Christina #2 (Pet Sitter)

"What? No, things are going great. Especially with Virginia helping me with the dogs." Christina quipped.

"Dogs?" I asked.

"Yeah, dogs. I'm a pet sitter, I take care of them. It's like, not very time intensive, so I can spend my time protesting the patriarchy."

I nodded. Of course, the patriarchy.

"Virginia, how do you help your sister?" I asked, turning to the collared girl. She seemed ashamed of her role now that her desire to be someone else's pet had been revealed.

"Well, like, I guess I just know what they want. I can tell what food they like, and when they want to play, and I like to play with their toys." I nodded, sagely.

"Play with them, with their toys, I mean." She shifted in her seat, and the tiny T-shirt she was wearing became a dalmatian print bra.

"Of course. But how do you know what food they like?"

"Uh.."

"You don't eat it yourself, do you?"

"Well, yeah, I do. Sometimes." She whined. "I like the taste of some of them."

"And which is your favorite? Do you prefer the wet food or dry?" I asked.

Virginia licked her lips. "Well, the dry is nice to snack on, and Purina makes some good puppy treats that I like. But if I'm going to eat a meal, I like the Blue Buffalo brand. It's all natural, and very good."

Christina gasped, "So YOU'VE been taking the dog food! It's been disappearing and I didn't know where it went." Her manicured hand went to her mouth. "I should have known."

"Christina," I interjected, "I can see it in your face now, you're lying. You knew she'd been eating it, didn't you?" Christina was about to disagree, when her memories surfaced. "Oh. Well, I guess I kind of did."

"Kind of?"

"Well, she said she wanted to get to know what it's like to be one of the pets I watch, so I kinda sorta..." she stammered, looking at her disapproving mother. Catherine would have been screaming if I'd let her.

"Go on."

Christina remembered now. It had started with her younger sister asking if she could 'sample' some of the treats. She'd thought it odd, but figured it wasn't harmful. Weeks later, she'd caught Virginia eating handfuls of the hard food. They'd had an argument, and Virginia had confessed she liked the taste. She'd made her promise not to take any more of the treats unless she asked Christina first.

After that incident, it wasn't just the dogs that came running when she shook the treat bag. Virginia would dash from her room and beg for a treat, just like the other pets.

One day, she ran in on reflex with the other pets when Christina was filling the dog bowls with dry food for their regular feeding. She looked so disappointed that Christina offered her a few pieces of the regular food as well. Virginia took it without hesitation and gobbled it up. After that, feeding Virginia some of the food became a regular thing.

Two weeks ago, she'd forgotten to hold Virginia's regular bowl on the counter, and set all the bowls, hers included, on the ground. She forgot about it until Virginia and the pets came into the kitchen, and her sister spotted her own bowl on the ground. They made eye contact, and Virginia hesitated before kneeling down in her shorts and shirt, and eating the food from her bowl on the ground. They never spoke of it, but the next day, Christina bought a dog bowl with "Virginia" on it.

"I kinda feed her with the dogs. She seemed to want to do it." Christina said.

"Do you feed her human food?"

"No, I guess I never thought to do that." Christina giggled. "I give her the same food as the others. She's even got a bowl of her own."

I thought for a second. "Well Christina, it's great that you have a job, but this isn't really the kind of job for a 25 year old, is it? That's more of a teenager's job."

She frowned, "Well, no I told you, that like, I need all my time for social justice."

"Oh really? You don't look like the kind of girl who is politically active. You look more sexually active to me. Do you even know who your governor is?"

Christina frowned. She'd been sure she knew who the Governor was just yesterday, she protested him for pete's sake! "Uh, well, like, I dunno? Mike something?"