Ben doesn’t seem to notice his age. Everyone else does, of course, and mine, for few cats reach fifty seven years of age, but that’s a perk of being a familiar, I guess.

He’s often asked why, as a Puka, he doesn’t change his appearance to match his style, to look younger. But Pukas have a code – be what you want when you’re shifted, but always be true when you’re yourself.

When you can shift and change in a few swift seconds, it’s easy to become lost in it all. Having that one true form where you show your age, flaws, scars, and anything else that you may wish to change about yourself, is an important thing for Pukas. There is no shame in aging, or in the stories our scars can tell, or in the marks we’re born with.

It is, however, great fun when Ben shifts into his enormous cat form and joins me on adventures. If you have the choice to be a cat, I highly recommend it. Way better than Puka, selkie, human, dwarf, elf… any of them. Be a cat.