Special Pet

Special Pet Part 9

    At last, it's time for Margaret's owner to take her home. Quigor had been visiting her every day in the Animal Hospital for several hours each day. Now she was finally well enough to be brought home.

    Quigor had reported the worker at the Pet Care Center for putting Margaret in the pen with the animal that bit her. They should have known it wasn't safe for a human to be in the same pen with all of those other creatures. The round fuzzy creature's owner was not held responsible for what happened. However, they felt awful about what happened and donated money to pay Margaret's vet bill. The rest of the vet bill was paid by the Pet Care Center. They were offered no choice but to pay it since their worker had been responsible for the incident. The worker that allowed Margaret to get bitten was dismissed from their job permanently. The Nividian's money is not paper money. They have no paper. It is similar to electronic payments, except they use a different energy source other than electricity.

    Margaret is carefully carried out to her owner's vehicle. She has powdered medicine to mix in with her food that the vet gave her owner to take home with her. Margaret is excited to be going with her owner. She's pretty sure they are going home.

    When they arrive at Quigor's home Margaret is carefully carried inside and placed in a pen in her owner's living room. It has toys for her to play with and blankets in case she wants to take a nap since she is still a little weak. The floor of the pen is soft.

    Margaret was released from the Animal Hospital shortly after breakfast. She had been fed scrambled eggs and toast with orange juice.  Margaret had really enjoyed the meal.

    Looking at the small blocks in her pen, Margaret decides to build a bakery out of them. Her owner watches her closely, while using their device to order groceries. The groceries will be delivered directly into the food storage shelves in the kitchen via a portal which connects the food storage shelving in the kitchen to the grocery store. They are automatically paid for through her owner's account. The Nividian's grocery stores are more like warehouses than our grocery stores are, since most of the aliens have their groceries delivered in this way.

    It takes Margaret a little over an hour to finish her bakery, as it is very detailed. It has loaves of bread, cakes, muffins, doughnuts, and other pastries in it. (The block set is specially designed for pet humans and contains toy food.) Her owner looks at it, amazed. They had been in the kitchen preparing lunch for part of the time Margaret had been building. They could still see her on a monitor while they were preparing the meal.

    "Good, Margaret!" Her owner says, carefully picking her up and carrying her to her highchair. Margaret is gently strapped in and chicken and rice is brought to her for lunch. Quigor eats a casserole made from the petals of the giant flowers and several other plants.

    Margaret loves the meal. She wonders what the rainbow colored food is her owner is  eating. She drinks milk with her meal. Her owner gives her a cupcake for dessert.

    Margaret is carefully picked up and carried to her bed after lunch. The vet told Quigor that the pet should still take naps for about a week yet. She has a follow-up appointment with the vet in a week.

    Margaret's owner uses their device to contact their parents and let them know that the pet human is okay after she's asleep. They had told their parents everything that had happened while she was in the hospital. Their Mother would be coming to visit soon to see how the pet is doing.

    Margaret's owner uses the device to take a picture of the bakery she has built. The three dimensional picture is sent to her owner's parents. They are amazed that a human could build this. It is so detailed.

    "The humans are quite an intelligent species. They have learned to make many things. I've been studying them for a while now," Quigor explains.

    Nividian children are vastly more intelligent than Margaret. Her bakery is very primitive compared to Thiers'. The toy bakeries they build contain real ovens that cook the food, even in miniature block sets. Margaret's blocks do not do that as it is not considered safe for pet humans.

    Margaret wakes up a little while later and decides to explore the house. Her bed is in her owner's room. Before she can do much exploring Quigor comes in and picks her up. They had been watching her on a monitor.

    After she uses the bathroom Margaret is carried out to the yard. It has an invisible forcefield around it so she cannot escape. It also prevents wild animals which might harm her from entering the yard. The vet had said to let Margaret play in the yard this week instead of taking her for walks. This would be easier and less tiring for the pet.

    Margaret's owner plays a game using a ball with her. The human does not understand the game. She has never played anything like it before. It involves touching the ball in specific patterns, rubbing plants on the ball, and very complicated catches and throws. The pet does not do well at this game.

    The game is very simple to Margaret's owner. Quigor gently explains how to play to their pet but she just looks confused.

    Margaret looks at her owner and points to the ball, hoping they will tell her what it's called. She is still trying to learn more words.

    Her owner says something to her that she doesn't understand. They gently take her hands and help her trace patterns on the ball using plants on the ground. Margaret watches in awe. Her owner says more words she doesn't understand. They carefully help the human throw the ball and then catch it. They trace an intricate design on the ball before tossing it to Margaret.

    Margaret misses the ball and can't find where it has gone. It has rolled inside the tough stem of a giant flower. The large plants sometimes like balls and catch them. They are not the same as flowers on Earth.

    Quigor easily retrieves the ball by feeding the flower some kind of powdered food and watering it. The plant then releases the ball.

    They continue the ball game for about half an hour or so. Then Margaret's owner carefully picks her up and carries her inside the house.

    "Good Margaret," Quigor says, handing her an apple and giving her something to drink. They carefully set her down in the living room which was designed for her. Margaret happily eats her apple. Then she goes to look for her video game which was brought with her from Earth. She finds it and plays with it for a while. Her owner watches her with interest. Then they decide to play their own game until it is time to prepare supper.

    Meatball bake is prepared for Margaret to eat. It is to be placed over rice and served with green beans. Her owner figured out how to make it by studying a three dimensional photograph taken by an alien visiting Earth. (Don't worry, they mean Earth no harm. It is considered like a nature preserve, but humans are allowed to be taken for pets. Most humans remain on Earth safe and unaware of some of them being taken for pets. The culture on Earth is exactly the same as it was and will remain that way. No formal contact is ever planned to be made with the humans. The vast majority of them will remain unaware of these aliens from this planet.)

    There is a very large population of humans on Earth and they are quite safe. How the three dimensional photograph works is that it shows the ingredients inside the meal. It shows that the meatballs are made of ground beef and bits of plant material. (Spices, but the aliens don't completely understand this or that ground beef is from a cow. They simply know that it is ground animal meat.) All of the other ingredients for the gravy for the meatballs are shown too. Margaret's owner did their best to copy the recipe. This is how they know how to make human recipes - from these photographs they can tell the ingredients in the recipes and how the food was arranged together. They cannot read human writing.

    Margaret and her owner play their games until the food is ready. Then Margaret is carefully picked up and placed in her highchair. She is gently strapped in.

    Margaret is served the meatballs and rice with green beans. The pet looks so excited and happy seeing the food. She is given milk to drink with it. (They have learned that humans drink cow milk, so they brought some cows over from Earth for the pet humans.) Margaret stares in confusion at what her owner is eating. It looks like many colored sparkly gems but that cannot be what it is because they are easily cut into pieces and chewed. (It comes from a local plant.)

    Margaret is given a bath after supper. Then Margaret puts on a pretty nightgown and is placed in the pen with her toys for a while as her owner does chores. Then Margaret is picked up and put to bed for the night.

Author's Note: Happy Father's Day! Please consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed the story. Thanks!