Quigor carefully picks up Margaret in the morning and feeds her breakfast. She reluctantly eats it. The dry human food doesn't taste too bad, but Margaret misses the meals her owner prepared for her at their home on Nividar. She is given water to drink.
Quigor praises their pet for eating and places her in her cage with a yellow dress with a daisy pattern on it. They then eat their own breakfast of seelmar while Margaret dresses and goes potty.
After breakfast Quigor leaves the room to inquire about activities and play areas for pets on this planet. They explain that it must be safe with no creatures that might bite or harm their pet human as she is quite vulnerable. A suitable play area is suggested and Quigor thanks the alien before returning to their room to retrieve Margaret.
Quigor carefully picks up Margaret and puts her collar and leash on her. Margaret had been playing happily with her pony blocks.
"Play Emily?" Margaret asks.
"No Margaret. Margaret come play," Quigor tries to explain, carefully leading their pet outside on her leash.
It is a twenty minute walk to the strange building. Margaret nervously takes in her surroundings along the way. She sees many of the scary looking aliens and some large animals that are eying her hungrily as if she would make a tasty snack.
At last they reach the building. Quigor gently leads Margaret inside. Margaret stares around the building while her owner speaks to the alien in charge. She sees different fenced off play areas. Some are empty and some contain strange creatures wearing collars which frighten her.
Margaret notices a pet human and one of the play areas and she pulls at the leash excitedly trying to get to her.
"Quigor, come!" Margaret cries in Nivish.
The alien in charge tells Quigor to go ahead and take Margaret over to the play area with the pet human.
"Okay, Margaret," Quigor says, following their pet to the play area.
There is a small adult female pet human sitting on thick blankets with a Nividian owner holding onto her. The alien has aqua fur with light purple tummy fur. The pet is playing with a toy animal playset.
Quigor asks the girl's owner if they may enter the play area with Margaret.
"Of course. Tulip has been wanting a friend to play with," the Nividian tells Quigor. Looking at Margaret they ask "What is your name?"
Margaret pays the alien no attention. She runs straight to Tulip.
"What is your name? My name is Margaret. Do you like it here?" Margaret asks excitedly in English.
Looking up at Margaret and speaking slowly and carefully, Tulip answers. "My name is Tulip. Yes, I like it here. This is my owner. They are very nice. Would you like to play with me?"
"Sure!" Says Margaret. "What are you playing?"
"I'm playing with an animal playset," Tulip answers. Her owner is still holding her carefully.
"What is your owner's name? Why are they holding you up?" Margaret asks.
Tulip answers slowly and carefully. "I can't pronounce it. I can't speak their language. My owner has to hold me up or I would fall over. I can't sit up by myself."
Margaret is very surprised. "That's okay," she says, grabbing some toy animals. She and Tulip play happily together for a while. Margaret is so happy to be with another human.
Quigor watches the pets playing. They ask Tulip's owner what their name is.
"My name is Lioslay. What's your name? What is your pet's name? Does she know how to tell me?" Lioslay asks.
"My name is Quigor. My pet's name is Margaret She didn't understand the question when you asked for her name," Quigor explains.
"She doesn't understand many words yet? How long have you had her?" Lioslay asks.
"About a month. She's learning to speak Nivish pretty well, but she still has a very small, limited vocabulary. How many words does your pet know?" Quigor asks.
"Tulip seems to understand a lot of words, but she isn't able to speak in our language. She can speak to other humans in their language though," Lioslay says.
The pets are still playing happily with the toy animals. Margaret asks Tulip if she can go swimming.
"I can. I like to play in the water. It's lots of fun. My owner holds me and helps me," Tulip says.
"Quigor! Tulip Margaret play water?" Margaret asks her owner.
Quigor asks Lioslay if Tulip may go swimming with Margaret. They explain that their pet loves to play on the beach with a human friend of hers.
"She would love that Quigor. See how happy she is now with Margaret? Yes, I will allow them to play in the water together. Let me take her to my room and dress her, and then she and Margaret can play together in the water," Lioslay says, very gently picking up Tulip. "I'm going to get you dressed so you can play in the water with Margaret," they tell Tulip. Lioslay also gathers together Tulip's supplies. Quigor and Lioslay decide to where to meet each other when their pets are ready.
Tulip smiles happily at her owner and hugs them to say thank you.
