Tuttle declared in an interview with M. M. Hall from Fantastic Metropolis: "My first post-natal story to deal in any way with motherhood was “Replacements”, written when my daughter was only seven months old.
[1] Since its first release in 1992, "Replacements" has been extensively republished, both in Tuttle's own short story collections and numerous writers' anthologies.
As Stuart commences his walk to work, he notices an animal "about the size of a cat, naked looking, with leathery, hairless skin and thin, spiky limbs that seemed too frail to support the bulbous, ill-proportioned body.
One evening, while on his way home from work, he notices a woman sitting opposite with a gold chain that brings back memories.
After leaving the train at the same stop as the woman, he strives to come up with something to say, but he sees the chain linked to one of the "pets" he despises and immediately lets her walk away.