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Chanel's Story (Excerpt)

For a while I lived in a cat shelter.

Then one day my friends and I were put in cages, loaded into a car and transported to a pet store.
On the way in, I saw a sign that read "National Pet Adoption Week".

Being adopted by a family would be nice, but I did not have much hope.

In the cat shelter, I saw plenty of people come and go, but I never got chosen. People walked past the cages, saying how cute and adorable the other cats and kittens were, but they never said that about me. If anything, they frowned at the sight of me.

I saw them leaving, cradling their new bundle of joy in their arms and I stayed behind.
Nobody wanted me.

I am not cute or adorable, you see. I am ugly.

My fur is not short and smooth like Mona's; it is long and sticks out at angles. My color is not black like Suzy's; white like Cesar's; cream like Mike's; or even striped like Angela's. It is a mixture of gray and cream, patched all over my face, body, legs and tail.

I was not sure why they brought me along to the pet store. Nobody was going to take me anyway.

To make matters worse, I was sharing my cage with Lisa and Lynette, pure white twins. You should have seen them; they were the most beautiful kittens I have ever seen and that says a lot, because I have seen a lot of kittens.

They were so adorable when they played. Come to think of it, they were even adorable when they were asleep.

At 9:00 a.m., the store opened.

A lady came in and I started wondering...

No, she did not look at me at all. She walked right past me.

She looked at Sybil, a black Persian.

I knew right away that Sybil was going to get lucky. The lady was holding her and kissing her, and that pretty much sealed the deal.

Minutes later she left, still holding Sybil.

Bye Sybil, I waved, have a nice life.

Another lady came in, with a little girl.

They also walked right past me.

"May I help you?" asked Paul, our caretaker.

"We're looking for a cat," the lady replied.

"You have come to the right place," Paul smiled. "As you can see we have lots of cats and kittens."

"We're not looking for a kitten," the lady said. "We want a cat, a fully grown cat."

Paul took them to where the adult cats were housed. They did not give themselves much of a chance to be adopted either.

Very few people want an adult cat; most of them prefer a kitten. I wonder why?

If you think about it, how long is a kitten a kitten? A few months and then it is a fully grown cat too.

Anyway, next there was a man.

He headed in my direction. He was looking at me. He

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