SOLVED. Adult Short Story anthology. A woman with a cat and a child in a dystopian setting. A very short story. Late 1980s/early 1990s. Spoiler ahead. [s]

[Isaac]

Around the early 1990s, my mother handed me a book of short stories she had out from the library and was reading and told me to read a particular story. I think it was only a few pages, probably less than 10. It featured a woman with a kid and a cat... (view spoiler)[there wasn't enough food or something so the woman couldn't feed the kid and the cat, she goes off to get rid of what the reader is led to believe is the cat, but she comes home to just the cat. (hide spoiler)]

I suspect the book was probably recent at the time, so late 80s or early 90s. I don't know what the overall theme of the collection was, if any. Neither my mother nor I remember much else about the book.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Peter]

To be fair, there's a lot more meat on the average kid than on the average cat.

I do find it interesting that your mother wanted you to read this. Do you think she meant it as a warning? My mom certainly would've done that.

[Isaac]

"I do find it interesting that your mother wanted you to read this. Do you think she meant it as a warning?"

For years, it was a kind of running joke that I'd taken it as a warning to behave, lest I get replaced with a cat, whereas she'd given it to me to read because she thought it was interesting and I'd enjoy the story.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Isaac, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Isaac]

I never found it. Any ideas?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

It's not ringing bells with me.

[Rainbowheart]

Do you know if all the stories were dystopian, or just that one?

[Isaac]

Nope. It could have easily been either, as my mother liked dystopian stories but also read plenty of general anthologies.

[Kate]

Isaac ~~
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Good luck!

[Rainbowheart]

Still looking, Isaac?

[Isaac]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Still looking, Isaac?"

I haven't yet found it and I'm still interested in finding the book, or at least the short story.

[Kris]

Isaac, would you call this a teen or adult horror anthology?

[Isaac]

It's more likely adult than teen—I don't remember anthologies of teen-aimed stories being as much of a thing, at least in what I remember my mother reading, back then—but either is possible.

[Julie]

I read a short story anthology called Cat Crimes. There was a story in it where a woman is digging a grave in her yard and you spend the story thinking she is getting rid of her cat, and at the end she is getting rid of her child. It's called Finicky by John Lutz.

[Isaac]

That might well be it. An anthology titled "Cat Crimes" definitely sounds like one my mother would have picked up. I'll have to get my hands on it to read it and be sure, though.

[Kris]

Following up on Julie's suggestion:

The short story "Finicky" by John Lutz can be found in Cat Crimes I by Martin H. Greenberg.

List of all the short stories in this book (via Worldcat.org - https://www.worldcat.org/title/cat-cr...

Ginger's Waterloo / Peter Lovesey --
Bedeviled : a "nameless detective" story / Bil Pronzini --
A weekend at Lookout Lodge / Joan E. Hess --
Tea and 'biscuit / Jon L. Breen --
Horatio ruminates / Dorothy B. Hughes --
Scat / Barbara Paul --
Blindsided / William J. Reynolds --
The last temptation of Tony the C. / Christopher Fahy --
Buster / Bill Crider --
Catnap / David H. Everson --
Last kiss / Douglas Borton --
Little cat feet / Les Roberts --
Finicky / John Lutz --
The duel / J.A. Lance --
Archimedes and the doughnuts / Gene DeWeese and Barbara Paul --
The Lower Wacker Hilton / Barbara D'Amato --
A proper burial / Barbara Collins.

[Isaac]

Julie wrote: "I read a short story anthology called Cat Crimes. There was a story in it where a woman is digging a grave in her yard and you spend the story thinking she is getting rid of her cat, and at the end..."

I'm pretty sure this is it. In the large-print hardback edition I got from the library here, this particular story is a bit screwed up—the tail of one page duplicated at the head of the next, and some lines clearly missing between other pages.

Thanks, Julie!