Housepets! Changing by the Seasons: 1. The Way Back Machine
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:37 am
Hey all! Welcome to the first in my little series of fanfiction stories. For older fans wondering why this now has a tagline to it, I can explain, honest! It was kindly suggested to me that I add something in the title of the story to help newer fans realize that this is in a series. So it's for everyone's convenience that I do such a thing.
Also for the sake of convenience I've decided I'll add links to the sequels right here in this thread!
CbtS: 2. The New Era
In which a certain Gryphon makes his move: Next stop, animal equality.
Enjoy!
Way back Machine
Prologue: Puppy ever after
Jeez how long had it been since I was just a young pup? A pup naive to the wiles of the world. A pup from a more innocent time. From a time when things were, dare I say it, normal. There are so many distant memories now forever harnessed into little photographs. Glued to colorful sheets of scrap-booking paper, placed where they could fit.
It brought a warm smile to my face. These little windows to the past.
The first picture on the page I could never get out out of my head, even if I tried. It had my adoptive parents and myself all together sitting on the front porch of our house. I had to be a brand new adopted puppy in the picture. Already loads of uninhibited trouble and smiles; bundled together into one fluffy package.
Dad was a pet lover, he grew up in a pet friendly household and was by no means a stranger to animals. Mom adored puppies, though had never owned a single pet before then. So when you put two and two together, they wanted a puppy. Dad was always one for puns (we called him “the Pungeon Master”). He worked his magic on coming up with a name.
The two of them settled on "Peanut Butter." Though not without reluctance on mom's part.
"Earl, why does everything have to be a pun?" She said.
"The way I see it, this name was a gift." Dad said. "And by God, I'm going to use it."
My first day as a Sandwich must have been an adventure for my parents. Megatons of pent up puppy energy unleashed into a house that was, for some time, quite puppy-less. These pictures ranged from “Peanut getting flour all over the kitchen,” to “Peanut getting Mom's flowers all over the kitchen.”
Dad told me he wanted pets before kids as "practice." I soiled any notions of children for awhile.
It was just us for a little awhile there. My first home was sort of quaint, but small. Perfect for my parents alone, but add a puppy into the mix and the house shrunk more so.
The first great decision my parents ever made for me had to be moving to Babylon Gardens. I got to see new dogs, smell new smells, smell new dogs. All the while, mom and dad hinted at picking up a new pet.
I met her at the local shelter one day.
Mom and dad decided that I needed someone else my age to tucker out, so they took me to the local shelter and set me loose. The dogs there were not particularly fond of me. Even as a pup I was "different." As in nothing phased me. Every thing I approached I met it with a smile, even if it did not smile back. This was not a popular attitude to have with abandoned pets condemned to a life at the shelter. Grape was one of those at first.
She and I were completely different from the start. The most glaring difference was the fact that she was a cat and I was a dog. Yet there was more to it beneath the species boundary. She was an alley cat. One that had been around the wrong side of town more than twice. Me, well mom adopted me on the spot, and I had yet to experience any worldly harshness. Humans were God to me back then yet they were rarely ever so kind to her.
Yet I recognized she was different. Something stood out about her. Even with our differences, I felt like we somehow shared something. I think deep down inside, we were the same kind of weird.
When it came down to adopting a pet and I wanted Grape. Mom and dad caved in to buying a brand new kitten. That was one way you could tell mom loved me.
Funny enough I thought Grape was a he for the longest time.
I never knew her shelter name (Princess Periwinkle) and dad named her Grape Jelly on the spot. You know considering she was a purple cat and all (where you find those I'm uncertain.). Anyways, Grape was quite the gender-neutral name and she was always tomboyish. She lived a “violence is not an answer, but it helps” life style and boy did she hit hard. Not to mention she had a deep voice for a girl.
Dad made it priority number one to update the scrapbook when we both got home. It was a simple picture of us, me with my dumb smile at the camera, tongue lolling out to the side. Her ears lay flat accompanied by a deer headlight stare.
