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Pets

A 45-post collection

Challenge #04504-L120: Unarmed? Unlikely

The pirates corner the human space-trucker and grabs the human's pup as a hostage The human's pup doesn't fight back with teeth, but the odor that soon incapacitates the pirates is one all dog owners know all too well. -- Anon Guest

[AN: For a handful of seconds, I thought you were talking about a Human infant]

Trucking is a boring job, so it's no shock that truckers in any environment find things to do during their work hours. For life on the road, company is necessary for sanity. For life on the space lanes, that's doubly so.

Chatting on the comms doesn't always work. Some transit lanes are bare of real-time conversation. Podcasts and audio drama can only entertain for so long. The routine of maintenance and meals could only keep a soul from shattering for so long. Thus, it was not surprising that many space truckers had pets. Some were nonstandard, some were stereotypical, and some were as ordinary as milk and cereal.

Trucker Smith had a new puppy, which filled a great many hours with training, play, and cleaning up various puppy-messes. Canid Squiggle was a happy, yappy terrier and already a joyful plague on any and all shipboard pests. He was still teething, too.

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Challenge #04496-L112: Little Friends

The large galactic laughed when the human told them about an eagle that was their best friend. A bird? A fluffy thing with no brains?

Then the person opened the carrier of the napping bird. It was a Harpy Eagle.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uK2eh7GOXz4 -- The New Guy

[AN: I am doing zero research into whether Harpy Eagles can be trained like falcons]

Horg was always amused by Humans and their pets. The dinky little Deathworlders had a knack for

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Challenge #04404-L020: Good Not-Doggy

The time that a rough and ready space marine group rescued a group of abandoned, well.. they LOOKED like puppies anyway. They made great pets, though some galactics got more than a little nervous seeing a predator being called "Mr. Snuggles" -- Anon Guest

If the Humans don't have a saying for it, they can easily make one up. In this case, it's, "Convergent evolution is one hell of a drug."

It used to mean that people will name new discoveries after

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Challenge #04393-L009: Fluffy Puffy Omnicidal Vengeance

A human brings two very fluffy, but small, dogs with them. These dogs become the pirates' worst nightmare when they attack the ship. -- Anon Guest

On first impressions, they looked like amorphous blobs of fuzz. One black and one white. Only when they woke did they seem to sprout feet and, in the case of the white one, little beady eyes. Portions of the floof oscillated as Human Ela called their names.

"Mune? Nux? Heel."

The snuffling fuzzballs were no bigger

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Challenge #04337-K319: Blot on the Record

"Ah, Tori, my human friend, why so tired?"

My puppy is obsessed with playing ball.

"Oh, it can't be that bad."

Fine, puppy-sit and I can take a nap.

---next day----

"Your puppy is obsessed with playing ball!"

See? I told you. I love it, but man, I sure get tired. -- Anon Guest

They were thinking about calling the puppy The Unstoppable Force. He certainly never seemed to stop whenever someone was observing him. People, according to Blot the Dog[1]

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Challenge #04146-K128: Feels Familiar

The animals on this planet were immensely cute, but surprisingly aggressive even if they were mostly harmless to even a level 1 or 2 havenworlder, and almost completely harmless to most deathworlders. The colonists carefully guarded this place against dereggers who decided these fierce little feisties would be the new "must-have pet". And they were not subtle about their protection of this world against such behaviors.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02287-f097-it-was-not-effective -- Anon Guest

They were eventually named Fizzgigs after a

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Challenge #04091-K073: Problems in the Testing Phase

Companion Ty, and eventually the entire crew, become very attached to the human's massive canines. The animals don't mind letting the light havenworlders ride them, they're very gentle, and the fur's warm and fantastic for laying against when troubled or exhausted.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03416-i128-walking-carpets -- Anon Guest

They really were big softies. Emphasis on the 'big' part. With the help of some weeks' worth of training and a significant amount of bacon bits, the Havenworlder crew could ride Bear

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Challenge #04082-K064: Everything You Wanted to Know

Fripp begins to sell Christmas Beetles as "Mostly Havernworlder Safe Pets" with a little help from the N'Ozzies who are MORE than happy at seeing these rather stupid, but beautifully colorful, harmless beetles.

As far as the somewhat noxious plants needed for the insects environments? Genetic engineering ensured the plants no longer produced strong fumes yet the beetles could, and did, eat them, and that the plants couldn't spread, they had to be lab-grown.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02936-h013-a-buggy-plan -- Anon

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Challenge #03926-J274: Domestic Drama

The human goes to their cat wearing the equivalent of chainmail and has a very tiny scissor in their hands. When their friend looks as them quizzically, they see the cat HATES getting its claws trimmed. But, necessary evils, unfortunately. -- Anon Guest

The Humans are full of weird sayings. A favourite of Human Bruk was, "It's better to be prepared than be embarrassed." And that made the rest of the crew on the Halcyon Curiosity wonder why their Human kept the

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Challenge #03922-J270: Sole Area of Genius

"How often do we have to go through this? I love you, you silly furball, but do NOT try sniff at my cactus! I don't HAVE any shelves higher and I'm tired of pulling thorns from your nose!" -- Anon Guest

Some cats, every cat person knows, reserve their brain cells for specific purposes. When it comes to that specific area of expertise, they're absolute little fluffy geniuses. For everything else... their brains may well be made of sawdust.

Case in point,

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Challenge #03917-J265: Five Ends of Them Are Pointy

Wutu's transport was attacked. Deceptive, Dessie, now well grown, was laying near its owner purring. But the pirates learned quickly, that the cat had learned to guard its owner against hostiles, and be gentle toward friendlies. They'd live, but would definitely need quite a lot of medical care.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03433-i145-congratulations-on-your-new-cat -- Anon Guest

Of all the incontrovertible laws that governed the universe, there was one that Humans insisted be upheld. Once a cat is on your lap, you

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Challenge #03652-I364: Cat Bath

It's not a good idea to bathe a cat unless absolutely necessary. And even then, with an abundance of caution. -- Fighting Fit

Some say that cats are very clean animals since they wash themselves. Some argue that they are not, in fact, clean at all - but rather covered in cat spit.

Many of those people have never reckoned with being owned by a bobtailed cat[1].

Jermaine found this out in the process of taking a bath. Just a nice

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Challenge #03585-I296: Rescued Twice

Do you know what it's like running a pet grooming service on a station where people can have pets from all over the universe? It's not easy, but it's very rewarding. -- DaniAndShali

[AN: Given the general similarities between cogniscent species from one area and pets in another, all grooming and beauty services tend to mesh together. Same with medical practices.]

The small creature was shivering in its carrier. The concerned Human opened it to let the creature out onto the prepared

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Challenge #03499-I211: She Demands Her Tribute

They're trying to get work done, they're at their desk, there is a pile of paperwork, but the local cats are being absolute cuddle-bums today! -- Anon Guest

[AN: With reference to Meet Lilbit]

Two kind hands are not enough for one cat. There were times and civilisations when cats were worshipped like gods. Neither cats nor Wraithvine had forgotten this. The kitten was just a little bit of fur with claws and teeth attached, thus earning the name Lilbit.

This became

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Challenge #03463-I175: Adventures in Pet-sitting

A human with a new puppy is often quite tired lately. Their friends had seen them play with the animal a lot, so they understood, but wow, the happy, hyperactive, puppy had more endurance than the human! -- Anon Guest

Doug was a puppy. A neotenous canid, true. He was also a squiggly, wiggly, squirming, wagging ball of excitement with the unstoppable inclination to lick the entire universe. Human Thu had been playing with the creature for most of their day off.

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