Author: Melissa Kobrin

“Annie, it looks like Santa brought you one more present!”
Annie looked up eagerly from her nest of torn wrapping paper and new toys. The Christmas tree twinkled behind her, and outside the window the sun was barely beginning to peak over the horizon. She gasped when Daddy walked into the living room with a wrapped box so big he could barely get his arms around it. When the box twitched, she shrieked in excitement.
A kitten! It had to be a kitten! She had asked and asked and asked and now Santa had brought her one!
Daddy set the box on the floor and she scrambled over to it as Mommy watched from the couch. Holding her breath, she lifted the lid.
Orange and black fur and big brown eyes met her own. She gleefully reached out and stroked her new kitty as it scrambled around the box. It licked her hand and she giggled and ignored the low voices behind her.
“Ken! I thought we agreed Santa was going to bring a kitten!”
“He is a kitten. Well, I guess technically he’s a cub.”
“Ken!”
“Okay okay, Lizzie, I know, but the shelter said someone abandoned his whole litter in a parking lot. The little guy needed a home.”
“So you decided it had to be our home? We can’t take care of it.”
“The shelter did a gene-screen. He’s a mini, he won’t get more than forty pounds, and he has all the domestication gene markers. Plus, he’s already up to date on shots. Look how cute he is. She loves him.”
“You’re lucky you’re cute.”
“Merry Christmas, Lizzie.”
“Merry Christmas, you idiot.”
On the ground, Annie gathered her tiger cub up in her arms and hugged him.