“Earl are you sure that was a good picture?” I remember Mom asking.
“Of course, it's perfect, our kids are so photogenic.” He sniggered a little as he stowed his camera away.
Grape was an interesting housemate. It took her a long while to warm up to me. In fact it took her a long while to warm up to anything. Pictures of her from the “good ol' days” involved leaning over her food. As if at any given moment someone was going to take it. She even seemed to keep her distance from mom and dad.
But a few pages later and she had already started to warm up.
I chuckled at a small picture captioned “Romeo and Juliet: Imaginate.” It was of me retching after planting a kiss on her cheek. You have to recall I thought she was a guy. Later she blamed me for the whole cat lover thing, but I had no idea what a Shakespeare was until she told me. Not to mention it required me to kiss a cat. At the time I had to be the Juliet character, with all the zany “thees” and “thous,” it blew my puppy mind. Not to mention Juliet, was, well, a girl. She was Romeo. This confused me further.
Though the more I think about it, the less I want to think about us as Romeo and Juliet. That ending is downright depressing.
The years flew by, and we were the best of friends. We never left one another. Well sometimes she did, especially when she wanted a nap. I was never far from finding and waking her. Though that changed when I discovered she was a girl. How I could live with her and never notice is anybody's guess. I think it was pure innocence on my part. I wish I could tell you why I never noticed. In fact hardly anyone ever cared to notice. Such a strange one she was.
Still is actually.
After learning of her true gender, and I being at that age where girls spark a sudden interest. I started seeing her in a new light. At first it felt odd. Grape was my best friend, how could I think that way of her? Perhaps it was animal instinct combined with my human upbringing.
I saw nothing wrong with liking a cat, I mean male humans liked female humans. Somehow they got along just fine.
Dogs made fun of me when the discovered my attraction. I sat there with a bad taste in my mouth for such a long time. Was I a freak? Was there something wrong me perhaps?
Then it happened.
What I saw one fateful night was such a strange thing. I knew what was going on. I had no doubt about what was going on.
That was the day I realized that it wasn't wrong for me to feel that way about a cat. After all the others said to me. After how they treated me. Fido Byron: ace hound of Babylon Gardens, police dog academy graduate. Fido Byron: friend to all living things, reader of books to children. Fido found himself in love with the mysterious Sabrina.
I snapped a picture of the event out of impulse. The camera was in my hand and I couldn't resist. I think it was my inner pent up urges that forced my hand. Grape said we would never speak of it again, and for a long time we didn't speak of it at all. That didn't stop me from thinking about it. Yet how would I tell her I felt the same way? How could I tell her? She would think of me as a freak, and she might not want to be my friend anymore if I told her. Telling her was out of the question.
So my love life turned to fantasies. Half day dreaming, half hoping. I eventually scribbled in purple over Sabrina's picture and darker brown over Fido's.
It was the picture I felt would never happen in real life. It was my first addition to the scrapbook. At this point I had adopted it as my own, dad becoming too busy to take care of it and mom always forgot it existed. In a way it felt like I was the chronicler. The family historian. I was going to keep this record for many Sandwiches to come and my name would go down in history.
In reality I used scrap-booking as a way to keep my mind off of things. In the same way drawing Spot the Super Dog would help. In honor of dad's punny nature I gave it the fido picture the title “Pido and Grapina.” Not as good as his titles of course, but even the masters had to start somewhere after all. Anyways Grape...
“Peanut, what are you still doing up?”
Speak of the devil. “Oh! Hey, just looking over the old scrapbook, and thinking, I guess.”
“You know it's like 11:30, PM, not AM, right?”
“Couldn't sleep.” I shrugged. She took a seat next to me and tucked her legs underneath herself as she peeked over my shoulder.
“Oh Peanut, is that-”
“Yeah, the Fido picture.” I felt my blush burn through my fur.