"Tulip play water Margaret," Quigor says, carefully putting Margaret's leash on her so they can take her to thier room so she can change into her swimsuit.
"Thank you Quigor!" Margaret cries happily.
"Good manners Margaret!" Quigor says, carefully leading their pet outside.
Margaret doesn't pay much attention to the animals and scenery on the way back to Quigor's room. She is very excited to go swimming with Tulip.
Quigor gently sets Margaret inside her cage in their room while they find her swimsuit. They hand Margaret her swimsuit and wait patiently for her to put it on.
"Good girl, Margaret!" Quigor says, carefully taking their pet out of her cage and putting her collar and leash back on her.
Margaret is so excited that Quigor has a little trouble controlling her on her leash.
Eventually they arrive at a pool area which allows pets. Margaret sees Tulip and tries to run straight to her, pulling hard on her leash.
"Hi Tulip! Let's play!" Margaret cries in English.
"Okay. I'm ready!" Tulip answers. Lioslay is holding her carefully in their arms. Tulip is wearing a pretty flowered swimsuit.
The pool is fairly shallow, as this is safer for Tulip. Quigor takes Margaret's leash off. Pets can be off leashes while in this pool. It has a forcefield preventing them from walking away from the pool area.
"C'mon, Tulip!" Margaret cries excitedly in English, going into the water.
Unable to speak in Nivish, Tulip looks at her owner and points to Margaret in the water. Lioslay understands their pet and carries her into the water to play with Margaret.
The girls play happily in the water. Margaret wanted to play tag, but can't explain how to play to the aliens. Lioslay must hold onto Tulip to keep her safe, so the girls simply play happily in the water.
After letting the pets play for about an hour, the Nividians decide to eat lunch together. Lioslay takes Tulip to the pet changing area to change her out of her swimsuit and into a pretty red dress. Quigor picks up Margaret and follows Lioslay into the changing room with her. Margaret independently puts on her yellow dress with a daisy pattern on it. The aliens are able to easily enter or exit the forcefield.
"Good girl, Margaret!" Quigor says, carefully putting their pet's leash back on her.
Margaret is led to an outdoor seating area where pets are allowed as long as they are kept on leashes. Lioslay asks Quigor if they will hold Tulip while they go to request highchairs for her and Margaret.
Quigor agrees and ties Margaret's leash to the table leg before being handed tulip. Lioslay goes to procure the highchairs and Margaret quickly unties her leash. She starts excitedly exploring the area.
"Margaret, stay!" Quigor commands. Their hands are full with Tulip, but they quickly realize she can't go anywhere so they carefully set her down on the thick purple plants, making sure to keep her face out of the plants. They then quickly capture Margaret.
"Margaret, stay! Stay friend Tulip! Margaret Tulip lunch. Stay!" Quigor commands, leading their pet back to Tulip.
"Margaret play!" Margaret insists.
"No play Margaret! Margaret stay lunch!" Quigor says angrily to their pet, trying to hold onto her leash and hold Tulip up at the same time. Unable to sit up by herself, Tulip had been laying on the plants while Quigor captured Margaret.
"Do you want to play outside Margaret?" Tulip asks her friend in English.
"I just wanted to look around. I wasn't going to run away. Why can't you sit up?" Margaret asks.
"I don't know. I've just always been like this. I don't mind. I'm used to it," Tulip explains slowly and carefully to her new friend.
Looking around, Quigor locates a timeout pen for their naughty pet. They very gently lay Tulip down while they pick up Margaret and place her in the timeout pen. Then they quickly go over to Tulip and pick her up and hold her. Tulip wishes she could speak Nivish, but the language is far too difficult for her to pronounce, although she understands most of the words in Nivish.
Quigor can see that Tulip is upset about her friend being in timeout. They pet her softly and speak reassuringly to her. "It's okay, Tulip. Margaret's okay," Quigor says gently, not knowing how much of this situation Tulip understands.
Lioslay returns carrying the food and two folded highchairs for the pet humans. They set the food on the table and set up the highchairs for the pets.
"Thank you for watching Tulip," Lioslay says, carefully taking her from Quigor and placing her very gently in a highchair. Then they notice Margaret in timeout. "What has she done wrong?" They ask.
"She untied her leash and tried to run off. I'm curious about this pretty human you have here. Is she able to speak Nivish?" They ask.
