My cat woke up, did a big stretch, and yawned. Then she hiccoughed, turned into a small dragon, and coughed up a fireball.
"!!!" I said.
"What?" She shrugged back into cat form.
"You're a shape shifter?"
"All cats are. There's just never any reason to not be a cat."
@MicroSFF Ah, I see!
There's no such animal as a cat. When we think we're seeing a cat, we're just seeing a polymorph in its optimal configuration.
The bit with "cats" having nine lives is just them using polymorph to get out of scrapes. Eventually they take on the form of a new cat to avoid arousing suspicion.
Micro SF/F by O. Westin
Simon Frankau