Fandom Island and Town

It was Sakaki's last week here on the island; she'd be graduating at the end of it, and then she'd be heading back home for the summer before returning for veterinary school out in California, and it was a little bittersweet. Admittedly, she wasn't probably going to miss many of her classmates much; her shyness and general awkwardness left her not making many friends among her peers. But she would miss all of the animals at the shelter. She had the vet's email, too, so they could keep in touch, but she'd admit, she was still quite a bit intimidated by Sidon, so she probably wouldn't miss him much, either. She did think that everyone she worked with in the future would be rather boring and dull compared to him, though, but that was okay. That was more along her lines.

So she made sure the first aid kits were well-stocked and ready, because she was definitely going to be spending today and subsequent days to follow just saying goodbye to all the animals. Most of them should be fine, but she had a feeling the cats would be making the most out of their last chances to show their affection with all their bites, scratches, headbutts, and other acts of feline violence.

She really was going to miss them, and, though cats in Japan had been the same way, she sort of hoped cats in California might be a bit more....accepting.

Furnado is open!

Sakaki had felt terribly nervous and distracted all last week, and it looked like it was bleeding into this week, too, but could anyone really blame her? She should be hearing back from the veterinary schools she applied to any day now, and it was nerve-wracked, thinking that she might not get into any of them. She had her preferences, too; she'd like to go to a school out in California, which...really, when you were flying or portaling, distance didn't make that much of a difference, but it would be nice to be closer to home while still being in America, although she would be pretty thrilled to be accepted into a Japanese school, too, and get to be with her friends more. There were a lot of possibilities, though, and not knowing was making her nervous and distracted.

She was trying to focus, then, on some studying and research, but she wasn't making a lot of progress. Thankfully, all the animals provided some cuteness as a distraction when she really needed it, even the cats, but that was mostly just because she was definitely keeping her distance.

Furnado is open!

Hopefully, no one had any pressing business at the animal shelter that day, that would require assistance from more than just the vet, because one of the cats, apparently, had decided to use one of the dogs as her own personal bed, and so now Sakaki was rendered completely useless.

There was a chance she might snap out of it if something showed up to distract her, but this was a lot for her to process at the moment, and almost made her want to immediately rush to portalocity for a portal back home to have Maya do the same with Tadakichi-san STAT.

Furnado is open!

Sakaki already had a particular weakness for cats, everybody knew that. But when that cat was a kitten, it was especially difficult for her to not completely lose herself in the adorableness, and when that kitten was engaged in standing with its paws on a potato and meowing at her imploringly, she was practically gone from this world.

Where did it get a potato? Who even knew? Did it matter? And why did it have a potato? She knew from her studies that raw potatoes were very toxic to cats, so she was going to risk the few scratches and the solid chomp she knew she would inspire by doing so, but the retrieved the potato, considered it thoughtfully, and then turned to figure out how to go about peeling and cooking the potato for the poor cat.

There were probably better uses of her time, sure, but when a kitten has a potato....

Furnado is open!

The rabbits? Were being a real problem that Monday.

The vet had helpfully (?) pointed out to Sakaki that it was just around the time for their mating season to begin, sure, but it looks like they were really trying to get the most out of it. Sakaki was trying her best not to be flustered by all of this, and the vet kindly suggested that perhaps she use this as an opportunity to learn more about the baby rabbits they were bound to be flooded with next month and the process of birthing and taking care of them.

Oddly enough, this was not actually helping much.

Furnado is open!

In addition to cleaning all the fish tanks on Friday, it seemed that Sidon had also gone through the trouble of setting up a nice new feeding area for the cats of the shelter, employing some very cute and very practical raised bowls, which would lead to nice, neat, and organized feeding times and Sakaki was really looking forward to seeing them all chomping down in their respective spots.

Of course (once she'd managed to survive the terrifying gauntlet that was the death-defying moment before pouring the food and getting out of the cats' way), because they were cats, this was not how it worked out at all.

Sakaki considered trying to step in and showing them that there was a better way to go about this, but after a second thought, she realized she, for the sake of her hands, should just stay out of it.

Furnado is open!

For the most part, Sakaki liked to think that she had made a lot of really great strides, in her time of working here at the animal shelter, in being able to control herself around cute things. More often than not, she could work through the urge to just slip into a state of comatose squee enough to take care of what needed to be done around Furnado: feeding the animals, cleaning their spaces, taking care of various scrapes and scraps, putting things away, updating files and what have you.

But then something happened like having to admit at new animal that tested the very limits of this progress she had made, and, this week, that was coming in the form of a little fluffball known as a red Cantonese bear dog.

The vet had made a comment of how she didn't actually think they were real, that it was just an internet hoax, and honestly? Sakaki's life would have been a whole lot easier if that were true, because then she wouldn't feel like she was slowly dying every time it looked up and waved that little stub tail of his. She was having serious doubts about being able to survive until the end of the day.

Furnado is open!