"I see. Some of these pets can be very curious, and don't understand the danger in wandering off. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that with Tulip," Lioslay says while setting the food out. "Tulip was born with a disability which makes it so she cannot sit up on her own or walk. It also makes it harder for her to speak. She's able to speak to the other humans in their language, but she isn't able to speak in our language. I believe our language is too difficult for her to pronounce. As you know, no one has been able to translate the human's language, but Tulip does have a simple book (A Nividian book, with miniature toy figurines.) with words for her toys, cup, highchair, potty, bed, and a few other things which she uses to communicate with me. She simply picks up the symbol and hands it to me to make her request. She's very good at it," explains Lioslay.
"Very intriguing. How does she ask you to come to her?" Quigor asks, picking Margaret up out of timeout and carefully placing her in the other highchair. Quigor is very interested in pet humans and finds this topic fascinating.
" I have a recording for her to press witch says the word 'come' which I taught her how to use," Lioslay explains while putting applesauce in a bowl for Tulip to eat.
"How long have you had her and where did you get her?" Quigor asks, handing Margaret a bowl of applesauce to eat. Margaret is thrilled to finally have "real food" to eat! She happily starts eating right away. Tulip also happily eats, glad her friend is back. Her bowl is brought along from home and has a pad on the bottom of it to prevent it from sliding around when she tries to eat. Her plates have that too, and her cups have lids and straws. The aliens eat stuffed petal balls with a type of grain for lunch.
"I got Tulip when she was sixteen, and she is twenty four now. I got her from her owner, who had a family of pet humans. (Pet humans who are born on Nividar are required by law to be able to live with their parents until they are at least sixteen, because humans have a very long childhood and close family bonds. This also avoids upsetting the human children and parents. Also, the human families stay in touch even after the children are bought. It is required by Nividian law that bred pet humans must be able to visit parents and immediate family at least once a month for a full day as long as thier parents and immediate family are still alive. A formal record is kept of the dates the pets visit their family to be sure this law is enforced. This law does not apply to pet humans like Emily and Margaret, who were captured directly from Earth. It only applies to humans born on Nividar. There is a system set in place for pet humans who want to have children to date and marry. Married pets are under a type of shared ownership between the pet's original owners from before they were married. Humans have been studied carefully and this has been determined the best wasy to raise them and the least stressful for this type of pet. It is very similar to how humans raise children on Earth. It is also highly recommended to allow the pet humans to speak to each other on their owner's device or with a special device designed for pet humans. Almost all of the Nividians gladly accept and obey these laws. Almost all of the Nividian owners firmly agree that this is what is best for their pet humans.) her owner was looking for someone willing to care for a handicapped pet. (It is against the law on Nividar to euthanize pet humans unless they are actually in the process of dying already.) Tulip makes such a sweet pet. I love having her and it isn't any trouble to care for her," Lioslay explains.
"I'm so glad you took her. She seems so happy with you. I think you're doing a wonderful job," says Quigor, feeding the humans ravioli for lunch after they have finished their applesauce. They are both given water to drink. "Where did you get this food for them? All I've been able to find for Margaret here is wet and dry human food and she hates it and I have to force-feed her," asks Quigor.
"I brought it along from Nividar for Tulip to eat. She doesn't like the wet and dry pet human food either. She has cried before and spit it out when I've tried to feed it to her," Lioslay explains.
The aliens and pets happily finish their lunch. Quigor and Lioslay exchange contact information so that the pets can visit each other and play together again as Margaret does with Emily.
After lunch, Quigor has Margaret use the bathroom and then puts her leash on her to take her back to their room. The aliens bid each other farewell.
"Margaret come play Tulip?" Margaret asks in Nivish.
"Yes, Margaret play Tulip," Quigor says kindly, leading Margaret back to the room they are staying in.
Margaret does well on the walk home. She is finally getting used to her surroundings.
Margaret falls asleep in her cage soon after she is placed inside it and doesn't wake up until evening. She then plays with her pony blocks and refuses to eat her dry human food which is in her bowl. She had been so happy to be given ravioli to eat at lunch.
Quigor eats their supper while Margaret is asleep. They carefully pack her up to feed her about an hour after she awakens from her nap. Margaret starts crying and it takes a while to feed her.
"Good girl, Margaret," Quigor says, gently petting her before carefully placing her in her cage for the night. Margaret plays until bedtime. She has an entire village built for the ponies by now. It has houses and shops and a playground.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading Special Pet! Please consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed the story.