Nini

I was a cat for Halloween when I was three, four, five, and six. Those were the only years I wore a costume. Drawn-on whiskers, cat-ear headband—I must have liked cats. But when I was six, my family got a toy poodle, and I began to prefer dogs. I saw cats irregularly, at friends’ houses. They seemed wary and inscrutable, watching me with reptilian, slit-pupiled eyes. At some point I learned I was allergic to them.