fandomtownies | Furnado Animal Shelter; Monday [05/10].

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Furnado Animal Shelter; Monday [05/10].

The last two days of getting here and attempting to get settled were a lot, it was true, but getting to Monday and making her way across the island to the animal shelter where she'd be working as part of her training program in coming to this school made it all worth it to Sakaki. Well, traveling in a bunny bus and getting to have an owl for a roommate was pretty amazing, too, but this....this was the whole reason she'd come so far in the first place and she was nervous and excited all at once to get started.

The vet was very patient with her in explaining everything and what would be expected of her even though she was clearly distracted by all the animals surrounding here with barely contained elation. But it all seemed fairly straight-forward and easy enough, and the vet would be teaching her all about caring for them and helping to maintain the shelter in her time here, and everything seemed like it was going exceptionally well and this would be a brilliant, useful, educational experience for Sakaki that would help her get ahead in her future career pursuits.

And then....there were the cats.

...let's just say it was a good thing that the vet was just as well versed in human first-aid as she was for all the other different animals under her care!

Furnado is open!

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Travis was finally putting his money where his mouth was and looking into getting himself a dog.

When he was done frowning at the poor bandaged girl working at the shelter, anyway. The bandages were clearly professionally done, but his first responder instincts were in high slavery anyway.

“Hey,” he said, slightly belatedly. “I’m here to look at some dogs?”

There was a good chance anyone coming into the shelter while Sakaki was here would never actually see her without bandages everywhere.

But at least this time hadn't necessitated her arm in a sling, despite the number of cats in the place, who were at least now giving her a wide breadth, which meant that Sakaki herself was giving them wistful, longing looks whenever she could.

She was a little surprised that someone had come in, though, especially since she'd gotten the impression that this place was usually pretty quiet except when people with pets went on vacation and needed a kennel or they were picking up supplies for said pets. She instinctively went to turn toward the vet as if she should probably handle this rather than the girl who had literally just gotten here, but she seemed otherwise preoccupied.

"Ahhh," she turned back toward the man looking for the dog, and she nodded. "Yes. We have dogs. Many of them." She gestured a little stiffly and uncertainly toward the puppy pen where all of them were categorically killing her slowly with all of their cuteness. "Would you like to have a look?"

That all sounded very right and professional, didn't it? Like she actually had a clue of what she was doing? It was only her first day! She could absolutely do this professionally!

“I would, thanks.” She seemed a little stiff, so Travis gave her a smile. “None of these little guys is responsible for, uh, all that,” he gestured to the bandages, “are they?”

They were clearly fresh bandages, after all.

"Mmm?" Sakaki blinked a little in confusion for a moment, as if she'd already forgotten about the bandages, despite how fresh they were, and her wrapped hand gingerly lifted to her cheek. Then she shook her head, dropping her hand again. "Oh. No. That was...the cats."

Dogs had never been an issue for her, actually, and had been an absolute delight so far. The only reason she wasn't still sitting in the puppy pen just petting one of them was because she actually had work to do, and there would hopefully be plenty of time for that later.

She then turned toward the puppy pen and gave a small gesture for the man to follow her that way. "They're all over here," she explained, focusing hard on sounding professional and like she knew what she was talking about, although there really wasn't a whole lot to mess up, "so they have plenty of space to run around and play. Were you looking for any kind of dog in particular?"

“Well, I work at the fire station,” Travis said. “So one that might be a good worker dog?”

"Fire...station?"

....

No, Sakaki. Getting a classic red fire fighter helmet and trying it on all the dogs to see which one looked the cutest with it on was not a proper method of determining which one would be best suited for the job.

And not just because decided which was cutest was impossible because they would all be cute, either!

Still..she was going to need a moment now that it was in her head, yes. If she was alone, she would have buried her face in her hands, but since she couldnt' do that with someone around her when she was supposed to be working, her face just flared red for a moment while she tried to contain her urge to melt down with adorable overload.

She turned her head to focus on the dogs that were all eagerly bouncing over to see who was coming to visit.

"We have a dalmation," she offered, gesturing to that particular dog in case the man missed it.

Was that just a stereotype? That fire fighters had dalmations? Should she have suggested something else? It would be so cute, though! Especially if he had a hat!

"You do," Travis agreed. He'd spotted that one pretty quick. He wasn't sure what all the blushing was about, but it wasn't exactly the first time he'd watched a teenager blush over the idea of firemen in general, so he let it slide without comment. "Do you know why dalmations are associated with fire houses?"

Sakaki shook her head.

"Do you?" she asked, her eyes going a little bit wide at the possibility of learning something new about animals.

"I do," Travis said. "My old captain was a veritable fountain of random firefighter facts. They're runners, bred to help manage and protect cart and carriage horses. So back when fire engines were horse-drawn and didn't have sirens, dalmations would run along side the horses, clearing a path and letting people know the engine was coming."

They...

They would...

Sakaki stared. The red across her face burned even brighter, and she should have known better. She really should have known better, because now all she was thinking about were all these good boys sprinting alongside horses pulling fire engines and nudging unsuspecting people on the street out of the way so that they could pass through. They were heroes, really, not only saving people from being trampled but also probably saving people in the fire by allowing them to get through faster...!

Sakaki couldn't take it anymore. She had to lift her hands, covering her face for a moment, which she lowered, because that was the only way to prevent herself from bursting.

She could do this. She could do this. Focus on the job, Sakaki, think about helping this nice fire fighter find a good dog to help him save people from fires and from getting trampled.

She lowered her hands a moment later, letting out a breath, but she kept them close and tucked to her chest just in case they were needed again. Which they probably would be.

