This short story from the collection Wild Child was originally published in Harper’s.
Mae is in her southern California garden early one morning when a tiger shows up at the edge of her yard. Meanwhile Mae’s sister, Anita, is inWisconsin grieving her dead husband, dealing with a pack of feral cats under her trailer, and trying to start a relationship with Todd, a man who’s lobbying for a ballot measure that will allow people to kill strays. Mae and Anita have been vegetarians since high school, but they’re still learning what it means to care about animals, both wild and human.