[petcare] First meeting that started it all

“Alright Sani, we’re done now. Let’s head back home!” Arianne exclaimed, looking at her beloved Alligawper who seemed to give a sigh of relief at the sound of home coming out of his owner’s mouth.

After finishing up her paperwork, she took her and headed towards her usual path back home. The sun was setting by then, giving a nice orange and pink hue in the sky. “Oh how pretty the sunset looks,” she mused, her biote swaying from left to right in amusement. Work has been rather stressful lately, and she had been working overtime for the past few days. So seeing the sun after many days of seeing the moon was like a breath of fresh air.

“Alright Sani, since we’re off tomorrow, how about we head out to the park an-” she suggested to her Alligawper before the pet gave an annoyed growl. “Or how about we just hang out at home then?” Arianne gave a dry laugh and Sani seemed to nod. She laughed, amused at his expressions. But her laughter was cut off when she heard a rustle in the bushes ahead of her, followed by a loud and painful cry. 

Her instincts kicked in, and she slowly approached the bush, signalling Sani to prepare to attack if needed. He obliged, as he took a stance next to her in a defensive position. As she parted the bushes, the creature that made the rustle and cry tried to run, its feet trying to scurry through the brambles of the bush. Arianne saw a flash of brown as she saw the creature scurry away, but that brief flash was enough for Arianne to see what it was. It was a Chu-Owl, and an injured one at that.

As it tried to run away, its injuries prevented it from moving far. It collapsed after gaining another fifty metres away from Arianne. The symp caught up with the creature, and slowly started to approach it. 

“It’s okay buddy, let me help you,” she calmly said, slowly moving her hands towards it to allow it to sniff her. The creature's eyes darted around, trying to see a means of escape, but knew that it was unable to move due to the pain it felt. So the next thing it knew what to do was to flap its wings in terror and nip her outstretched fingers. She winced, and Sani took that action as an act of violence and started to growl. “It’s okay baba, I’m alright. It is just scared,” she calmed her pet by placing her uninjured hand on his muzzle. Her injured hand, although bleeding, didn’t flinch back, causing the Chu-Owl to be confused and unsure of what to do next.

“Come here buddy, let me help you alright?” she continued to talk calmly to the creature. It’s nerves slowly died down, before stretching out its head towards her hand to sniff it and rub its head on her. A feeling welled up in Arianne, as she took her time to pick up the injured Chu-owl. When she finally had it in her arms, she could tell that it had been through alot, and was not a wild Chu-Owl.

“Come Sani, let’s head over to the pet hospital,” she urged her pet and off they went. It was a 15 minute travel from where they were, the whole time she comforted the poor creature, who decided to nuzzle itself into her arms. She continued to inspect it as much as it allowed her to. Multiple wounds, some fresh, some old. The wings looked clipped, which meant that it may not be able to fly. She frowned. She couldn’t imagine how much the poor thing had to endure. 

When they had finally reached the clinic, she filled in the necessary paperworks and passed the creature over to the professionals as they triaged the Chu-owl. It looked confused, being passed over to another person, but it seemed to know that it was in good hands as it cooperated as much as it could. 

“It seems that it has been in multiple fights before you found her. It looks pale as well, and is dehydrated. Would you be alright if we ran a few blood tests and x-rays to see if there are any internal issues?” The vet explained what was needed after they had triaged the Chu-owl. Arianne nodded almost immediately. She was already prepared to do anything for the poor creature, and if it was indeed abandoned, she would take it in.

After thirty long minutes, the vet called her into the consult room. On the table was the Chu-owl, its wounds cleaned and bandaged where necessary. It seemed happy to see her, as its ear perked up when she entered and nuzzled her when she placed her hand near it.

“So on the x-rays, there are a few fractures on the left hind leg and the right wing. She also has an egg present, so she may soon. As for the blood test -” “SHE HAS AN EGG?? AND SHE’S A GIRL??”

Arianne exclaimed, catching the vet and the chu-owl off guard. Realising she got too loud, she apologised and asked for the vet to continue. They laughed in amusement, and continued their report. “As for the blood test, she is definitely anaemic, and has some elevated kidney values. I would recommend for her to be hospitalised for a few days on IV fluids and then a repeat renal panel in 3 days. We will treat her wounds and other issues she has as well. Are you alright with that?”

