Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

[puppy_fair]

"Um."

When Zack came in to the shelter this morning, it looked as though the vet on staff had already taken steps to try to nip in the bud some of the ill-advised Easter animal adoptions that had led to them having to put an entire chicken enclosure up on the roof. The usual puppy pen had been repurposed, and several fully grown chickens were pecking and scratching away at some hay that the vet had thrown down right onto the floor.

There was a sign on the pen. Do You Want To Keep These?

And then, beside the pen, one of the larger tanks was set up with a heating lamp to keep the handful of baby chicks within nice and cozy. The sign on the tank? Because That's What These Grow Up Into.

And then, off to the side, another sign standing there on its own. And No, You Can't Have A Rabbit Until NEXT Week.

Which was all fine and good, but what was Zack supposed to do about puppy playtime today?

... If anybody came to Furnado today, Zack would be outside with a good half dozen puppies at a time, taking advantage of Girl's shephering instincts to keep them all from wandering into the road while they got their daily exercise. If you wanted to see a good time, come and witness puppies' first snow.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[intraspective]

Ino… was…

Okay, Ino was maybe a bit resentful that Zack had cheerfully taken Girl and left for work and all that hideous snow. Ino was not leaving the Boards. It helped that the heat was back—thank all the gods—but hahahaha, nope, Ino was not leaving and Ino was going to stay buried under about a billion blankets and sulk the day away.

Silly was hers and all but Silly wasn’t very good at the warm cuddling thing. Stupid Zack.

Stupid weather.

Maybe she’d write up a petition to move the Turks to Costa del Sol permanently.

She’d be down with that.

First, though, she was going to send a petulant text to Zack:

You owe me a new space heater!

Look, she'd been born and raised in Fire Country. She was being totally reasonable. Girl had been so good for heat and Zack had taken her!

[puppy_fair]

Hey, now. Zack had been born and raised in Gongaga. If it wasn't for the SOLDIER program, he'd be right there with her, huddled under the blankets and hissing out at the snow. So he understood, even if it wasn't an issue for him these days.

Well. He didn't understand all of it. He blinked at his phone while the puppies romped around underfoot, and then sent her a return text.

A space heater? What?

Did they even own one of those?

[intraspective]

Ino had been more supportive of snow, once upon a time. That time was before she'd been trapped at Icicle and then flown her way over an ocean in the winter though.

Now, though... hissing at the weather was pretty darn accurate.

They owned Girl, duh, Zack.

Girl! You stole her!

[puppy_fair]

... She's my dog, Ino.

He couldn't steal his own dog, duh. He reached up and scratched the back of his head now, thoroughly puzzled.

She was keeping you warm?

[intraspective]

Actually, legally, she was both of theirs. Given what name Ino had purchased her under.

She was... just going to skip over that though.

She's warm and snuggly and it's awful out!

Ino was not being the most reasonable today, no.

I demand puppies as recompense.

[puppy_fair]

Zack had yet to look at that paperwork! Which was probably for the best. There would be questions if he did.

Puppies?

He was blinking again.

I mean, I have lots of puppies. How serious are you?

[intraspective]

Yeah, that was why she was side-stepping his claim to the dog.

I'm cold! I'm trapped inside! Silly isn't much of a heater!

She was pretty serious.

You can have them back when it's warmer.

She didn't want to keep them though.

[puppy_fair]

Huh. Zack blinked down at the puppies.

I guess getting them out of the shelter before the Easter rush wouldn't be a bad idea, anyway. One or two?

[intraspective]

Ino contemplated her situation and her feelings.

All of them.

ALL THE PUPPIES.

[puppy_fair]

Zack blinked. And then he looked at Girl. And then he looked at the puppies.

We have a dozen in right now, you know.

THAT WAS A LOT OF PUPPIES.

[intraspective]

I'll take them!

Ino was not in the mood for reasonable! She wasn't! She wanted cuddles!

[puppy_fair]

"Uhhhh."

Okay, I'll bring... all the puppies home after work, then.

This was going to be an endeavor. They were going to have to get the vets to help.

[intraspective]

Well, he could say no.

He really could.

YES! You are mostly forgiven!

[puppy_fair]

He could! But who in their right mind would say no to having a dozen puppies? Right?

I can live with mostly forgiven! I promise when the weather is nicer I won't beg to be allowed to keep them.

He had Girl. Girl was enough.

[intraspective]

Girl had better be enough!

I'm going to hold you to that promise, Ino said, feeling a little less sulky. I don't want them for forever.

[puppy_fair]

The timing actually really works, Zack offered. We're getting into the 'stop bringing animals home for the holidays' part of the spring again. Best way to not have to deal with animal returns is to not have them here to adopt in the first place.

So her sulking was doing them a favor, really!

[intraspective]

She squinted at Zack's message. She was pretty sure it was the first time her being unreasonable to this extent helped out at all.

Why is that a... thing?

[puppy_fair]

People seem to think it's a really sweet gesture to give somebody a cute baby animal for the holidays. Puppies, kittens... This time of year it's bunnies and baby chickens. But then they grow up and they aren't as cute, or it turns out that animals take work, or the person they gave them to just wasn't prepared for a pet in the first place, and then the animals need to go somewhere else. Hopefully usually to us. Sometimes they just get put outside.

People were depressing. Zack... wished he was surprised.

It's why we have so many chickens here.

[intraspective]

Ino thought about that a bit.

She didn't want to live with a pile of chickens.

You know, bet if we asked Jono, we could store 'em all on the stage until the holiday has passed.

[puppy_fair]

What, the bunnies and chickens and things?

Zack was now picturing the vets coming into a music store in order to feed and check up on the poultry.

[intraspective]

I mean, it'd keep them from being sold and returned or abandoned...?

The stage, Zack! Not the actual store part of the Boards.

[puppy_fair]

You don't suppose the music in the other room might upset them?

Zack was dubious. The space sounded good, but that was a music store right there, after all.

[intraspective]

I don't know how loud it'd be? We could test that when you bring the puppies home? Not with the puppies, but I can turn music on and you can gauge if it's too loud or something?

Ino didn't know a lot about animals. Silly just kind of hung out with her and they did their thing together.

I'd have to ask Jono anyway. But I've needed to talk to him for a while--so this just gives me an extra excuse.

[puppy_fair]

It might be okay for a few of the less flighty animals, actually... go ahead and ask him, then let me know how it goes?

Because the vet staff would walk through fire to make sure the more frightened animals wouldn't go home for a holiday anyway, but the really friendly ones would be harder to keep people from insisting they get a chance at.

[intraspective]

I can do that!

Ino hummed a little.

I might even brave the cold to do that.