...so was I just wishing I could walk on all fours? I figure that's a funny thing for me to ask myself, since I am padding along on all-fours anyhow, with my books hanging from a harness strapped around my chest.
Oh, no! I realize it's getting a little late, so I put on an extra burst of speed, bounding clear over the hood of a car blocking the sidewalk and dodging between the feet of large, lumbering, anthropomorphic men, and shout into the voice-recognition system for the woman-door. "Gus," I say sweetly to the automated system. "Let me in, would you?"
"Voice recognized. Welcome home!"
I nose my way in, and I find my dad sitting on the couch. I go over, and I rear up on my hind-legs excitedly, putting my forepaws on the couch and stretching my neck up to him. "Daddy!" I squeak happily. "You'll never guess what happened!"
My father pets my mane for a second, but then he starts shoving me back to the floor. "Now, sweetheart. You know that women aren't allowed on the furniture in this house," he says in a thick, sweet baritone.
Damn it. "Well, I wish that we were!" I whine.
He laughs genially. "Well, why wouldn't you be, honey? What are you doing on the floor? You know our furniture is made for ladies' claws. We're not poor."
After all, only families that are very poor must buy furniture that is only suitable for men, and that's part of why women are treated as equals more often in more affluent, more technologically advanced, more affluent countries. I sure am glad that I don't live in someplace like Saudi Arabia. I understand that, over there, they don't even have houses designed for women. They can't even get out the door to pee, but they have to wait for their husbands to get home to take them out on leashes unless they are small enough species to use litterpans.
I hop up next to Daddy, and he strokes his fingers through my neckfur as I lie there contentedly. Wow, girls have it great, I think to myself. "You'll be soooo proud of me, Daddy. I got my first job. Ms. Barnes hired me to help out!"
Daddy smiles. "I'm so glad that modern technology has opened up so many new opportunities for women," he says. "When I was growing up, it was hard for women to participate as often in clerical work. We just didn't have the technology, although we had come a long ways from when women were hardly allowed to work at all. When your great-grandmother was growing up, women were just kept as pets."
Oh, tell me about it. However, sometimes I wish...