FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Author's Note: Thank you all for such positive feedback on this story. It's the grease that helps me keep going! Now, if the story seems rushed a little, blame finals. I had to knock this out in two hours. Enjoy!

I awoke feeling rather fuzzy. Blinking sleepily, I sat up, rubbing my face between my hands slowly. Like a zombie, I shuffled to my feet, and mechanically placed my glasses on my face. Swaying on my feet, I lurched to my dresser. Leaning against it for support, I groped along the side of the mirror it held up. (In case you can't tell, I'm not a morning person. To be blunt, I'm not an A.M. person.) Finding the small hard knob on either side of the mirror, I gripped them tightly.

The effect was immediate. All of my hair stood on end, I broke out in goose bumps, and my eyes snapped open, and started rolling around in their sockets. No, I'm not having a seizure; I'm experiencing DBTCS. As one of the most prominent researchers at Wildtech, I have connections that can sometimes pass along a device or drug that hasn't been released state-side yet. The globes on either side of my mirror was a particularly clever Swedish device calibrated to deliver safe, yet powerful, Deep Brain Thalamic Capitance Stimulation. Simply put, it shocks your brain into the wave activity it experiences when fully awake.

Jerking my hands off the device, I smoothed my hair back into place, and sat down on my bed. Despite the invigorating jolt, my memory was still a bit on the fritz. I... I took someone home yesterday? A girl, I think... Did I get lucky last night? No, no... I'm not much for the dating scene. What happened yesterday? I was walking home, I looked up... Ah. Now I remember.

I absent-mindedly kneaded my comforter as I recollected. Now I remembered; yesterday, I'd adopted a Wildlian, a Lupine, that I'd named Sally. Where was she? As I pondered, I became aware of two things. One, that I was not, in fact, kneading my comforter. In fact, I was sitting on my bare bed; all my sheets were missing. Second, I could hear running water in the bathroom. I got up to investigate. As my hands lit on the doorknob, I jerked them back as if it was electrified too. What if she was bathing? I gulped, and slowly opened the door.

Well, to my relief, she wasn't bathing. I could see her from two angles; she was standing on her hind legs in front of me, her back to me, and I could also see her from the front by the mirror. She was standing in front of the sink, and doing something with my comforter. It looked like she was... Washing it? I saw that her back was hunched in fear, and she was muttering something to herself. Unshed tears hung in her eyes.

After maybe a second, I spoke. "Uh... Sally? What are you doing? Did you wake up during the night?"

Sally jumped. I don't mean that in the wimpy, metaphorical, sense... I mean, she levitated an inch off the ground. She yipped in surprise, and swung around. She threw her arms around my neck, and started crying in earnest. "Oh, Master... I... I'm so sorry!"

In confusion, I placed a hand on her back. "Um... Come again?"

She started sobbing into my nightshirt. "I-I was trying to wash your sheets because I got them dirty because I'm dirty, and..." The rest of what she was going to say was lost in a torrent of sorrow.

You'd have to have a heart of steel to not be moved by her plight. I drew my arms around her, and started stroking her silky ears. "Hey, hey now... It's alright, you didn't do anything wrong, you're fine... I can get them clean myself." I spared a glance to the comforter that was laying half in, half out of the basin. Yes, there was a splotch of dirt on it. Subtly checking Sally's body, I could feel that there was some caked dirt and mud on her pelt. It wasn't her fault, of course; not even a Feline could keep themselves clean in the cell she'd been forced into at the Adoption Center.

Her tears didn't abate for at least a minute. Nothing I said helped, so I just stood there, rocking softly side to side, until her sobbing degenerated into occasional sniffing in my ear. Eventually, she pulled back, and hiccupped. I laughed, the sound was so precious. I wiped a few more tears off her face, and held her muzzle in both hands, gently. "It's alright, puppy; I'll clean the sheets. But, you do have a point; you need a bath." I released her, and threw the comforter into my bedroom, to be dealt with later. As I did so, I thought of something rather awkard. Swallowing, I turned back to her, and said "Uh, Sally... Do you know how to bathe yourself?"

She shook her head. I took in a long breath, and held it in my cheeks. Letting it out slowly, I made a decision. "Alright... Alright, I'll show you." I walked to the side of the tub, and she followed, reverting back to four legs. I was about to gesture to her to jump into the cavernous basin, but thought better of it. She could hurt herself. So, I leaned down, and picked her up by the midriff. She really was light; I wondered if she could be malnourished, and made a mental note to fix her a big breakfast. She licked my hand as I set her down, and looked around the tub.