Today was Sakaki's first day back at the shelter after having gone home for the winter break, and, of course, she'd brought back little treats for all of the animals, so most of her day on Monday was spent going around, distributing them, catching up on how they were all doing (and going over some files with the vet about some of the pets who may have had some issues over those weeks, to learn more about their care and treatment), and generally just feeling glad to be back.

Of course, the cats didn't immediately take to her gift-giving positively, but Maya was there to do the round with her and protect her, which kept the injuries....to a minimum. She had not managed to go through the gauntlet completely unscathed, but it had been far less worse than it could have been. There had even been a little bit of a scrap and tumble so that even Maya had to relieve a little bit of some treatment, but he did so with all the assurances of how brave and valiant he'd been, words of praise that he clearly took to heart with the way he strutted around the shelter importantly for the rest of the day.

Furnado is open!

The vet had been seeing something floating around the internet and social media of various shelters having a sort of "Pet of the Week" board, where there was not only a pet of the week position for an animal that had done particularly well, but also a naughty pet of the week for one who had behaved particularly poorly. Sakaki liked the idea behind the first part, but she didn't like the idea of calling out bad behavior in the animals and shaming them like that, and her concerns about the project were just compounded when she came in and saw this week's board for the cats specifically.

"If we put cats on the naughty list for biting us," she pointed out, "we'd have to put all the cats on the naughty list."

To which the vet responded by just handing a sharpie marker over to Sakaki and telling her she better get to work, then.

But Sakaki couldn't do it. She just couldn't bring herself to put any cat on the naughty list, and, in fact, tearfully wiped Leo's name off the naughty side and proceeded to put every cat in the store on the Pet of the Week good side.

The vet was still recovering from the holiday party that weekend to really care too much, either.

Furnado is open!

Okay, Sakaki really did appreciate all the hard work that went into giving some of the dogs who were willing and eager a variety of adorable turkey costumes, but she was much less certain about how she felt about the turkey hats on the cats.

But she supposed she should try to see the cuteness in them, because it wasn't like any of the cats would let her get close enough to remove the hats without suffering some serious consequences.

And then she was mildly disturbed that it was kind of making her a little hungry. She didn't even like turkey! She wasn't even American (despite Osaka's claims to the contrary due to Sakaki's...erm...size)! She should not be getting hungry over this! But maybe she could run out and get some snacks to help with that.

Furnado is open!

Sakaki was very surprised and even a little bit shocked to come into the shelter today to find that the place was absolutely littered with what looked like bottles and cans of various alcoholic beverages. Did the animals have a party over the weekend? How could Sidon and the vet allow such a thing? She may just be a fledgling veterinary students, but she knew enough to know that drinking and partying was not good for dogs and cats, let alone all the other animals like birds and lizards and fish!

Of course, her anger and mortification made way for sheepish embarrassment once Sakaki picked up one of the cans to discovered it was just some sort of plush toy.

Cheeks blazing pink, she sulkily went to clean them all up. True, they weren't really drinking and partying all weekend, but they could have at least tidied up a little after they were done!

Furnado is open!

Sakaki was all in bandages and slings at Furnado again, but it had been entirely worth it.

She just felt a little bad, you see, that the puppies got all the love and attention this weekend for that birthday party, and so she wanted to make sure the kittens and cats were compensated by holding a party of their own.

The party itself was mostly successful. She set out all sorts of toys and treats and decorated some of their favorite cat towers and places to lounge, and most of them were just happy to get extra treats today, to terrorize some of the streamers and balloons, or completely ignore everything all together. Most of the problems came when Sakaki tried to give them adorable birthday hats like she'd seen on the puppies, and that....they were absolutely not having that.

Maya obliged, though, because Maya was perfect, and so at least Sakaki could soothe her wounds with the adorable balm that was her own cat.

Furnado is open!

One of the cats was a little under the weather that day, which made Sakaki feel absolutely heartbroken, but it was a good, rare opportunity for her to spend a little time with the vet doing actual veterinarian work, which was the whole reason she was here, after all.

Almost as heartbreaking was the fact that, despite being sick, the cat in question still decided that the whole of her checkup was going to be conducted with her teeth sunk painfully into Sakaki's hand. But it allowed the vet to do what she needed to do, so she was just going to brace herself against the pain until she was finished, and then allow the vet to check up on her once they finally managed to pry the cat off of her.

So it was with a very bandaged and cradled hand that she attempted to go about the rest of her day, but she did so with a bright smile on her face, because the cat in question was already clearly feeling better, and that was what mattered, in the end.

Furnado is open!

Unbeknownst to Sakaki, people weren't the only ones talking like a pirate that day, which meant she was in for quite the surprise to come into the shelter that morning with Maya and discover that all the other cats were not only very vocal in their meowing today, but also doing it while dressed up in little pirate hats and a few eyepatches, having commandeered a few pirate-themed playsets for themselves.

Thankfully, thanks to Maya's vigilant presence and protection, she was saved from the inevitably very violent uprising when the cats thought of trying to mutiny on the counterspace, but he kept them bravely at bay, and she could just enjoy the pirate antics for the adorable adventure that they were.

Well, until they tried to actually sail in the fish tanks, anyway.

Furnado is open!

