User:Rat-A-Tat/Cat and Mouse

August 20, 2002

Well, i woke up this morning a few seconds ago, and appear to still be a after several days. Either I am

completely insane, or some weird magic shit happened. end of log

I saved the text file and and powered down the computer. I got up, and began to get ready for school. My

shirts were quite a deal baggier, but manageable. Rather annoyingly though, i was forced to put my pants on

slightly lower in the back to allow for my tail to have sufficient room. The real problem was going to be

shoes. There was no way in hell that i was going to be able to cram my feet inside of my tennis shoes, but

the were still human enough to, hopefully, fit in a pair of flip flops. I went downstairs, ate a quick

breakfast, assured Mom that i was definitely over the flu in every way, and grabbed my backpack. I went to

the place were i stored my shoes, and managed to get a pair of flip flops on my feet. However, the second I

lifted my hands from the strap thing, they disappeared."well that doesn't make any since at all" I said to

myself. I pulled my shoes of and on again several times to see if it happened every time, but just as i began

to wonder if it would work on my other shoes, the bus arrived and i was forced to leave that to later

observation.

On the bus i learned lesson number 2. You see, all of my chairs at home had partially open backs, so i was

able to simply put my tail through the hole and sit down fairly normally. However, the bus had solid backed

seats, and i was unable to sit normally on said seats. After several minutes of squirming in my seat, I

simply leaned forward in my seat and curled my tail behind me. When i got off the bus after the agonizingly

long bus ride, I entered the common area where we all gathered before school started. As I entered, I did a

double take. Yes, that was a cat, american mountain lion i believe, dressed in the manner of clothing common

to my friend Steven. He looked up from the book he was reading, Lord of the Rings i believe, and had a small

heart attack as i sat down across from him."Well" I said "it appears that I am not the only animal man here.

Although, it does appear that it is not limited to rats." He looked at me, afraid at the sudden appearance

of a rat-man across from him, and asked "what happened to us". He paused, thinking "Or, better yet, who are

you?" I sighed, stating "As i assumed you would be able to guess from my manner of speaking and clothing, I

an Regi." He thought for a second, and stated "Prove it." I sighed once more, and responded with "well, I

was able to identify you as Steven Benson Form across the room, just from you clothing, Your DND character

was Perel the Elf lord until the "Incident of which we do not speak", and you once fell down the stairs of a

jungle gym, head first." "huh" he said "I guess it is you, but back to the initial question, what happened to

us?" "Well" I began "it appears that we have become literal Furries in every sense of the word. Also, no one

else can see us, and we can put on shoes that should not fit, and they disappear." "Yeah, i was wondering

about that" he said, tail doing a little, slightly mesmerizing dance behind him. "Are we it?" he continued. "As far as I know, yes." I Stated, not having any idea if that was true or not. "well, I figured you would

have looked" he said, being visibly disappointed by the prospect of being alone. "I did, but turned up

nothing but links to Furry sites, and just gave up." He sat there, lost in thought, until something occurred

to him and he asked "Why us?" "I have no idea" I responded, not wanting to have to make something up, i was

just not in the mood to mess with him right now. "Right now, I think all we can do is live with it, and

enjoy it" I said, trying to cheer up the sad cat, who looked incredibly pitiful and, to be honest, I hated

to see cats of any sort sad. "I'll try, but i just think that this could be permanent, and that scares me"

He said, only looking slightly happier "But i guess we should jus-" DING DING DING DING. The bell rudely cut

me off, and we were forced to leave to our classes.

I was barely paying attention the rest of the day, and little stood out except for a teacher asking if we had

changed over the summer, but he was still completely human so I just took it as a common welcome back

message. At the end of the day, me and Steve met up once more, and discussed How we would try to find more

of us. it was decided that he would check around town, and I would do more internetting. Aside from someone

stepping on my tail as I got on the buss, nothing much happened until I got home, when I put up my things,

assured my parents that no teacher was evil enough to give homework on the first day, and went to my room.

After several hours of searching, i had turned up nothing but more Furry sites and closed the browser,

disappointed. I proceeded to write rat log 2

August 20, 2002

       Shoes disappear when put on

Steven is a cat Sit forward in seat Keep care of tail, hurts to be stepped on

August 24, 2002 7 days post rat

Well, not much happened these past few days, other than seeing what I swear was a cow-man in a crowd shot on

the news. That is why I have not updated this log in a while. It has been a good day thus far, being off of

school and all, and I am quite happy with my new form. Steven, ever the pessimist, is unhappy, but he is

unhappy about everything so, no surprise there. Interesting tidbit I learned recently, I have no gag reflex.

