Chester, or as some at the Meat Market called her "Chesty," Rubbins found a lot of enjoyment in Lyre/Animalia. The Humans were welcoming and kind, and the Animalians were vibrant and energetic. It made for a lot of fun and action to be part of things that Chester never felt she'd had before. Having the new experiences was a big part of the fun that her new life brought and that she liked. To a degree, it was the only life that Chester could remember, but there were some moments and things that did provide for at least images of a past life. There were sections of her apartment that held pictures, pictures of a Human woman with an orange tabby in her lap. Pictures of the same woman, a little older with a man beside her. Pictures of the married couple with children, and then pictures of those children grown up.
"All part of a past life," Chester thought to herself as she looked to those pictures for a moment and noted the papers that were presently in a room in her apartment that she used as an office. She handled things like bills and various other things there, things that generally had related to why the people in the pictures wanted her converted, and why Horizon had wanted her to stay in Lyre/Animalia after her conversion. It brought back certain memories, though, memories that Chester was grateful to even have...
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"You're saying that this may not help?" a young woman's voice spoke with pain evident in it, "she's my mother... it HAS to help. She's been good and kind... and this... this ISN'T fair!"
Doctor Stein nodded as he looked to the young woman, with a pair of men there as well. One of these men was her husband and the other was her brother. Across the office, there was an older woman who's face was rather blank and looking rather distant. There were two women with her in nurses' uniforms, indicating that they were caregivers. It played to the reason why the older woman was brought in.
"Alzheimer's Disease has NEVER been fair," Doctor Stein said slowly, "as people lose their memories and many of the things that make them who they are."
"But Animalia... Project Phoenix... it can cure them, and restore things, right?" the woman asked, raising a trembling hand up, only for her husband to take it.
"As I said," Doctor Stein replied, "it may restore her physical body and condition... it may restore her ability to remember new things as her brain is healed from the atrophy... And there are a few Animalians that did become Animalians to deal with Alzheimer's' Disease. But they also came in when they were in the very early stages. Your mother... Rosa Robling... is much further along. It's where while conversion will certainly stop the present progression of Alzheimer's Disease, because of the state of degradation that has already occurred... it may not restore everything. We simply have not had a case like this before. So, your mother may become an Animalian and may be alive... she may even have some measure of affection for you for helping her in her present condition... but she may not remember much beyond that. Or everything could be fixed. We simply don't know right now."
Doctor Stein watched as the young woman looked to her husband and brother, and they then looked to Rosa. The elderly woman managed a small slap at one of the caregivers that were with her, but it was still something that provided some measure of pain on the younger family members that were there. Eventually it was the son who spoke.
"Do it," the son spoke, "even if mom doesn't fully regain her memories of us... at least she'd be able to take care of herself again and... well, maybe we could give her some things that would allow her to know that there are people who do love her."
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Chester gave a small sigh as she looked to the pictures on the wall again. She understood the concept of love and remembered meeting them again after she became an Animalian. To a great degree, she remembered the things said in Doctor Stein's office and respected them for that. To some degree, she could even accept their recognition of her as their mother, but as Doctor Stein had warned, she'd been suffering from Alzheimer's for long enough that many of those old memories had been so long lost that becoming an Animalian didn't fully restore them. There were some things that did appear in small flashes, but they weren't always the things that someone expected... as her eyes came back to the first picture that she'd looked to. The one of her past Human self with an orange tabby in her lap...
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The transformation felt rather well, and it awakened a whole series of sensations and desires that hadn't been felt in years, and when her deceased husband was still alive. It left the older woman, identified as Rosa Robling, in an odd place as faded orange fur covered her with darker orange tabby stripes marking her body. It all felt good, and she caressed her breasts as they swelled larger. And as her hair shifted from silver and thin to blonde and thick, Rosa enjoyed it. She occasionally "meowed" as she flexed her growing tail and extended and retracted her claws on one hand.
She then laid back and rubbed her head on the bed in the conversion room, and with one hand drifting down to her legs. The sensation of the pads on her fingers fluffing the fur there felt wonderful and she even enjoyed the feeling of her new triangular ears moving as she shook her head from side to side as she rubbed her head on the sheets. It felt calm and peaceful, and in that way, it seemed to also draw flashes in her mind. She saw a male orange tabby, and one that she somehow remembered owning years ago when she was a little girl and then just starting out in life. The cat had been friendly and curious and was a constant companion to her before she met her husband... He cuddled her and rubbed her legs and anything he could nuzzle his head and muzzle to.
"And now I can do that too," she thought to herself as a purr escaped her lips, "I'm like Chester..."
There was a pause as she looked down to the large furry orbs now on her chest. They were bigger than she remembered, not to mention firmer. And when she rubbed them earlier, they felt really nice. The one thing that sat in the back of her mind at the moment now was that the clothes her caregivers had given her to wear were pretty conservative and didn't really highlight the new orbs that felt so good and sensitive. It also made her wish that one of those caregivers was male and that she could then play with him the way Chester had been there in the past...
"No... I AM Chester, now," the self-proclaimed, "Chester Rubbins. I must thank those nice people who brought me here to become an Animalian. They seemed very said and I'm sorry they're sad. But they'll be happy to know that I'm happy now. Maybe they'd like to become kitties too... and we could all play together."
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Of course, her children and their families didn't want to convert. And Chester could also feel that there was some pain at Chester not remembering everything. But Chester did like them, and after she was vaccinated, those that had come to Horizon got hugs and purrs to show that happiness. Tests did show that she could remember new things that she learned after her conversion, but many of the things that Chester had remembered of her life as Rosa Robling was rather limited. However, there were promises to have some contact with the family of Rosa Robling as part of a means to still be a family. Chester felt it would be a way to learn about the family she'd had and raised before developing Alzheimer's.
There had been the hope of Chester returning with them to where they'd lived... but Horizon wanted to track things that Chester learned and note if any of the potential warning signs for a return of Alzheimer's was still there. So far, there were no signs, but from what Chester had been told, she'd had the disease for a while before her conversion. That was something that brought her into Lyre/Animalia long term and she found herself also enjoying some fun and work in the Meat Market.