Graham Busley

       Graham adopted the cat from the shelter because it seemed like The Right Thing To Do. Graham did many things in his life because they were The Right Things. He flossed every other day, donated to charity, never drove more than three miles over the speed limit, and gave up his seat to old women on the bus. He did all The Right Things, but he still felt very lonely some days.

       And so, the cat. He liked dogs as well, but at a young age, he had affiliated himself with cats. This was more due to his father’s dog allergy than any real preference, but growing up in a household that kept cats, he began to appreciate the low maintenance lifestyles of felines.

       Lordy was their first cat. He was perfectly content if you ran your hand down his back and fed him table scraps occasionally. Graham was struck by how much easier cats were to please than people, and he fell in love with the shabby grey tabby.

       So he was depressed when Lordy was hit by his neighbour’s truck when he was in the seventh grade. His parents tried to reason with him, remind him that Lordy’s health was already failing. Graham remained convinced that the neighbours had done it on purpose, in retribution for the time Graham accidentally kicked a soccer ball through their bay window. He’d already paid for half of the repair costs! It seemed excessive that Lordy should have to pay for his mistake as well.

       Samantha was the replacement cat. She was a white fuzzball, and more demanding than her predecessor. This lead to some false assumptions by Graham about the nature of women going into highschool. Samantha would mewl if you didn’t give her the attention she believed she deserved. She was still alive by the time Graham graduated. Her needy ways had grown on him in those four years, and he found that he missed her female presence in his all-male dorm at university. Samantha would not have tolerated the piles of dirty laundry.

       Gemma was a happy medium between the two, a rough-and-tumble female from the mean streets of Chicago. She had street smarts. She also liked honey-dew melon and cantaloupe. He liked her very much, even when she bit him. He started to donate his money to the animal shelter, not just because it was The Right Thing To Do, but because he wanted to.

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