“Yes definitely. Do what you need to do. But could I ask, do you think she has had an owner? Is there a way for me to track the owner if she does have one?” Arianne asked, and the vet sighed. “Unfortunately she does not have any microchip on her. Nor does she have a tracker on her. So it would be nearly impossible to find her owner if she was owned. You could try other platforms and put up posters, however from her state, if she was a previous pet, she would have been abandoned or at least lost for quite a while. Quite a bit of her wounds have scarred over, so she has been fighting with other creatures for a while now.”

Arianne sighed in frustration and thanked the vet. As she handled the paperworks, she asked the counter staff about visiting hours and whether she could see the Chu-Owl. They happily obliged and after about 15 minutes of waiting, they brought her back to the hospital ward to the cage where the Chu-Owl was kept. She seemed to have put up a bit of a fight, as her feathers look ruffled. As Arianne opened the cage, the creature flinched, but after she placed her fingers in front of her face, she realised who it was and nuzzled her hands. Her mouth opened, and you could barely hear an eep. The symp felt her eyes starting to tear up. She proceeded to pat the creature’s head, and she seemed to lean into it even more. 

After wiping a tear that fell, she promised that she would come by the next day to visit. Her heart ached as she closed the cage door and saw the Chu-Owl’s eyes follow her as she left the room. Sani, who had been chilling in a corner, saw his owner leaving the hospital ward towards the counter, and followed after her. Arianne thanked the clinic staff and they left the clinic.

“Sani let us head over to the pet shop for a moment. We’re going to need supplies,” she informed her Alligawper, the latter getting excited thinking that the trip was for him. Unfortunately for him, it was not. Though he did get a nice soft bed and treats for being obliging to his owner’s whims.

After spending a hefty amount at the pet shop, they proceeded back home, where Sani could finally have his dinner and a good sleep on his new bed as Arianne spent the whole night researching Chu-Owls, everything from husbandry to environment, variants and food. To say that she looked like a mess the next morning was an understatement.

She knocked out when she realised that she had to feed Sani breakfast, which she did, and then she proceeded to collapse on the couch nearby. She woke up 4 hours later, confused and hungry. Realising the time, she did a quick wash up, lunch and went to the vet clinic to visit the Chu-Owl.

The staff greeted her with warm smiles, and after 10 minutes of waiting they brought her into the same room the previous day. There were other pets in the neighbouring cages, either asleep or protesting their right to be there. But her eyes landed on the creature that she was there for. 

The little one was asleep, the noise of the cage door opening awakening her. Arianne thanked the staff who brought her in and sat on the chair that was provided to her.

“Hello buddy. How are you feeling? I brought you some toys and blankets. I would love to give you some treats but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to, so let’s leave that to when you are discharged,” she spoke to the creature gently. She seemed to make a small noise and nuzzled into Arianne’s hands when she brought them into the cage. As she patted the creature, you could feel the indentations of the ribs, proving that she was skinny, probably starving for a while. Her fur and feathers were rough, with bald patches in some parts of her body. All in all, not a pretty condition.

“I bet you were really fluffy before this… I’m going to make sure that you get back to your fluffy self. Ah I know! I’ll call you Flufflebutts! Sounds good if I do say so myself,” she proudly suggested a name for the Chu-owl, who just cocked her head to one side and continued to nuzzle her hand. She stayed there for about an hour, and after she got an update from the vet, she reluctantly left the newly named Flufflebutts in the clinic. 

From there, the next two days had the same routine. She would head off to work, ensure that all of her work was done by her clock off time, leave her office and go straight to the clinic to visit Flufflebutts. Although it was only three days, you could see that the chu-owl was getting better. She would start to approach the cage door more and be more vocal. Her appetite was slowly improving, and on the third day of hospitalisation, her kidney values were mostly normalised, and her anaemia was improving as well, though still anaemic. 

As for the fractures, splints have already been placed on them and they would have to be replaced every week or so and have a repeat x-ray in six weeks. The vet did mention that she would benefit more from being hospitalised for a few more days for the kidneys and anaemia but since the clinical symptoms were better, Arianne could try home management. She quickly agreed, excited to bring back her new family member.

So Flufflebutts got discharged with medications to go home with. Packing her into a carrier she bought, Arianne excitedly brought her new pet into her house. She placed her into a room to have her acclimatise to her surroundings. As she opened the cage door, Flufflebutts cautiously stuck her head out, and slowly but surely hobbled out of the carrier to inspect the room she would be staying in. Sani could be heard sniffing from the other side of the door but, as sources online advised, Arianne should separate any new pets from existing ones to allow better introduction to new environments and the other pet in the future.