Personally, when I bathe, I like to float underwater and just drift, so I'd ordered a bathtub that looked like a small swimming pool. You could stand in it, fully-filled, and the water would come up to your neck. I spoke to her as I reached for the knobs. "Alright, Sally, in just a second, there's going to be some water. If it's too hot or too cold, let me know."

She nodded, and I turned the knobs to my preferred temperature. Water spilled out of the faucet, and into the tub. Sally took a few steps back, and lifted each of her paws a few time, looking at the water that dribbled from them. After a few seconds, she lay down on her stomach, and let the water level rise until it rose over her head, lifting her nose so she could breath. After another couple of seconds, I shut off the water. Even though the tub was less than half-filled, I didn't want to inundate her.

I reached over into a nook, and withdrew a bottle of shampoo. Now, even though I have a doctorate in genetics, I'm trained to work with the skeletal and muscular system; follicles were a mystery to me. That's why I hesitated a moment, wondering if human shampoo would be the best thing for her fur. But then, I thought, what the hell, right? Hair is hair. Right? Tossing aside my worry, I squeezed a dollop of hair care product into my hands, and proceeded to bathe Sally. I started with her back, and rubbed the cleansing bubbles deep into her pelt, expunging the dirt, old fur, and other things that I'd rather not dwell on. She luxuriated under my hands, rolling her back to meet them. I was sure she'd never been touched so kindly.

"Roll over," I said. She did so, and lay on her back, arms and legs poking into the air like a dog. I averted my eyes and thought about baseball as I washed her more intimate areas, and ended up doing her head last. As I got some fresh shampoo and rubbed it behind her ears, she crossed her eyes, and purred again. I finished up, and said "Alright, that should do it. How do you feel?"

She rolled over a few times, and licked at her damp fur. Then, she looked up at me with liquid green eyes. "I... I like it."

I smiled. "Well, that's great. Here, I think you'll like this." I reached over, and turned the knobs again, and in a minute, had filled the tub to its' maximum capacity. Sally swum in the middle of it, dogpaddling, as she got used to the feeling of being entirely underwater. After a while, she dipped her head under, and began swimming in earnest. One thing I'll say about Sally; get her in water, and she is fast. She started off just dogpaddling, but after a minute or so, she started doing this weird stroke that I can't even describe, but let me tell you, she was hauling. In no time at all, she was shooting around the tub like a furry little torpedo. She surfaced with a joyful howl, that turned into a fearful whimper when she saw that'd absolutely soaked my bathroom. I pushed my wet hair out of my eyes and, whilst laughing, took her head in both hands and shook it gently. "Aww, it's alright, puppy; normally, I'd say I need a bath now, but it looks like I just got one. It's time for breakfast anyway, so..."

Reaching down, I unplugged the tub, and watched as the whirlpool that formed sucked away the suds and mud. Sally watched it too, with great interest, her twitching muzzle getting closer and closer to it, until she squealed when she stuck her nose in it and got a snootfull of water. When the tub emptied, I picked an unresisting Sally up, and toweled her off. It took that towel, plus two more, to remove all the moisture from us. After that, I changed clothes, and leaned down next to Sally. I had thought her beautiful before; now, she was radiant.

Sally was a Lupine, which is a big science word for a giant wolf that walks on either four or two legs. She has several human features, like hands and *ahem* mammaries, and what looks an awful lot like human female genitalia (NOT that I was looking for it, mind you.) Her fur, which was a silvery-grey at first, now seemed to be wrought of silver metal. It gleamed and sparkled in the light. But the feature I admired the most about her was her eyes; big, green, liquid, and beautiful, they were windows to a gorgeous soul.

I shook myself out of my reverie, and asked"So, are you hungry?"

She barked happily, and pelted out of the room, to the kitchen I suppose. I shook my head, and wondered if I was ever going to be able to keep up with my new housemate. I trotted down the stairs, and entered into the kitchen. Oddly enough, I didn't see Sally. Pushing it out of my mind, I started cooking. I'll never be a chef, I have to admit, but I do good sausage. I started frying up a batch, when I looked over my shoulder and saw Sally pad into the room. She held a bunch of letters in her mouth. She walked into a corner, and dropped them. Then, she put her nose to the floor, and got a closer look at them.

This, of course, caused her to lift her shapely rear into the air. I looked away, and noted that the sausages wouldn't be ready for a good five minutes. I turned away, and walked to Sally. Looking over her, I said "So... Whatcha doing?"

