Cat People by Gary Brandner

show-offs. And always there was a forlorn loner, smaller than the rest, that the others picked on. Too much like humans.
    Irena walked on until the sound of a voice brought her to a stop in front of a cage containing two orangutans. The voice was coming from a small speaker box in front of the cage, into which a family of tourists had inserted a dime. Irena edged closer to listen.
    "... Fewer than three thousand of these playful, intelligent creatures are left in the world today, thanks to the depredations of Man, who continues to destroy their natural habitat."
    The voice was that of a young man. The tone had a warmth and sincerity to it that appealed to Irena. She could believe that the speaker truly cared about the animals.
    "... The pair you are looking at now, Dante and Josie, were born in captivity. They are products of artificial insemination. This is usually the case today, as civilization does not seem to stir up romantic feelings in the orangutan."
    The two adults in the tourist family tittered at this. Irena smiled.
    "... The zoo today is like a modern ark. We are fighting to guarantee the survival of the earth's endangered species, and serving when we can as a breeding ground to ensure that our animals will not vanish."
    The speaker clicked off and the two orangutans applauded, bringing a laugh from the tourists. Irena continued along the path.
    A pair of mandrills, with doglike faces and bright blue rumps, watched her with interest. She passed them without stopping. Also a pair of bored-looking chimpanzees.
    At the end of the primate section was the glassed-in reptile house. Irena walked in and joined a group in front of one of the cases to see what the attraction was. Inside a python, twelve feet long and thick as a man's arm, glided toward a white rat that was sitting hunched and paralyzed witb fear. As the snake unhinged its jaws, many of the people watching turned away, shuddering. Irena continued to watch, fascinated, as the python took the rat whole into its mouth and began the undulating process of swallowing it live.
    When Irena left the reptile house she stood indecisively for a moment where the path branched off in two directions. Off to her left she could see the bear cages. The heavy animals stood on their hind feet and clowned and waved at the people, begging for peanuts. Bears were the big crowd-pleasers of any zoo.
    Irena looked down the branch of the path that went to the right. A few yards along, a sign in the shape of an arrow read: Big Cats. And she knew this was why she had come. Ever since she had seen the black leopard on the television news last night, Irena had been drawn here. She could not say exactly why she had to come, but she knew it would have been impossible to stay away.
    With no more hesitation she walked down the path toward the cats. The lions were the first she came to. Great shaggy-maned beasts with wide-set amber eyes and placid expressions that revealed nothing of what they were thinking. Irena stopped in front of the cage to admire them. One old male sat on a rock ledge, well above the others. The patriarch. On the floor of the cage a younger male prowled restlessly from one side of the cage to the other and back again. In the jungle he would be nearing the time when he would challenge the older lion for leadership. Four females dozed beside a shallow concrete pool. A pair of cubs batted energetically at each other under the watchful eye of their mother.
    Irena moved along to the cage where the tigers were. There were two of them, a male and a female. They padded ceaselessly back and forth, back and forth, moving with a sensual grace. They stopped their pacing when Irena drew near, and turned to look at her.
    Irena moved close to the cage. An excitement that was close to sexual welled up inside her. The tigers were both beautiful and frightening, like gods in orange and black. The muscles moved smoothly in their mighty shoulders and haunches.
    "Hello," she said softly