“I can't believe you still have that thing. I thought you would have torn it up out of embarrassment.” The purple cat gave me her sly, half smile.
“Hey, it's from a time I never thought I'd get more than 'mushy stuff' here or there.” I smiled back.
“Like you don't get more than enough now?”
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” I shrugged.
She nodded a little and leaned her head on my shoulder. I felt her warm breath on my neck as I rubbed her back. Funny. Once upon a time snuggles like this were weird.
“You know I forgot you were such a little guy back then.” She looked at a picture of me at Uncle Reuben's farm. It was me standing with Rufus. What a strange one, but he started something special. Albeit without knowing what that special thing was.
I nodded a little and turned the page as she scanned over the pictures. Sure, I wanted to make this book dedicated to my Grape obsession. Yet I'm sure those looking in would want to see more than just my unbridled fantasies.
For once in my young life I made a practical decision. There were pictures of Tarot, Max, Grape, and I all on our big dates. A few good ones from rides at the theme-park themed theme-park. Grape, in a rare moment of femininity, clutched her date. Eyes like saucers. Mouth locked mid-scream.
There were pictures of the neighborhood dogs enjoying little parties. Maxwell got me a few pictures of the neighborhood cats and their conventions. Soon the scrapbook turned into a chronicle of Babylon Garden.
Memory lane was one long lane to stroll. But it was a lot of fun.
“I never knew you got pictures of all this stuff Peanut, gotta say, I'm impressed.”
“Thanks, some of them I didn't take. I actually hunted them down from other pets.”
“Wait what's this one?” She tilted her head and pointed at a picture on the page. I glanced at it and felt my ears droop.
“Oh...that.”
That was going to be awkward to explain...
~~
Hope you guys liked it. I'll have more to post whenever, or, whatever. Oh, and feel free to critique anyway you like. Hate it all you want, love it all you want. Tell me why at least! Just because I'm writing a shameless romance fic doesn't mean it shouldn't have any class.
Anywho, happy reading.
Edit: Hey double checked for inconsistencies that were pointed out. Perhaps I should get a beta reader, but thanks for pointing them out!
Also for the sake of convenience I've decided I'll add links to the sequels right here in this thread!
CbtS: 2. The New Era
In which a certain Gryphon makes his move: Next stop, animal equality.
Enjoy!
Way back Machine
Prologue: Puppy ever after
Jeez how long had it been since I was just a young pup? A pup naive to the wiles of the world. A pup from a more innocent time. From a time when things were, dare I say it, normal. There are so many distant memories now forever harnessed into little photographs. Glued to colorful sheets of scrap-booking paper, placed where they could fit.
It brought a warm smile to my face. These little windows to the past.
The first picture on the page I could never get out out of my head, even if I tried. It had my adoptive parents and myself all together sitting on the front porch of our house. I had to be a brand new adopted puppy in the picture. Already loads of uninhibited trouble and smiles; bundled together into one fluffy package.
Dad was a pet lover, he grew up in a pet friendly household and was by no means a stranger to animals. Mom adored puppies, though had never owned a single pet before then. So when you put two and two together, they wanted a puppy. Dad was always one for puns (we called him “the Pungeon Master”). He worked his magic on coming up with a name.
The two of them settled on "Peanut Butter." Though not without reluctance on mom's part.
"Earl, why does everything have to be a pun?" She said.
"The way I see it, this name was a gift." Dad said. "And by God, I'm going to use it."
My first day as a Sandwich must have been an adventure for my parents. Megatons of pent up puppy energy unleashed into a house that was, for some time, quite puppy-less. These pictures ranged from “Peanut getting flour all over the kitchen,” to “Peanut getting Mom's flowers all over the kitchen.”
Dad told me he wanted pets before kids as "practice." I soiled any notions of children for awhile.
It was just us for a little awhile there. My first home was sort of quaint, but small. Perfect for my parents alone, but add a puppy into the mix and the house shrunk more so.
