My family's inherited a rare, recessive condition called WS--Werecat Syndrome. We don't suffer a werewolf's full-moon cycle; our transformations are unpredictable. And we rarely go full-cat. Often the shift is partial--a tail, cat ears, eyes, retractable claws. Or subtler yet, just a sensory or emotional shift to a feline view.

A team of social/medical workers fuss over us now, documenting different aspects of WS:

• Legal: Are we people? Are we INTERMITTENT people?
• Psychological: Are we humans invaded by felinity... or are we cats with fits of humanity; or are we were-beings first, is shifting itself our deepest identity?
• Social: How does keeping such a secret--and up till recently we did--shape or limit intimacy? (Of course they don't consider if our secret could ever strengthen intimacy. To humans, even those who ought to know better, difference is still basically disability.)
• Financial: Are there extra costs? Advantages? Cats see things humans don't.
• Medical: Cats don't live long; will we? So far, yes.
• Literary/Artistic: A writer, an artist, a video scriptwriter and a news reporter are studying us. Mostly mining us for art material. So far, only the reporter has thought to ask how werecatting stimulates OUR OWN art...
• Spiritual: Do we have souls? None, one, two, more?
  And of course, most important of all...
• Insurance! Acts of God are not covered, of course, but what about Acts of... Cat?

None of these people dare to ask about sex.

Maybe with a little help. I go full cat--puma size, but not puma shy--and sidle up to the cutest women (all writers: reporter, poet, and scriptwriter) and rub up against them and purr...

We'll see who purrs back.

NOTES

• Feline viewpoint: I just read Dana Simpson's Phoebe & her Unicorn. Marigold's inhumanity often makes her a better friend; yes, she's shamelessly vain, petty, and acerbic as only a unicorn can be, but she also gives Phoebe a third view, neither human child nor human adult; a longer view.
• Family syndrome; are we people?: Years ago I had a disturbing dream, "Maalox Character", warning that illness shaped me so much I HAVE no "character" apart from it. Today I'd add autism, freak IQ, and ESP too. Not diseases, but other differences that aren't going away. Other people talk of "building" character, but I have such huge, multiple, innate differences that my sole option has been not to build but to face--and play--the bizarre hand I was dealt. How about you?
• Sex: Lyme, autism and second sight have shaped my sexuality as much as other character traits. I not only can't play by human rules, I shouldn't. I'd be faking if I tried.
• ACTION: be real with others. And... rub up against writers. See who purrs back.

Turns out my family really HAS inherited a rare mutation causing Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Overlooked by our doctors for fifty years. And yet it shaped our lives.

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