Chapter Eight

Maria is a mix of Old English Sheepdog and something else—she’s not sure what the ‘something else’ is, but she’s certain it exists. Her mother used to tell her about her background regularly, back when she lived on a farm.

She tells me all of this quite easily, but I struggle to respond when she casually asks after my own background. I can barely remember my parents sometimes, but I’m certain that my breed was never mentioned.

“That’s funny,” she says, sitting at my side as we watch Sophia chase Spots around, “because you’re not the first cat to tell me that.”

“That I don’t know my breed?” I question her, considering the implications of what she’s saying. Being a mixture of breeds herself, she can’t be insulting cats.

“Mhm.” She nods. Spot begins to chase both his tail and Sophia, which goes about as well as can be expected. “I blame humans. Not for cats,” she laughs, “but for all this breed nonsense.”