The first great decision my parents ever made for me had to be moving to Babylon Gardens. I got to see new dogs, smell new smells, smell new dogs. All the while, mom and dad hinted at picking up a new pet.
I met her at the local shelter one day.
Mom and dad decided that I needed someone else my age to tucker out, so they took me to the local shelter and set me loose. The dogs there were not particularly fond of me. Even as a pup I was "different." As in nothing phased me. Every thing I approached I met it with a smile, even if it did not smile back. This was not a popular attitude to have with abandoned pets condemned to a life at the shelter. Grape was one of those at first.
She and I were completely different from the start. The most glaring difference was the fact that she was a cat and I was a dog. Yet there was more to it beneath the species boundary. She was an alley cat. One that had been around the wrong side of town more than twice. Me, well mom adopted me on the spot, and I had yet to experience any worldly harshness. Humans were God to me back then yet they were rarely ever so kind to her.
Yet I recognized she was different. Something stood out about her. Even with our differences, I felt like we somehow shared something. I think deep down inside, we were the same kind of weird.
When it came down to adopting a pet and I wanted Grape. Mom and dad caved in to buying a brand new kitten. That was one way you could tell mom loved me.
Funny enough I thought Grape was a he for the longest time.
I never knew her shelter name (Princess Periwinkle) and dad named her Grape Jelly on the spot. You know considering she was a purple cat and all (where you find those I'm uncertain.). Anyways, Grape was quite the gender-neutral name and she was always tomboyish. She lived a “violence is not an answer, but it helps” life style and boy did she hit hard. Not to mention she had a deep voice for a girl.
Dad made it priority number one to update the scrapbook when we both got home. It was a simple picture of us, me with my dumb smile at the camera, tongue lolling out to the side. Her ears lay flat accompanied by a deer headlight stare.
“Earl are you sure that was a good picture?” I remember Mom asking.
“Of course, it's perfect, our kids are so photogenic.” He sniggered a little as he stowed his camera away.
Grape was an interesting housemate. It took her a long while to warm up to me. In fact it took her a long while to warm up to anything. Pictures of her from the “good ol' days” involved leaning over her food. As if at any given moment someone was going to take it. She even seemed to keep her distance from mom and dad.
But a few pages later and she had already started to warm up.
I chuckled at a small picture captioned “Romeo and Juliet: Imaginate.” It was of me retching after planting a kiss on her cheek. You have to recall I thought she was a guy. Later she blamed me for the whole cat lover thing, but I had no idea what a Shakespeare was until she told me. Not to mention it required me to kiss a cat. At the time I had to be the Juliet character, with all the zany “thees” and “thous,” it blew my puppy mind. Not to mention Juliet, was, well, a girl. She was Romeo. This confused me further.
Though the more I think about it, the less I want to think about us as Romeo and Juliet. That ending is downright depressing.
The years flew by, and we were the best of friends. We never left one another. Well sometimes she did, especially when she wanted a nap. I was never far from finding and waking her. Though that changed when I discovered she was a girl. How I could live with her and never notice is anybody's guess. I think it was pure innocence on my part. I wish I could tell you why I never noticed. In fact hardly anyone ever cared to notice. Such a strange one she was.
Still is actually.
After learning of her true gender, and I being at that age where girls spark a sudden interest. I started seeing her in a new light. At first it felt odd. Grape was my best friend, how could I think that way of her? Perhaps it was animal instinct combined with my human upbringing.
I saw nothing wrong with liking a cat, I mean male humans liked female humans. Somehow they got along just fine.
Dogs made fun of me when the discovered my attraction. I sat there with a bad taste in my mouth for such a long time. Was I a freak? Was there something wrong me perhaps?
Then it happened.
What I saw one fateful night was such a strange thing. I knew what was going on. I had no doubt about what was going on.