Flufflebutts room was a spacious enough room for a Chu-owl, and is situated in the part of the house where there is natural light coming through, so she could sun bask when needed. Arianne also prepared a little nesting area for Flufflebutts to rest and lay her egg when she was ready, which according to the vet, should be in a week or so. 

After an hour, she finally managed to settle down after sniffing the whole room down. She sniffed her food, took a quick nibble and decided to rest in her little nesting area. Arianne could hear the soft breathing and snoring from her, and she heaved a sigh of relief to know that the chu-owl is comfortable here. She left the creature to sleep and closed the door behind her. She turned around to see her beloved Alligawper staring at her in annoyance next to his food bowl, indicating that she had forgotten to feed him and he was protesting in hunger. She snorted and proceeded to apologise to her pet and fed him.

The next day, she went in to check in on Flufflebutts and to feed her as well, only to see her already at the door and greeting her good morning. Happy to see the chu-owl acting bright and friendly made her ecstatic as she fed her and played with her for a good while. So much so that she had forgotten that she had work that day and when she finally realised the time, apologised to the chu-owl and rushed off to work. 

When she came back home with Sani, she was so exhausted from a long day of work that it did not register in her head that when she opened the door, she was greeted with Flufflebutts headbutting her legs and hopping around Sani, who was just as surprised. That was when she realised she had left Flufflebutts door wide open when she rushed to work, allowing the little one free access to the whole house. Worried that she may have made a mess around the house, she sighed in relief when she found nothing to be out of place. Nothing… until she turned to see that Sani was hovering around the bed that she had bought for him a few days back.

Looking closely, her jaw dropped when she saw a pretty looking egg on his bed. Both she and Sani just looked at the Chu-Owl in shock as the latter proceeded to nuzzle Arianne’s legs again and nuzzle Sani and proceed to sit on the laid egg like nothing happened.

And so there was no need for the well planned out introduction of Sani to Flufflebutts. The Alligawper seemed to be getting along well with the Chu-owl, although he didn’t seem to want to entertain a lot of her random bursts of energy. The vet did mention that she was at a younger age, younger than Sani at least, so the energy levels didn’t match for the most part. But when they both settled they would cuddle next to each other which was cute. 

Sani did end up having to give up his new bed for now, seeing that Flufflebutts has claimed it for her offspring. Arianne bought a new bed for Sani which he happily accepted and moved it next to the old bed so that the two pets could be next to each other. It was an adorable sight to see, and Arianne couldn’t help but to snap multiple photos of them together. She was already in the thousands with her pictures of Sani, and now with the new addition, she doesn’t think her digital storage space would be too happy. 

Soon, the time came for the egg to hatch. It was on Arianne’s off day, which she thanked her lucky stars for as she was just as excited as her other two pets to see the egg hatch. Flufflebutts was sitting on the egg as per usual when she made a little meep and moved from the egg. Sani heard the movement and turned to see what was happening. The both of them started making soft noises, making Arianne turn her head as to what was happening. That was when she saw it.

Part of the shell started breaking off. You could hear little chirps, mewing and then a head popped out. The little one was trying its best to push itself out of the shell to see the world outside, and after managing to roll out of the egg, it was out. Flufflebutts motherly instinct came out, and she started licking the baby dry. Its eyes were closed and it could barely walk. Sani kept his distance, as if knowing that the mother should be the one near the child so that it can imprint on the mother. 

Such an amazing scene to witness. The birth of a new life. Arianne couldn’t help but feel emotional as tears started running down her cheeks. After things calmed, Flufflebutts started introducing her child to them. She would come up to each of them and tug on them to follow her. When they approached the bed, she would slowly introduce the baby to them. 

The baby was of a different colour from her, more of an orangey pink hue colour than its mother, who had the natural brown colouration of a Chu-owl. Over the next week or so, the baby would slowly open its eyes and have more energy to walk around, with Flufflebutts shadowing its movements. 

As Flufflebutts recovered from her many issues, Sani would be the substitute parental figure, like a father figure the young child never had. As much as Sani may not have wanted to be in that role, he had accepted his fate and continued to entertain the child. Arianne loved the dynamic of her current household, as it became more lively.

And that was how Fluffster McCannington was born and introduced into the family. But this would not be the last Chu-owl that Arianne would have, as many more would appear before her, and she continued to introduce them into her family, much to Sani’s dismay. Alas, the Chu-owl distribution system is never wrong, and once they find someone, they will continue to give them more.