The woman, Abby, stood on the pier, hair all over the place in the wind.

She didn’t mind; after all, her life was over, what did a messy hairdo matter?

She started to climb the railings; the way the wind was getting up, she’d be swept away in no time.

It was just her luck, all bad, that the man, Jake, came to lock the gates and close the pier because of the storm…

“Miss! No! Get away from there!”, Jake cried.

He came racing over and pulled her away from the edge.

“No! Don’t stop me! Please….”, Abby wailed. “I want to die!”

“Life’s never that bad”, said Jake. “There’s always hope.”

“Not for me”, Abby said. “It’s way too late…”

She just sobbed on Jake’s shoulder.

“I just lost my owner, and I can’t live without her…”, she said, quietly.

Jake then saw the thick metal collar around her neck, with a nametag swinging from it.

“Abby: If found, please ring 121-4599”

In a state of shock, Jake rang the number.

“Chesterton Hall, Marion speaking, how can I help you?”

“I’m with Abby…”, was all Jake had to say.

“Oh god!”, came the voice on the other end. “Is she Ok? We’ve been worried about her. Where are you?”

“Chesterton Pier”, said Jake. “I’m very worried about her. “She says she’s lost her ‘owner’. What does she mean, and why is she wearing this collar?”

“It’s her version of a ‘safety blanket’”, the voice said. “She’s very unstable. Her sister has had to go into hospital; Abby had fixated on her as her ‘owner’. She had a meltdown when her sister was taken away and ran out. We’ve been looking for her ever since. Is she safe with you until we can get there?”

“Yes”, said Jake, “I’ll keep an eye on her. I’ll take her to a local café, Venus; you can pick her up from there.”

All the time he had been talking, Jake had been watching Abby. Her eyes were darting from side to side, like a trapped animal; she was breathing heavily.

Jake assisted at a vets during the week; he was part time with the council at weekends. On a hunch, he treated Abby the same way he would have treated a cornered animal; he slowly won her trust over by approaching, palms open, crouching down so he was eye level with her, never looking her straight in the eyes.

Abby responded, she then behaved very oddly; she sniffed him, then nuzzled him.

“Good girl”, said Jake; he ticked her behind the ears, and stroked her cheek. Abby snuggled closer…

Gently holding Abby, Jake went to Venus, and they went into a booth near the back.

“Just a milk for me, please”, said Abby. “I’m not allowed caffeine; it makes me hyper.”

She then looked at Jake closely.

“How did you know how to calm me down?”, she said. “No-one’s been able to do that before.”

“Part time at a vets”, said Jake. “You’re behaving just like a trapped animal.”

“Well, why shouldn’t I be?”, said Abby. “I’m not human, after all.”

“It was all my father’s fault, really”, Abby said, as she started to explain. “He was working on a new pheromone-based fragrance to improve sex drive. He managed to convince my mother to try it out. Problem was, she worked at a zoo, and the fragrance drove the tigers wild. One of them grabbed her, pulled her into their cage and impregnated her before anyone could stop him. Nine months later, I was born. Luckily enough, my tiger genes are recessive; I’m still over 75% human. It’s mainly behavioural…”

“So, you think you’re 25% tigress”, said Jake.

“I know I am”, replied Abby. “Just look at this…”

She took her cap off and shook her hair out. It was striped…

“Also”, she said, “Just gaze into my eyes…”

Jake did. A pair of beautiful cats eyes stared back…

“That, and my canines are a bit longer than most peoples.”

Jake found Abby very easy to get on with, even though she was very confusing. Soon, they were laughing and joking away in the booth. That all stopped, however, when Marion turned up from Chesterton Hall…

Abby suddenly went quiet and visibly withdrew. She then hissed loudly at Marion…

Marion tried to get near her. Abby tried to bite her, now snarling loudly, sweat breaking out all over her.

“Stop it!”, shouted Jake. “You’re scaring her!”

“She’s a wild animal”, said Marion. “You can’t give her human feelings! She’s got to be put back in her cage, for her safety and yours.”

“The heck she has!”, said Jake, stepping between Abby and Marion. “She was quite happy with me. It’s just you she doesn’t like. I wonder why that is…?”

Jake had called the police as soon as the argument had started, and an officer entered the café.

“Officer, this woman is threatening my friend”, Jake said. “She’s trying to take her somewhere against her will, and she’s threatening to put her in a cage.”

“We were just having drinks, officer”, Abby added, before Marion could say anything. “She comes in and starts calling me a wild animal.”

Marion started saying that she was from Chesterton Hall and saying that it was a mental institution. Abby was one of their patients.

“She’s even wearing one of our uniform collars”, Marion said.

“You collar your ‘patients’? You’re not even a registered home. This is sounding more and more like abduction to me.”

“She said the collar was your ‘safety blanket”, said Jake.

“If that’s the case”, said Abby, “shouldn’t I be able to take it off, if I no longer need it? I can’t; it’s locked on, and she’s got the key in her top pocket. She said I wasn’t allowed out unless I wore it, so they could track me all the time.”

“You knew where she was, and what she was about to do, and you did nothing!?”, Jake said, enraged. “She nearly died tonight, and you didn’t give a shit! Give me the damn key!”

“I can’t!”, said Marion. “I’d lose my job.”

“Fine”, said the officer. “I’m ordering you to give me the key.”

Marion did. The officer then handed the key to Jake, and he unlocked Abby’s collar. She threw it on the ground in disgust.

“I really hope you realise what you’ve done, and what you’ve let yourself in for”, Marion said, looking at Jake. “She’s your responsibility now; we completely wash our hands of her.”

Marion walked out, not looking back once.

After that, the officer just checked Jake and Abby were both ok, then left.

Yowling and purring quietly, Abby snuggled up against Jake.

“You do realise that this means you own me now”, she said.

“Oh, I think I can cope with that”, Jake said, with a smile…