Challenge #02597-G040: Comforting Companionship
It's well known, when their owners are unwell, pets will lay with them and stay by their side until they're better. It's a great comfort for the owner to have that gentle presence and, even though their pet doesn't know it, it helps them get better more quickly. The young lizard had been very sick, though it was not a disease that anyone around them could contract. Brought to the station by their parents to try a new treatment to make them well, they sat in the heated gardens to relax and ease the aches of the body and nausea that came with being ill. It was not long before they seemed to arrive from all over the station. The Skitties and stray cats seemed to converge on them. When their parents came to collect them to take them to the mediks, they were comfortably napping, the first real nap they've had in several days, with the purring felines surrounding them, one larger feline gently curled up in their thin arms. -- Anon Guest
Some things cannot be expunged from a creature's genetic makeup. All cats somehow remember when they were deified, which is why every single one of them deigns to be in the presence of non-cats. This is true even for the Skitties. Station residents will choose to feed them and some Skitties deign to cohabit with those who do.
Then there is the phenomenon of the Wellness Puddle. Human pets, even the gengineered descendants of pets, will voluntarily lie down with anyone who feels poorly. Their company, their warmth, their softness are all contributing factors, but for felines? It's always in the purr. A specific frequency that, through evolutionary accident, promotes healing and enhances relaxation. The latter also assists in healing since the number one factor in retardation of healing is stress. It can be shocking how many species benefit from this one species of animal.
Thyn Grippole was tiny and sick and suffering from a mutational genetic disorder that numerous experts had been attempting to unriddle since she hatched. Some parts of it looked like progeria, others looked like asthma, while a completely different set of symptoms bizarrely resembled scurvy. It perplexed everyone.
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