat grabbed my hand and led me to my mother.

"She is no longer a dog." The Cat told my mother.

I looked down at the mud resting at my feet and felt it?s comforting warmth. The urge to play rose inside me but my tail failed to wag. I did not play in the mud anymore and instead I wore dresses, painted a stranger?s face over my own, and stood up to Cats. My head snapped up.

I stood up to Cats.

In our last game of Cat and Mouse neither of us had faltered. The Cat had to call it quits when the alarm signaled that the broth was ready. A fire lit inside me as I realized I had achieved a stalemate at last. I had stood up to a Cat and become my own.

That was what being a lady was about. To stand up and be your own.

I did not go with the Cat to learn how to sit. I went with the Cat to learn how to have enough dignity to not play in the mud and to suppress my fear of losing my old ears and growing new ones. It would happen even if I had learned from the Cat or not.

I looked down at the dewdrops that lay strewn about around the mud. They were my mirror and showed my reflection to my new face loud and clear. This was not a stranger's face, but the face that had been hiding inside the dog this entire time. I did not believe I was a dog. I was only pretending to be one.

My tail wagged one last time before it fell off.

The three Cats looked down at the tail that lay on the floor before looking back up at each other. My mother smiled as she looked at me.

"Then what are you now?" mother asked me. I stood up straight and looked her in the eye. As I replied with my answer, loud and clear, the Cat's mask fell off again to reveal my older self.

"I am a lady."

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