Pageant Question 38: The late Andy Warhol once said that everyone is famous for fifteen minutes. In your opinion, whose fifteen minutes are up?

Most people blamed the internet, but it was more than that.  It was desperation.  Making a viral video became a version of playing the Lottery.  The Lottery was always a tax on the poor who wished for a better life.  Casinos were the same, which is why cities that added casino gambling as a way to boost their economies stayed slums.

I had worked at the Hauden County SPCA since I was a teenager volunteering for a church school credit.  I loved the animals and the work so much, when they offered me a job, I stayed.  I stayed all the way through college and I stayed when I graduated.  I was known as The Cat Girl because I seemed to have a way with the felines.  It was two years ago that I noticed a trend in the people who came looking for cats.  They didn't choose them the way people used to choose their cats, and they didn't "test them out" the way people used to.  I tried to describe it to my coworkers, but it was such a subtle change, and people were adopting, so all was good, right?

The economy, which had been on the upswing, had the floor yanked out from under it by gridlock and anti-regulation, "freedom" lovers.  There was nothing free about what they did for the majority of the world.  It was like a roller-coaster drop and the riders were deeply shaken.  Those running the ride took our money and grinned.  The Lottery and casino revenues were higher than ever.  That's when the first couple came into the SPCA and asked for a, and I quote, "a retarded cat."

"You want what?"

The girl snapped her gum and said, "A retarded cat."  She read the descriptions on the cat cages, but kept her distance.  I looked at the guy she was with, but he was peering intently into the cage with Heifer, a huge black and white shorthair, four years old and rescued after his just as overweight owner died.

"What about this one?" he poked his fingers into the cage.  "It's super fat."

"Fat's okay, but retarded would be better," she crossed her arms and looked at me, waiting.

"May I ask... why?"

She chewed and blinked at me.  "No.  Come on, Shawn.  They don't have any here."

As she dragged him out of the cat room, I heard him whine, "I still say a really stupid dog would work!"

It was a week after that we received a cat from Animal Control that had been exposed to spray paint fumes on purpose.