FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

England, 3004

The child curled into a tight ball. Her dirty face buried itself in her small dog's soft fur. A light rain sprinkled the hellish ground.

The girl's clothes were worn and tattered. Her bony body spoke of little food. She was dying. She sniffled softly and lifted her filthy head. Her blue eyes looked at the whimpering dog she held. She knew they would not last much longer.

No one knew what had happened. Everything had happened so suddenly. It was almost as if the Earth was trying it's damnedest to rid itself of life. Earthquakes had erupted spontanieously everywhere. Volcanoes blasted their roofs apart and poured lava over cities. Mudslides engulfed entire villages. Even the oceans were unyielding.

Earth became hell.

Now, there was no one left. As the girl laid on the pavement, the loyal dog sighed and licked her teary face. She tried to whisper a goodbye to the dog, but she did not have the strength.

The dog remained there for days. He, too, was starved and oppressed. He knew there wasn't anything left. He had considered eating the meat off of his small mistress's bones, but dismissed the idea. She had no meat on her bones to eat.

He looked up from his protective watch to see an alley cat walking along a nearby, broken down wall. The dog cocked his head to the side a little. Surely he thought he was the only lifeform that had remained alive. Apparently he had mistaken.

He looked at the little girl again. His tail wagged slowly as he tried to decide what to do next. Finally, he carefully stood up and licked the girl's face one last time.

He decided to follow the cat. After all, what was there left to do? If nothing else, at least he would have food...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

East Coast, America, 9113

"Well, what would you like me to do?" he growled for perhaps the fourth time today.

Sparky wasn't known for his patience when dealing with the felines. He wasn't sure why. He was normally a calm, collected canine. He worked hard at his job and was good at it. Never did he have any complaints and never did he complain... unless a feline was involved.

The feline smiled and purred, "Mister Sewell, you really should calm down. It is just a small meeting."

The canine snorted. With the felines, no meeting was ever "small."

They walked into a large office. It was finely decorated to resemble the ancient jungles of old Africa. This made the canine nervous. He hated coming into this office. Something about the place brought shivers up his fur.

Perhaps it was because it was the office of one Lyciun Kelai. One of the most powerful of felines. A lion.

If Sparky disliked the feline who showed him into the room, that dislike paled against his hatred for the lions. He wasn't sure what it was about the lions that he hated so much. Whether it was that their females were practically bald while their males had thick manes? Or perhaps it was the fact that they had this facade of being noble and proud while at the same time being quite liberal...

"Please, have a seat, Mr. Sewell," the large lion offered.

A low growl accidently escaped the canine. To cover it up, he quickly sat down. "My apologies, I haven't taken my lunch as of yet," he said.

The lion raised an eyebrow and smiled softly. He knew the truth behind the growl. But he also knew that times being what they were, it was hard for the canine to take to the feline management.

"Perhaps I should ask my secretary to order us some lunch, then. I hear a new take-out restruant opened in town," Kelai stated. He then looked to the feline who stood by the door. "Benny? Would you be inclined to order Mr. Sewell and myself something from that wonder diner?"

The feline nodded. "Yes, Mr. Kelai. Right away," she said and then exited the room, closing the door behind her.

The two males sat quiet for a moment. The canine looked around the room. "You have a great interest in the ancient world," he observed.

The lion nodded and stood up. He moved to one of the walls where a large mask hung. He carefully took it down and handed it to Sparky.

"Wonderful craftsmanship!" the canine exclaimed. He ran his paw over the finely detailed mask. It was teardrop shaped and had two equal sized holes where eyes would go. "Something from your ancestors, I suppose?" the canine asked, looking at the lion curiously.

Kelai frowned and shook his head. "It is a piece from an ancient human tribe. It dates all the way back to the early 1900s."

Sparky laughed, "You don't honestly believe humans made this?"

The lion tilted his head to the side and studied the canine carefully. "It is common knowledge, even to the canines I'm sure,that humans once ruled this planet."

Sparky shrugged it off and handed the mask back to Kelai. "It is a favourite story all the parents like to tell their children. 'Be careful how you treat the humans. They were once a mighty force.'"

Again, the eyebrow was raised. "Indeed. It is said that the humans were very well advanced for their time. They had the greatest of technologies and medical advances. They even had a way to predict weather patterns. It will be exciting when we finally get rockets launched into space. I fully believe that there are satelites up there that the humans put."

The canine sighed and returned to his seat. "If there are satelites in space," he said, "then they were probably put up there by one of our own. Or perhaps an equine. Humans are not advanced enough to produce that type of technology."

"Agreed. They are not now," the lion conceded. "But it is my firm belief that they once were. Which brings us to the meeting at hand."

It was Sparky's turn to raise an eyebrow. He mumbled what the lion had just said, not quite understanding or grasping the meaning. Then, as it hit him, his eyes widened. "You brought me up here to speak of politics?!"

Kelai laughed, "No, my friend. I Bod Inc. is the largest electric corporation in America. We bring light to millions of homes each year. It is my belief that come the new year, we will be at the top of our game."

