Hi, my names Carrie.  Well, it's Caroline actually, but everyone's called me Carrie for as long as I can remember.  I'm a pretty normal girl I guess.  I mean, I'm a geek and a nerd, so I'm not a Barbie or anything, but I'm still pretty normal.  Um, let's see.  My hair's a dirty blonde color, emphasis on dirty.  The only reason I don't say it's brown is because all growing up my mom insisted to anyone who'd listened that it was blonde.  My cousin Aly says it's brown.  All I know is that it's lifeless and limp.  That's why I always have it back in a ponytail.

    Well, that and that I work with animals.  I work at a somewhat local shelter.  I've always loved animals ever since I was little.  I remember finding a frog when I was three and thinking it was the coolest thing ever.  Until I showed my mom that is.  She freaked out, almost fainted.  I wasn't a tomboy exactly, I mean I still like bows and sparkles and pink.  I just like them paired with gray and sneakers and mud.  I've always been caught sort of at a halfway point between the two, I guess.

    Anyway, back to the animals.  I never liked the 'normal' pets that people have.  Dogs were cool, but my mom was allergic so we never had one.  Cats were lazy.  Birds were too noisy - my mom's words.  I never had a pet growing up.  But I started volunteering at the shelter when I was fifteen.  There I got to interact with real animals.  And not just the normal ones either.  Our shelter takes in every type of animal.  From cats and dogs, to lizards and turtles, to birds and fish, we take 'em all.  When I turned seventeen I started officially working there for money and I haven't left.

    Like I said, I'm a pretty normal 20 year old.  I know most of the other girls my age would give their right arm to be part of one of those paranormal romance books.  Ones like Twilight and House of Night.  There's where I'm good.  I'm perfectly fine with being normal.  Always have been.  There's absolutely nothing supernatural about my life.

    Except for my best friend.  She's a were-cat.

    I decided to write this so that anyone who may or may not find themselves in my situation can have some sort of reference on how to deal.  "The Guide for Human Friends of Paranormal Beings" is by no means written by an expert.  It's written by me, and I'm still trying to figure things out myself.  But, in any case, I thought what the hey?

    So here we are.  I'm willing to bet that most of the readers will be those aforementioned girls who'd give a limb.  I'm okay with that.  I don't expect everyone to believe me either.  I had a hard time believing it myself.  I've since come to terms with the fact that the supernatural is real.  Hell, I get that fact shoved in my face every time Jenny stops by.

    Jenny's my best friend.  The were-cat.  Her real name I can't pronounce, let alone spell, but it kind of sounds like Jenny, so that's what I've always called her.  She said that's the Anglicized version of her name anyway.

    The Guide isn't gonna be written like most guides you can think of.  I mean, I work at an animal shelter for Pete's sake, I'm not a scholar.  I'm gonna write down my experiences with Jenney and the other supernatural beings she's brought with her from time to time.  Again, I don't expect everyone - hell I don't expect anyone to believe me.  I'm still giving it a go.

    So, I guess...  I present, to you, oh reader who probably wont believe a word I say - I mean write.  The Guide.