A new postcard had arrived from the traveling frog band, which was kind of a relief, if Sakaki was honest. They hadn't sent anything for a while, so she was a little worried that something had happened to them, but it looked as though they were fine, they just got distracted by the Great Lakes when they went up to Chicago (which was where the postcard was from) and they were now trying to put together a sort of blues set. Sakaki didn't really know much about music, though, so she was just glad they were safe and doing well and added the postcard to the board (which had been cleaned up nicely and smartly by Sidon, and she did not plan to touch it beyond adding postcards, because she's probably only make it terrible again).

Then she got to work, but she was a little distracted, still wondering if she should plan a trip home before the start of the next semester. It would be nice to see everyone, and Chiyo-chan had said something about everyone taking a trip Okinawa, which did sound like it could be a lot of fun.... And of course Chiyo-chan offered to help cover some of the cost of it for her, which was very nice of her, but then Sakaki would feel bad about taking her up on it...

She had some time to decide, at least, but it definitely had her distracted throughout the day, even when the cats were doing something particularly cute that would have usually snapped her attention right up.

Furnado is open!

Oh no.

Furnado now had banana beds. And if it weren't for the ones that were open clearly housing sleeping cats and dogs when Sakaki came in that morning, there was also the fact that some of them were closed, and, by peeling them open, she would discover all manner of other adorable critters slumbering away inside.

It was almost too much to handle.

It definitely made it worth the few times she peeled one away to reveal a cat inside who let it be known, very aggressively, that it did not appreciate being disturbed.

She was definitely leaving the shelter that day bandaged up, as usual, but she would also be toting back several of those bed for some of her plushies.

Furnado is open!

Sakaki had been tasked to decorate the billboard behind the counter tracking the sure-to-be meteoric rise to fame of the Traveling Furnado Frog Band across the country (and possibly across the world!), which she was very excited about, because she had a lot of ideas and was hoping to make the board as cute and adorable as possible.

Of course, Sakaki was completely devoid of any artistic talent whatsoever, so while the vision in her head involved a lot of adorable drawings of frogs playing instruments and some well-placed ribbons and bunting in various shades of green and white with a little touch of yellow here and there, the drawings were almost indecipherable and the attempted ribbons ended up looking like all of the puppies had not only pounced on all the materials and ripped them to shreds, but quite possibly also ate them up and promptly regurgitated them back up onto the board.

It was honestly a complete disaster, and Sakaki was stuck between wanting to feel proud that she'd at least tried or wanting to cry over how horrible it was to look at.

And attempting to to fix it, somehow, seemed to just make it worse.

At this point, they might be better off just burning it with fire.

Furnado is open!

It would seem that this weekend had been a very big one for the frogs, as what started as just one adorable frog playing a keyboard had grown into something much, much larger. Sakaki still didn't know how they'd managed to procure such small instruments, much less figure out how to play them, but she also didn't know how they actually managed to get out of the tank and were now marching around the shelter, in their full frog band glory.

She was positive that stranger things had definitely happened, and, honestly, it was both fascinating and kind of adorable, so the only thing she really needed to worry about was making sure that the cats didn't try to break up the band in any truly horrific way.

Furnado is open!

It seemed like a pretty quiet, chill day at the animal shelter that Monday. The light rain throughout the day seemed to put most of the animals in a quiet, lethargic state, with plenty of lounging around and slumbering in adorable puppy piles, and, once Sakaki was able to get over the nearly incapacitating swells of emotion over how adorable it was that one of the kittens was using one of the larger puppies as a mattress, she was able to focus on getting some of her pre-vet course work done in relative peace and quiet.

Because it was so quiet, though, she was able to pick up on a strange, unexpected sound. It was so faint she was pretty sure she'd imagined it at first, or perhaps there was some ad playing on the computer that she hadn't noticed, but, no, it wasn't coming from the computer. It was coming from somewhere in the shelter, and so curious...and definitely a little nervous...she went to go investigate.

The investigation took her quite some time until she finally managed to locate where it was the loudest, and that was over by the amphibian tanks. Frowning, she tilted her head, straining her ears, and seemed to narrow down the general vicinity to one of the tanks in particular, and, peering in...Her eyes widened.

Sitting on a lilypad inside the little pond in his carefully curated by a fellow amphibian was the tiniest frog. And that frog? Was playing a keyboard.

Sakaki's heart may be in need of some medical attention.

Furndao is open!

The humble staff at Furnado Animal Shelter weren't about to just go and assume that, just because it was World Turtle Day, it was the birthday of every turtle they had in their care, but they would be pretty remiss to completely ignore it. Their approach, while still celebratory, was going to lean more on knowledge and support for turtles around the world, with plenty of literature and information about turtles, taking care of turtles, and what can be done for anyone coming in today.

Sakaki herself was kind of loving it, actually, because she loved learning about animals and she loved turtles, too, so she wanted to make sure she was well-informed and had to remind herself that, no, just because her roommate was gone right now, that did not mean she could use the extra space to fill her room with turtles!

If she even knew that another turtle across the island was getting an adorable little hat right now, though, she would be done for.

Furnado is open!