The canine nodded his agreement to the lion's assessment. It was true. Their company, I Bod, named after the canine who had founded it, was the largest electric corporation. It wasn't the ~only~ electric corporation, but it was the largest.

"So, I thought we'd give a little to charity. It would boost our profits tremendously," the lion finished.

That was it. Sparky sighed. Just when he thought that this lion might be a little different from other lions... "How would giving to charity boost our profits? And what charity did you have in mind?" the canine felt inclined to ask. After all, the lion looked like he was waiting for just that question.

Indeed, a mischievous grin crossed the lion's face. "The human breeding grounds, of course," he said, dramatically. Sparky rolled his eyes as the lion continued, "Think about it. If people started seeing that we were helping the poor farmers, they would want to switch to us.

"I was thinking. We could have one of our guys go to one of these farms and do a commercial there," The lion continued. "It could say something like, 'We know how hard it is to raise humans. To train and care for them. Therefore, we strive to help perserve human life....We help, because we care.' And then our guy can pick up a human child and hold it for a pose. It would be incredible!"

Sparky snorted, "You want to give free electricity to these human farmers so that we can gain sympathy and trust from our customers?"

A large smile spread across the lion's face as he nodded excitedly. Benny entered with the ordered food at that moment.

The canine looked at the secretary and growled, "I'm not hungry anymore."

He then left the room.

Both felines looked at the door curiously. "I'll never understand canines," Benny said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sparky slammed the door to his house down in Baker's Ville. He put the keys where they belonged and took off his business coat. Undoing his tie, he made his way to his favourite recliner and plopped into it. He sat there a few moments and closed his eyes.

"Honey? Is that you?" his wife called from the kitchen.

"Yes, it's me," he sighed, but loud enough so his wife could hear.

The female canine walked into the living room. A smile was on her face as she bent to kiss him on the cheek. "Did you have a good day at work?" she asked.

"No," he replied, standing up and walking away from his chair to pace the length of the living room. "Apparently my new manager thinks that giving charity to human farmers is a good thing. He's a typical feline liberal. Always working for human rights."

The female nodded as she watched her husband pace. "I know what you are talking about. I was watching the news today. Another human auction was raided today by a group of felines proclaiming it was wrong to auction off humans like slaves."

Sparky threw his paws up in the air. "But they aren't slaves!" he yelled. "They are barely even domesticated! At the most they are pets. You can't have slaves where there aren't any. All you have is pet. That's it! I mean, come on. Just the other day I saw a large Belgian taking his human out for a walk. The human pissed on a poll! Not even slaves stoop to that level."

The female sat on the couch and listened as her husband raved about the humans. She had many of the same feelings that he had. She remembered when she had a human for a pet as a child. While they made awesome pets, she couldn't quite consider them anything more.

"You know, I've been thinking of buying the children a pet," she said, mostly to herself.

Sparky looked at his wife. "Selna, you know we cannot have pets here," he said.

She smiled. "Only because you don't really want one. But, think of the children, Sparky. It would teach them responsiblity. I saw this cute little human child in the pet shop window the other day and I thought it would be perfect for our home."

"You know we can't buy a human from a pet shop. Don't you know the amount of inbreeding those things go through? No, if we get a pet, we will go straight to a breeder," he said.

Selna nodded. "What about the shelter? They usually have nice mix breeds there. Humans that have been abandoned. Do you know how many humans get put to sleep a day because no one wants them?"

Sparky sighed, "Fine, we'll take the children to the human shelter today after school."

Selna squealed with delight and clapped her hands.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sparky and Selna had two children. The eldest one was known simply as Junior, for he was named after his father. The youngest was a female named Snook. Both had their father's golden coat and their mother's dark brown hair.

The family walked down the aisle of the shelter, looking at the various humans. Many of the humans were in horrible condition. Some watched the family with eyes that begged for a home.

Finally, Snook saw one she liked. "What about that one, Daddy?" she asked, pointing to one young human.

"Why, it's a human child," Selna said, looking through the bars at the little girl. "Oh, she would be perfect. Look at her. You know, they say that if you get them young, they are easier to train," the female said, looking at her husband.

"Yes, but teenage years can be such a bother," he replied, studying the young human.

Selna laughed, "The same could be said of our own children. Come, the children seem to like her."

Sparky nodded and bent down to study the human more closely. Something about the human struck a cord in the canine. Almost like a distant memory... Another life...

The canine shivered and shook the thoughts off. He called to the human keeper and pointed to the girl. "We want that one," he told the keeper.

The keeper nodded. "She hasn't been fixed yet. We cannot let her go until she has been. We can do the surgery tonight, but you won't get her for another week. It takes that long for recovery."

The male canine nodded and followed the keeper back to the desk as his children and wife played with the little girl through the bars. Sparky filled out the necessary paperwork, but left the name spot blank.

He called to his family, "What are we naming her?"

The children argued for a while over the name until Selna finally said, "Ashleigh."

Sparky nodded and wrote the name on the paper.

The keeper signed the release form. "Well, Mr. Sewell, you have yourself a pet human. Congratulations."

Sparky rolled his eyes....