Her voice was muffled. "Reading."

I was surprised. The way Sally acted, I didn't expect her to be able to read. I leaned in a little farther. "Anything interesting?"

She nosed a few of the letters into a pile. "These are printed..." She shoved another few into another pile. "And these are written." I reached over, and picked them up. She was, of course, right. I popped open a bill, and read it. I grunted. My electricity bill was frightful. Not that I need to worry; Wildtech pays me well. I opened up another bill, credit card, and read it. Nothing special. I threw both bills over my shoulder, and turned to my personal mail. I was just reading a postcard from my grandparents when I heard Sally say "Master?"

I turned to her and knelt down. "Yeah, Sally? You don't need to call me that, you know... Just Robert will do."

She averted her eyes, and said "Y-yes, Master..."

I sighed. "What is it?"

She raised the credit card bill in her two front paws. "This isn't right."

I blinked. "Come again?"

She pointed to the bottom line. "It says here that you owe $3397.56, but if you add up the totals from above, and even factoring in the %5 service charge, the total is still greater than that, about $228.34 more."

I took the bill, and crunched some numbers on a napkin. I gaped in surprise. "Well, I'll be damned! They're trying to fleece me. Good girl! How did you know that?"

She looked down and blushed from the praise. "Uh... It just had to be. It didn't feel right."

And that was the start of things. Over the next few weeks, I learned about Sally. At first, it was small, like the bill. Next, she caught some dried jerky snacks that had nutritional totals that added up to more than %100 percent. After that, there was an incident when she discovered that my lawyer was billing more than 24 hours per day to my account. I began to suspect something was up, so I administered a few tests. They were all disguised as games; I didn't want to make her nervous, as she was just starting to come out of her shell.

She slept in my bed, at nights, because whenever she slept alone, she had horrible nightmares. I was taking some time off from work to acclimate her, but once when I went to get groceries, I came back to find her cowering under my bed. After that, I took her most places, and asked her to wait in the car. Most of my time I spent playing with her and gauging her intelligence.

The results of my tests were striking. She was apparently insanely skilled at math, perhaps even a savant. With my gift of a calculator, which she treasured and hid under my bed when not in use, she progressed within weeks from addition and subtraction to advanced calculus. I had never heard of such spectacular progress, and I have to admit, she blew past me at an unmatchable pace. Two and a half weeks in, I gave up, and bought her a computer, to study at her own pace. She loved that computer to death. On the beginning of her third week with me, I woke slowly, and smiled.

Sally was sneaky; though she'd sleep on top of the covers when I was awake, the minute I was asleep, she'd slither beneath the sheets and embrace me all night long. I hugged her back as she woke, and tickled her ears. "Morning, puppy."

She smiled, and purred. "Good morning, Master." Despite my best efforts, I hadn't broken her of that appellation. I rolled out of my bed, foregoing my daily dose of DBTCS and stretching widely. "So," I said, "What did we learn yesterday?"

She rubbed against my legs. "Yesterday I learned about the Drake Equation. I'm working on my own variation. Do you want to see it?"

I chuckled. "No, thank you."

Her eyes started to cloud, and I backpedaled hastily. "No, no, no, I meant that I couldn't understand a lick of it. You know you're a lot smarter than me, gotta make allowances for that."

"Yes, Master," she said, and flopped onto my feet, curling and uncurling luxuriously.

My mind brushed up against something unpleasant. "Uh... Sally, I have some bad news. I have to go back to work tomorrow, which means you'll be alone for about 8 or 9 hours."

She squeaked, curled up into a ball, and looked up at me piteously. I couldn't leave her alone, or she'd go crazy. I bent over, and stroked her head. "Alright, alright... Here's what I'll do. Today, we're going to go get you some clothes, and I'll see what I can do about leaving you here alone."

She jumped to her back two feet, and threw her arms around my neck, holding the tip of her nose to mine. She stared into my grey eyes with her sparkling green ones. "You mean it, Master?! I can have clothes?"

I held her. "Yeah... I figure that it's probably not for the best for you to run around nude all the time. Besides, if you get some clothes, I can show you off in public," I said, twirling her around in my arms. She purred in ecstasy. Personally, I wasn't looking forward to this. I'd probably have to purchase another Wildlian to keep Sally company, and if there's one thing I don't want to do, it's support Wildtech. Still, I figured, I was giving them a good home, and getting Sally a friend other than me. What's the harm?

