Her cat, Missy, lay sprawled across her computer table. A gray and white striped tabby, Missy had been Jane's constant companion for years. Not a kitten, but not yet an old cat, Missy was about four to five years old, Jane having adopted her from a shelter when she was just a kitten. Since she knew from the experience with the fox the merging would not harm anyone, Jane was okay with merging with her beloved pet. Also, it would be fun to have fur again.
This time, after ensuring the blinds were closed, Jane stripped first, Missy following her movements with slitted pupils. Walking over to the computer table, Jane easily picked up Missy, who readily accepted her owner's cuddle with a satisfied meow. Carrying Missy, Jane sat in front of the full-length mirror in her room, wanting to see every bit of this change, as she had only been able to see part of her fox change through the rippling pond. Taking a deep breath, Jane ran her hand down Missy's back, ensuring the ring made contact.
As before, Jane felt it go warm and then saw everything go black as she flopped over sideways. However, when she came to a second later, Missy was nowhere to be found. Standing up quickly, Jane readied herself for the what was coming, giggling slightly at the prospect.
As with the fox, the first thing to come in was the fur. Rather than the black, orange, and white markings of the fox, this time there were gray stripes on white. It was disconcerting watching the fur growth climb from her extremeties towards her torso, but also exciting. Although she was sorely tempted, and shivered with anticipation, Jane resisted the urge to pet herself, not wanting to distract herself. Sure enough, as she looked back at the mirror over her shoulder, she felt a twitching at the base of her spine, and watched a long tail push itself out of her backside, the fur growing along with it. However, unlike the fox tail, Jane found she could control this tail with more finesse, curling it this way and that.
Her hands and feet started to warm up, and Jane quickly lowered herself down to her hands and knees, suspecting the next step. Sure enough, her leg bones began to creak and shift to allow her either a digitigrade or a quadrupedal stance on her hind paws. Unlike with the fox, however, she felt a change in her hands as well, which not only became stubbier, but to her surprise, now sported claws she could expose or retract at will. Sitting back on her haunches, her tail proudly curled around, Jane waited for the final changes to make their way to her face.
This time she was able to watch the odd circumstance of her ears traveling upwards and becoming triangular, no longer worried about the sudden silence due to her auditory canals rearranging their positions. Her hair also shortened and became more fur-like, but remained longer than the fur on the rest of her body, producing an almost mane-like effect, the color also shifting to gray and white. Jane's irises grew lighter, coming closer to Missy's amber eyes, her pupils becoming almost oval but not quite slitted. Finally, a short squarish muzzle pushed out, her nose becoming more triangular, and her teeth aching for a moment as they became sharper.
Standing up again, this time on her hind paws, Jane admired herself in the mirror. Another surprise awaited her. While she hadn't noticed a height change in the woods, lacking a frame of reference, it was obvious she was now only about three and a half feet tall, her height a strange compromise between hers and that of her cat. Running her paw-like hands through her chest fur, an unbelievably pleasurable experience, Jane discovered that while her chest had flattened somewhat, she still had small breasts underneath the fur, plus a row of small nipples down each side of her abdomen. However, the biggest shock came when the sound that escaped her when petting herself was not a moan of delight, but rather an intense purr. Laughing, Jane turned and posed in front of the mirror.
"Mre-ow!" she said jokingly, but then marveled at how cat-like it sounded. She turned and jumped onto her bed, surprised at how agile and lithe she felt, and rolled around contorting her body into all sorts of positions impossible for most humans. Getting down, Jane opened her bedroom door, the handle now just about at eye level, then dropped to all fours. In the woods, she hadn't had the time to investigate how her body would move quadrupedally, but now she had plenty of time and privacy. Using Missy's experience, Jane easily walked down the stairs on all fours, her tail held high. Feeling her stomach rumble, she stalked into the kitchen.
Instead of standing on her hind paws again, Jane looked up at the countertop above her. Feeling adventurous, Jane gathered her feet under her, then leaped up onto the countertop with ease. Surprised at her new sense of balance, Jane stood on her hind paws and dug around in the cabinet to find the source of an enticing smell, which happened to be a bag of cat treats. Sniffing it cautiously, Jane wasn't sure if she should give in to the temptation, since she wasn't entirely a cat, but it smelled so good, she couldn't help herself.
However, just as she was about to pop one in her mouth, her ears twitched involuntarily at a sound, and she froze at an unfamiliar smell. Before she could move, her ears picked up the crash and tinkle of broken glass, which with her new sharper hearing, she could tell came from the back door. Someone was breaking in!