The Adventures of Pet Stop

Luxi looked sadly to Mark as she heard his story "I'm sorry Mark, but please realize that not all of us cats are like that, I would never hurt a bird, I was treated with luxury before my owner was forced to marry by her parents, then my owner had to spend more and more time with the husband, while the husband hated me...then once a baby came along...my owner was forced to give me up and put me here, although your story is much more concerning and saddening than mine" she said as she stared at Mark.

The hedgehog's eyes watered a little, both the cat and the bird had come from a life he never had a hope of getting, a life with humans. He was an albino and so no human wanted him, calling him creepy or ugly. He waddled over to the edge of the counter and sat, thinking over his fate when he saw a shaker filled with pepper. He waddled over to it and sniffed it, thinking about dumping it over and rolling in it to give his spikes some color, but before he could he sneezed violently and rolled into a ball at the same time. He slowly uncurled and looked around, hoping no one noticed.

Scout went over to the bird and rubbed her forehead again his side, her way of giving a hug. She had never been kept and owned by a human except her breeder, and even then she was born to be sold and bring in money. So she didn't know what it was like to have a human love and spoil her.

Luxi gave a sigh at the sadness of the atmosphere before she found a suitable container for the milk and put her head into it, tilting it up then getting it onto her head before jumping off the counter and walked over to the milk, putting the small bowl at the open end of the milk then lifted up the other end, the milk pouring into the bowl, she then ripped open the plastic film over the tray of peppered salmon with her claws and started to eat it, occasionally lapping up some milk too, she then crouched on the floor and wrapped her tail around her legs.

Scout perked her ears up at what ever the cat was doing and looking down she saw that she had managed to get some milk out of the fridge and jumped down to help herself to some as well. She hit the floor in a thump and quickly got to her paws and ran over to the milk, but paused when something else in the fridge caught her eye. A jar of yellow-green things. She climbed up to the self and began to wrestle with the lid, having a hard time of opening it. Suddenly the jar slipped and fell to the ground, crashing into tons of tiny pieces. The ferret looked down at the mess and saw only that her food was now open to her. She jumped down and skipped around the glass over to her price and nosed the glass that had stuck to the label of the jar off her prize. She stopped only a moment to glance at the label.

"Jalapeno peppers... well, I but they taste good!" Scout licked her chops and began chowing down on the first piece. After swallowing it she turned to the next one and suddenly felt her throat and mouth one fire. "Oh-OH- OH OW OW OW OWOW!!! HOT" the ferret ran back and forth, trying to drag her tongue against the ground in an effort to stop the burning. "OH MY FUR THIS IS HOT! Make the burning stop! make it stop make it stop! AHHHH!!!!!" The ferret continued to run in frantic circles

Up on the counter Frostbite laughed until he fell over on his side. Thinking that his friend was only joking around.

Mark managed a small smile at the ferret as she attempted to comfit him. It didn't work very well, but the fact that she made the effort was enough to give him the strength to stop mourning the life he had once had. Watching silently as they wondered off to gather their food, Mark hopped over to the donut and started to peck at it.

Hearing the loud cries of the ferret that comforted him, but unwilling to stop enjoying the heavenly gift before him, he simply yelled "Stick your head in the milk!" before returning to his meal.

Luxi looked surprised at the actions of the ferret before she pushed the bowl of milk over to the ferret then simply stuck her mouth into the carton of milk and tipped it, lapping up the delicious drink.

Scout wailed as she ran to the milk and dunked her whole head in, all the way up to her ears. Bubbles escaped on the surface of the milk as the weasel drank in as much as she could and sighed with relief that the burning feeling had stopped. When Scout finally pulled her head out of the bowl her face was dripping milk everywhere. Scout shook herself and flung droplets everywhere then went back over to the spilled jar to sniff at the peppers. "How do humans eat that stuff?" She asked, amazed at how hot those green things were.

Scout laughed as the wolf pup ate up a few of the peppers. Knowing all to well what would happen. Scout then drank up the remainder of the milk in the bowl and waited for the show o start.

Suddenly out of no where Ku-chi dropped down onto the counter and shrieked loudly,"Oh no! Oh no! Don't you realize what has happened? Do you know what you did? You have broken rule number five! And these rules are used to help us survive! You ate the human food! Don't you know what that will do to the human's mood!" The monkey exclaimed. Jumping up and down as he shrieked, pulling on his hair with his fists.

Luxi just rolled her eyes "here comes Mr Mood Ruiner" she said before she turned to Ku-Chi "well its not our fault we're hungry, if there's nice fish around then I'm going to eat it, better than that biscuit stuff they feed us" she said as she stared at Ku-Chi with a bored expression, her tail flicking around slightly in annoyance before she licked the plastic tray that the peppered salmon had been in "would you rather me eat you than human food?" she asked with a little smirk.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with the ghost of hedgehog's past on this one." Mark chirped in from the top of the counter, looking down at the scene with mild interest. The donut was almost loving sitting next to him, his wing protectively wrapped around it.

"I mean, I was going to have our little ferret have a few bites of my donut, allow the humans to think that wild rats ate it... but all this... "

Frost bite looked up at the Raven,"Ghost of hedgehog's past?" he asked, not really liking that some one pointed out his coloration.

Scout laughed and waddled over toward the chimp that had thrown a fit about the rules, again. "It's not my fault that the human's leave such interesting items lieing around.

Ku-chi shrieked again and banged his fists on the counter. "you will all cause us trouble! Now get back to your cages on the double!"

Frostbite chuckled knowing that no one was really going to listen to the monkey. And sure enough Scout went back to waiting for the wolf pup to start complaining of his burning mouth.

Turning to the hedgehog, Mark tilted his head to the side in order to get a better look at him. He didn't seem as down as he had been before. "That's your ticket to a human owner, isn't it? The whole supernatural, out-worldly coloration?" he asked innocently enough, deciding to go for broke after a few seconds.

"After all. Halloween is coming up. It's the kind of human holy day in which the spooky, the dark, the unnatural and the out worldly are celebrated in all their glory. You and me should be popular in the coming weeks... maybe the ferret if she dyes her fur..."

Luxi chuckled "and everyone wants a witch's black cat" she purred before she looked up again to Ku-Chi "if you're so insistent on us getting back to our cages why not set an example and go back to yours" she said with a sly smile before she chuckled slightly.

Skip woke up to the breaking of glass and the shouts of his fellow peers arguing and teasing one another. After some serious nudging and prodding the door to his cage fell open. Silly humans, thinking they could trap a skunk in something so simple and escapable. Following the continuous noise he wandered into the room with everyone in it. The fridge light drew him closer until he almost collided with the black cat. Startled and paying attention, he moved around the cat and climbed into the fridge. Finding the level with all of the premade sandwiches, he snooped around until he found what he wanted. Peanut butter and honey! He and his sandwich fell to the floor in a heap. Glancing around he heard something about Halloween. "What's a Halloween?" Skip was still a relatively young skunk and hadn't been around long enough to know these things.