I drove downtown, letting Sally hang her head out and pant in happiness. As much as I wanted Sally and her kin to be seen as real people, I couldn't deny her the pleasure she so clearly loved. We came to a store that specialized in Wildlian clothing, and I let her lead the way. I took myself out of the action as she turned into a maelstrom, sucking in outfits and spitting them out at lightning speed. After what must have an hour and at least 300 dollars, we left. Sally was glowing, resplendent in brand-new jeans, a white belt, and a black shirt with the word 'WOOF!' printed across it in big white letters. In my arms, I carried the bags that held the rest of her purchases, a real wardrobe for her. I dumped these in the car, and we got in and drove for another few minutes.

We got out at the pet store, where this whole thing had begun three weeks ago. I gulped as I got out. Even though my beloved Sally had come from here, the building still held bad feelings for me. After all, it was a monument to the monstrosity I had helped to create; the slave trade of Wildlians. Without my contribution, Wildlian technology would be light years behind its current state. In a way, I was responsible for all the misery that it had brought about. We entered the store, and began the walk towards the Adoption Center.

"Hey!"

I turned around to the see the maintenance man from my last visit. He flagged me down, and said "So, you're here again. I hope you don't mind, but I looked through the records, and apparently, you're a doctor. I hate to ask, but can you come check something out for me?"

I looked at Sally, and shrugged. "Okay, I guess. What's the problem?"

"This way," he said.

We walked through the store, past the Adoption Center, that made the fur on Sally's back stand up, and twitch her nose, back into the storage part of the building. As we got out of earshot of the other customers, the maintenance man spoke. "We got him in just today; his previous owners said he was lazy, and they wanted to trade up. But, when they saw the prices for newer models, they balked. Tried to get him back, but the paperwork was binding. Boy, were they mad. Anyway, the boss said to get him a space when one was available, but I don't know. He doesn't look good, not at all."

We rounded a corner, and I saw what he must have been talking about. Lying on some filthy rags was a male Feline. He didn't look good, even from a distance. I squatted next to him, and made my examination. I checked his pulse. "Hmm... Well above normal rate." I noticed his engorged and pulsing veins. "Electrolyte balance looks shot to hell." I palpated his bloated abdomen, and frowned. "Extreme malnutrition..." Finally, I checked under his muzzle, feeling two lumps of lymph nodes. I sat back and sighed. "Well, you're right. It's awful... He's suffering from advanced prostration, vitamin balance all wrong, and he's starving to death; over-worked and under-fed to a horrifying degree. He won't last the week."

The maintenance man scuffed his shoes. "Well, that's a damn shame. Do you think you could fix him up, Doc?"

I stood up and frowned. "I don't know; my doctorate is in genetics, but I could give it a try. He needs a good week of bed rest, specialized diet, and an electrolyte infusion. I... I guess I could try."

The maintenance man smiled, and said "Good... Good. Hate to see the little bugger's coil get shuffled before its' his time. Here, I'll do you a service; He hasn't technically been added to the inventory, so if he was, to, say, disappear before this afternoon, he'd never be missed."

I caught his drift, and smiled. "Thank you. I'll make sure he gets better."

The maintenance man's eyes went shifty, and stepped away for a second. He returned with a box. "Here, just came in today; a new shipment of clothes. I checked; male, his size. Take 'em."

I stammered. "Wow... Thanks, I don't... Here." I took a 500 dollar bill out of my wallet ( I carry at least one everywhere). "Take this. It should cover the clothes, and maybe a little of the Feline."

He took the bill, and said "Mighty grateful. Alright, bugger off before we get caught and I get fired. Drive around, and I'll bring 'em out."

Sally had been listening to this with interest, but when he turned around, she swept up to him, and hugged him. "Thank you," she whispered.

The older man blushed, and said "Well, thank you missy."

I took Sally's hand and led her back out to the car. Putting the box of clothes in the trunk, I cleaned out the back for the Feline. With Sally hanging her head out, I drove around back again. The maintenance man was there, with the Feline in his arms. He handed the Feline off to me, and wiped his brow. "Whew! Little bugger's heavier than he looks. Take care now, huh?"

And with that, he turned around, and walked back into the store. I gently placed the Feline inside the car, and let Sally have a good sniff at him. When she was finished, I put the car in gear, and took off for home. Thinking ahead, I ran into a small grocery store nearby and purchased two rotisserie chickens for the three of us. As I drove, I heard the Feline stir once in the backseat. I rolled my eyes, and said "If this keeps up, I'll have to buy a bigger house."

I had no idea how right I would be.