Not a major thing, just vaguely interesting. Signing off

I got up from the computer, and entered the hallway, seeking hard candy to stop the abnormal hell teeth, as

i had dubbed my need to chew on things. As I entered the hallway, I could smell my mother in the upstairs

bathroom adjacent to my room. Thats another thing, I could now smell far better, and had taken advantage of

this by memorizing the scents of everyone I knew. However, as I re-entered my room, having gotten the candy

I needed, my mother yelled "Why is there so much hair in this drain Regi" I froze, turning to see her

exiting the bathroom to talk to me "I have absolutely no idea" I stated, hoping the I don't know card would

work. It didn't and she said "Unless a homeless man or a dog snuck up here and used the shower, you are the

only one who is uses this shower." "Yes, but my hair is a different shade of brown than that" I said, hoping

my hair was still the same shade. "Well, yes, but unless there is an animal up here, AND THERE ISN'T, then

there is no logical explanation other than you for why there is basically fur in the drain." "Fine" I said "it

was me. I will clean it up, and any future messes like this that occur." She looked at me, or, rather,

ABOVE me, and said "Fine, and be quick, your friends will be here for DND in a hour" "I had not forgotten

mother" I said, cleaning up the mess "I will be setting up soon." Satisfied that I was Cleaning it, and that

I would Have everything ready on time, Mom returned to the living room, and to the book she was reading.

Having finished the cleaning, I began setting up for the game. I had to be careful not to scratch anything

with my claws, which I really needed to trim. They would be making new characters this time, following last

month's "Incident of which we do not speak". Putting down the battle-mat, I remembered that this would be the

first time in a few weeks that we would see Jake, who had only gotten back from his vacation last night

after school, as it had taken them longer than expected to get back, or so he told my over the phone. I had

everything ready when Steven, always early, arrived. He set his handbook and dice down, and we chatted about

nothing important as he began to roll up his character. Glancing over his shoulder, I joked " Really,

another Elf?" "Hey" he responded "they are naturally graceful and I like to be a Rogue, so a natural match."

"Your last character was an Elf and the one before that and the one before that and the one before tha-" "I

JUST LIKE ELVES" he said rather loudly, cutting off my teasing "Ok ok, don't get angry, I'm just messing

with ya." I said, moving towards the door "Besides, I can hear Jake now." As I reached the door, I heard

Jake yell "Regi, I know your home, open up." Using my best Mysterious voice I said back "Depends, what is the

capitol of Ignurs?" there was a slight pause, and he responded with "Blyt." This being the correct answer, I

opened the door. Standing there, Dressed in Jake's clothing, was a sheep.

We both stood there, staring at each other, no one saying anything. After a while of this he said "7 days

ago?" "Yep, Steve too" I said not being able to form my thoughts into anything more eloquent than that. We

entered the house again, with me reminding him to take off his shoes. As we entered the Dining room, Steve

did not look up until we were right next to him, at which point he had another small heart attack. Quickly,

before he could say anything, I said "Yes this is the real Jake, not a clone, robot, or alien wearing his

clothes." Steve looked at me, slightly offended, and asked Jake "Are we it" just like he had asked my the

first day of school. "No" Jake said, setting down his stuff and beginning to roll up his character. "there

are a few thousand that we know of, and probably more that have not been found yet." At this point he began

writing something on a sheet of paper "We call ourselves The Changed. Dumb name, I know, but I didn't choose

it" He tore the paper in half, a strange sight due to his hooves, and gave half to each of us. "Here is the

address of the website for us. before you ask, yes, this IS permanent, yes, we are really invisible animal

people, and yes, you are not the only rat or cat." Steven looked visible disappointed at the "It is

permanent thing, while I was happy that I would not revert back, as giving up this almost super powerish

sense of smell would suck. "Another thing" Jake continued "More and more of us change each 17th of august,

and this all started in 1987. I have been like this personally since 1999, and found the rest of the

community last year. Eh, let's talk about something else, as I hear Bob at the door, and I'm pretty sure he

is NOT one of us." I went to get the door for Bob, who charged in and slammed his stuff down, apologizing

for being late. after they had all completed their characters, I explained the fallout of their somewhat

stupid actions during "The Incident of which we do not speak". as I began to run the adventure, I was

overjoyed at the prospect of being able to talk to people like me who were not complete pessimists like

Steve. At the conclusion of the game, I promised Jake that I would check the website, and began to clean up.

I went upstairs, promising my parents that I would be asleep by a reasonable hour, I logged onto the

website, which took the form of a forum.After getting by the rather creative way to keep non-Changed normals

out, I made an introduction thread, as was my common practice to do when joining a new forum. Introducing

myself as a rat living in the Kansas city area who had changed this august, I received several responses of

people introducing themselves to me, MANY links to the RAT section of the forum, and general advice on how

to hide this from normals and other tips.after a few conversations, it became apparent that I was one of few to be enjoying being and animal man more than being human. I was able to find a section referring on how to modify clothing as

to accommodate a tail, which i learned as much as i could about. I was in a very good mood as I signed off and went to sleep. When I finally fell asleep, I was smiling.