"I noticed the streets here," she tried, "are too narrow for cars, so you probably don't have a large fire engine here, either, is that right? So a good runner would still be important. Especially...especially with all these stairs."

She took long enough for Travis to start to wonder if she was okay.

"Um," he said. "Well, we do have a siren. And people are actually really good at clearing out of the way around here," he said, almost feeling bad for not really needing a horse-managing dog. "But I will need a dog who's smart and energetic. Maybe one that's good at carrying and heights?"

He imagined a dog more helping kids down the fire ladder or helping stabilize the hose, really.

Which were also things that would not help Sakaki out in any of this, either!

She considered the dogs again, this time with 'strength' as a possible consideration, which illimnated quite a few of the smaller ones right out the gate, no matter how cute it was thinking of these little tiny pups attempting to haul big giant buckets of water practically twice their size it may be.

"So one of the bigger ones," she decided, with a little bit of a rush of something like happiness that it wasn't going to be about just who was the cutest after all, as someone who would never win anything if it came down to cuteness, but strength? Strength she could do something with, and she suddenly felt an outpouring of even more affection for some of the bigger dogs that might be overlooked because they weren't conventionally adorable.

She wished she knew the dogs better, or at least well enough to know which ones would wind up the smart, strong dog that he'd need, and figured she might as well admit as much.

"I don't really know them yet, though," she said, turning an almost apologetic look toward Travis. "It's only my first day."

"That's alright," Travis said, reassuring her out of the same habit he'd mentioned to Wanda at the picnic. If you weren't outright doing something stupid the first time he met you, his instinct was to make you feel better. "You're doing great. Let's see." He headed to the puppy pen and crouched down, letting the animals come up to greet him as they would. "We don't want anyone too shaggy. That could be a fire hazard, which would be very sad." He ran his hand over what looked like it might be a sheepdog mix. "Sorry, buddy. No one wants this fluff catching fire. He looked up at Sakaki again. "Maybe a pitbull or a lab?"

Sakaki gave the sheepdog mix a sympathetic sort of look, deciding to maybe give him an extra treat later and reassure him how much prettier his fur was when it wasn't on fire...and then have to fight very hard to not want to just take him home with her instead.

She then looked over the other dogs, over to where a pitbull and a lab just so conveniently seemed to be playing together, fighting over one of those chewing ropes. She tilted her head as she watched to see if that would answer their question about strength and, sure enough, one of them managed to overpower the other, the pitbull reigning victorious and prancing off to chew on his prize over in a secluded corner of the pen.

The lab was much more adorable, especially as it took a moment to let out a little howl of disappointment over having lost the rope..and promptly getting distracted by her own tail, which probably didn't help her much in the 'smart' category.

"That one seems strong," she offered, pointing out the victorious pitbull.

She honestly thought he looked a little scary, too, but that didn't seem very professional to mention.

Pitbulls got a bad rap that way.

"They do, don't they," Travis said, watching the pup enjoy their rope. "C'mere, bud," he called, wiggling his fingers in the pitbull's direction.

Several dogs answered him. Including the pittie, who looked like they were guarding their rope preciously.

And Sakaki, leaning in a little, was going to watch to see what happened next with eyes wide and bated breath, because this was usually the moment when things turn a drastic and dangerous turn in her experience, at least when it came to cats, but she'd also never quite experienced a flock of dogs like this the way she had with cats, and she didn't know what sort of luck this firefighter would have when it came to animals, either.

It was hard to imagine anyone with worse luck, though.

Travis laughed as some of the puppies swarmed into his lap. “Friendly bunch, aren’t you.” He scooped off a dachshund and set it aside. “I was hoping to meet this little guy, though.” He eyed the pittie. “Girl? Guy?” He gently took the pittie by the forelegs, making soothing noises when it balked, and checked their belly. “Girl.” He set her legs back down and let her sniff his hand. “How you doing, sweetie? Good rope?”

Travis did enjoy a good dog, yes. He couldn’t keep one at his old firehouse, and his schedule was too crazy to leave one home alone all the time, though.

Sakaki was sort of boggling, looking between Travis and the dogs as if he was some sort of canine whisperer, as if she couldn't imagine this situation panning out like it was, without anyone even needing so much as a bandage, and it was fascinating and almost a little magical.

She almost considered picking up the dachshund that got set aside, but she didn't dare risk it by spoiling an otherwise ~~perfectly normal~~ amazing situation.

"I think she likes you," Sakaki noted, in awe.

Imagine an animal (that wasn't stuffed) actually liking you!

“Yeah?” Travis shot her a quick smile, but was immediately distracted by the little pitbull licking his cheek. “You might be right. What do you think, probie? You got what it takes to be a fire dog?”

The puppy, who was about two seconds from being named “Probie” for life, started wrestling for the rope again with the sheepdog pup.

Sakaki herself was about two seconds away from suggesting they get a fire helmet for her to try on just to make sure (and, really, professionalism aside, that really did seem like a valid metric for this sort of thing!), but, despite desperately wanting to witness such a thing with her own two eyes, what she actually said was, "I can go ask about the paperwork. In the meantime, you can maybe get to know her a little better or perhaps see if anyone else might be a good fit."

"Thanks," Travis told her. "I was about to ask if you all needed references or anything. I'll just keep these pups company."

"I'm...not sure," Sakaki admitted, because, again, it was only her first day. "But I'll find out."

And, with that, and quite a bit of reluctance because she did like watching the dogs interact with people and with each other, she went to go track down the vet to find out.

...and hopefully would not encounter any of the cats on her way.

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Furnado Animal Shelter; Monday [05/10].

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