That was the day I realized that it wasn't wrong for me to feel that way about a cat. After all the others said to me. After how they treated me. Fido Byron: ace hound of Babylon Gardens, police dog academy graduate. Fido Byron: friend to all living things, reader of books to children. Fido found himself in love with the mysterious Sabrina.
I snapped a picture of the event out of impulse. The camera was in my hand and I couldn't resist. I think it was my inner pent up urges that forced my hand. Grape said we would never speak of it again, and for a long time we didn't speak of it at all. That didn't stop me from thinking about it. Yet how would I tell her I felt the same way? How could I tell her? She would think of me as a freak, and she might not want to be my friend anymore if I told her. Telling her was out of the question.
So my love life turned to fantasies. Half day dreaming, half hoping. I eventually scribbled in purple over Sabrina's picture and darker brown over Fido's.
It was the picture I felt would never happen in real life. It was my first addition to the scrapbook. At this point I had adopted it as my own, dad becoming too busy to take care of it and mom always forgot it existed. In a way it felt like I was the chronicler. The family historian. I was going to keep this record for many Sandwiches to come and my name would go down in history.
In reality I used scrap-booking as a way to keep my mind off of things. In the same way drawing Spot the Super Dog would help. In honor of dad's punny nature I gave it the fido picture the title “Pido and Grapina.” Not as good as his titles of course, but even the masters had to start somewhere after all. Anyways Grape...
“Peanut, what are you still doing up?”
Speak of the devil. “Oh! Hey, just looking over the old scrapbook, and thinking, I guess.”
“You know it's like 11:30, PM, not AM, right?”
“Couldn't sleep.” I shrugged. She took a seat next to me and tucked her legs underneath herself as she peeked over my shoulder.
“Oh Peanut, is that-”
“Yeah, the Fido picture.” I felt my blush burn through my fur.
“I can't believe you still have that thing. I thought you would have torn it up out of embarrassment.” The purple cat gave me her sly, half smile.
“Hey, it's from a time I never thought I'd get more than 'mushy stuff' here or there.” I smiled back.
“Like you don't get more than enough now?”
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” I shrugged.
She nodded a little and leaned her head on my shoulder. I felt her warm breath on my neck as I rubbed her back. Funny. Once upon a time snuggles like this were weird.
“You know I forgot you were such a little guy back then.” She looked at a picture of me at Uncle Reuben's farm. It was me standing with Rufus. What a strange one, but he started something special. Albeit without knowing what that special thing was.
I nodded a little and turned the page as she scanned over the pictures. Sure, I wanted to make this book dedicated to my Grape obsession. Yet I'm sure those looking in would want to see more than just my unbridled fantasies.
For once in my young life I made a practical decision. There were pictures of Tarot, Max, Grape, and I all on our big dates. A few good ones from rides at the theme-park themed theme-park. Grape, in a rare moment of femininity, clutched her date. Eyes like saucers. Mouth locked mid-scream.
There were pictures of the neighborhood dogs enjoying little parties. Maxwell got me a few pictures of the neighborhood cats and their conventions. Soon the scrapbook turned into a chronicle of Babylon Garden.
Memory lane was one long lane to stroll. But it was a lot of fun.
“I never knew you got pictures of all this stuff Peanut, gotta say, I'm impressed.”
“Thanks, some of them I didn't take. I actually hunted them down from other pets.”
“Wait what's this one?” She tilted her head and pointed at a picture on the page. I glanced at it and felt my ears droop.
“Oh...that.”
That was going to be awkward to explain...
~~
Hope you guys liked it. I'll have more to post whenever, or, whatever. Oh, and feel free to critique anyway you like. Hate it all you want, love it all you want. Tell me why at least! Just because I'm writing a shameless romance fic doesn't mean it shouldn't have any class.
Anywho, happy reading.
Edit: Hey double checked for inconsistencies that were pointed out. Perhaps I should get a beta reader, but thanks for pointing them out!