Felidae

“There there, good girl~”

The soft touch of your girlfriend's hand on your head is always what you need after a stressful day. Somehow, her touch makes all your concerns fade away, all your worries seem inconsequential, all your anxieties seem distant. You would enthuse to her about how happy she makes you, but you're currently too busy squirming as she gets that spot on your head, and you can do nothing but purr and squirm.

“Let's get something more fitting for you to wear, why don't we?” she says, before stopping with her overwhelming head scratching and walks off, leaving you a melted mess on the floor, so genuinely happy from her touch. You roll onto your back, a dazed, but happy, smile on your face, eagerly awaiting your owner to return. After what feels like ages, she does return, holding your favourite piece of leather in her hands.

“Does my good little kitty want to wear her collar?” You nod happily in response, leaning into her as she straps that safe collar on, the embodiment of her protection, the symbol that right now you're hers to care for, and you need not care about anything other than her happiness. It has a little tag with your name attached to the front – such a pretty tag, in the shape of a heart. As you hear it click at the back of your neck, your owner takes both hands and scratches behind your head, making you a squirming mess once again.

“Since you've been such a good girl, I'm gonna let you up on the couch tonight so I can pet your head while you lay on top of me, okay cutie?” You nod, excited at the praise despite the fact that she's never not let you sit with her on the couch. With you walking excitedly at her heels (on all fours, of course), she plops herself down on her faux-leather loveseat and clicks with her mouth. Needing no other signal, you hop up and lay your head on her lap, just like she had told you.

“Such a good girl, such an obedient little pet~” she praises, as she resumes scratching your head, staying away from that spot to give you a bit more calm of a relaxation, which you gladly take, letting yourself drift off to her touch. You are hers, and she is your owner, and you could not be happier in any state of affairs. You only wish you could be her pet forever, fantasizing about not having to deal with the stress of anything outside of her soft headscritches.

So lost in your relaxing bliss are you, that you barely notice when you feel your own positioning start to shift, despite you not willing it to. You open your eyes and look forward, to see that your arms seem to be growing black fur. Confusion, but distinctly not panic, sets over you, among with a cacophony of other emotions pulsing at your brain, while you feel the rest of your body shift along with the growing fur. Your hands arms seem to shrink, repositioning and reshaping in such a way that you're not even sure where your thumbs went. It feels... strong, but not painful. It is a very odd sort of feeling that you have never experienced before, which you barely have time to ponder before it moves onto your face, and you feel it pushing out, forming a... muzzle? Your suspicions are confirmed as you notice your newly forward snout having your nose change to be a distinctly pink button, before you lose focus of it and consequently start to filter the new face shape out.

As you feel things poking out from the top of your head, you realize that you somehow missed your human ears disappearing in the overwhelming blend of emotions and sensations you currently have. Those sensations don't let up for a moment as they move further down your body, and you realize that you have shrunk enough that you are pretty much entirely inside the dress you were wearing. You feel your legs go through a similar process as your arms did, shrinking into a much smaller and much different shape, perpendicular to your torso.

Even your current mind, barely able to adjust to what is happening as fast as it does, is able to predict what will happen next. A similarly strong painless feeling starts pushing towards your lower back, and you shudder as you feel your spine extending, which is the oddest sensation in this whole thing. And, just as suddenly as it started, the changes stop, with a simple shudder across your body as they complete.

With a tentative air, you push around with your newly changed form, looking at your newly changed arm-well, fore legs. So caught up and confused, you don't even notice how easily you are able to see in the rather dark inside of your former clothing. A shake around and a surprisingly easy crawl through the neck of your dress later, and you're outside of it again, and looking up at the owner who was petting you as this all began, to find that she has changed too. Her clothing appears torn, and she seems larger than you remember, even adjusting for your new perspective, but that is far from the most significant change she has undergone. All over her body is vibrant orange and black stripes, and her face has a somewhat similar muzzle to yours, the main exception being that her proportions and body pattern are distinctly more anthropomorphic than yours.

She exhales sharply through her nose as she sees you. “Figures you'd get turned into that, my cutie.~” Her voice has a slightly stronger air to it, but it is definitely the same woman that was petting you before.

“Ah-buh-eh-ah-” You can't help but stutter as you look up at her, she's gorgeous, even more than she was as a human to you.

“Relax, little kitty, take your time.~” She definitely is the same woman, with the exact same domineering tone as she talks to you now as she's ever had.

“I-buh-wha?” You can still barely keep yourself together enough to string words together, simultaneously happy at your own self and intimidated by your partner.

“Hmm, seems like the change kept one thing on you~” your owner says, before putting a claw through the collar that is still on your neck, lightly tugging on it. “Well, I think it suits you.~” If this new form had visible facial skin, your current blush would be visible from orbit.

“Shh, it's okay, you're fine~” she says, petting you with something that is halfway between a paw and a hand, and yet is twice as relaxing as her normal petting. “The real question, little one, is: Are you happy?”

It takes a little bit for you to wrangle with the question in your head. Even if you weren't, there wouldn't be much you could do to change it, yet that isn't what your brain focuses on. You feel... freed, and enthusiastic that you're a far better size for your owner to care for now. And somehow, this form just feels... right, like you'd been wearing clothes a size too small throughout your life and suddenly you have been properly measured. Putting all this together in your mind, there's nothing you can do in response but to give her an enthusiastic nod.

“Now that's what matters, cutie. I'm glad you're happy, and I'm happy that you're happy. Now we can get back to me petting you,” she says, clearing your old clothes off her newly striped lap before patting on it for you to get up and actually fit this time. With a soft stroke on your head by your newly tigerlike owner, you can't help but purr in happiness at your new life.

“There there, good girl~”