[Zoophilos]

A small Rattegan sniffed about in a dark alley.  It was late in the evening, and would soon be night.  Some voices and the bark of a Sahound caught his attention for a moment, but the sounds came from the street in front of the building, and he was in the street behind it.  He turned his attention back to his business.

The weary Jonisons had finally arrived at their rental house.
"Alright, let's get inside and get the stove going so we can eat dinner," Therese said.
"If all the sampling we did at the market didn't fill everyone up, that is," Jared put in.
"Here's your keys," Rayim handed over a ring with two skeleton keys on it.  Jared took them and unlocked the door.  Inside was a dimly lit hallway with a narrow flight of stairs.
"We got the house on top," Jared explained.  They went up and found another door at the top of the stairs, which Jared also unlocked.  In here they found a fairly small room with a table and four chairs, a sofa next to one wall, and a slightly worn rug.  A kitchenette could be seen through a doorway in the left wall, and another door on the far side turned out to lead to two bedrooms and a washroom.
"It's smaller than I expected," said Therese.
"With just the four of us - I mean, five of us," Jared glanced and smiled at Radar, "we don't need as much space." Radar whimpered in response.  He was very tired after the long day of travel.
After they settled their things in the bedrooms, Therese went to the kitchenette and got right to work.

(22)
(1)

[Zoophilos]

Dinner didn't take long to make; since it was already late, Therese used a box mix that just needed some cooked ground meat added.  Dinner didn't take long to eat, either, since everyone was eager to get to bed.  The Jonisons sat around the table and Rayim sat on the floor, since there were only four chairs.  Rayim didn't seem to at all mind sitting on the floor, gobbling his share of the dinner, and talking of the tourist attractions the family could see tomorrow.
"You have to see the great fountain in the middle of the city!  It would be a shame to come all this way and not see the pride of Aldrect!"  The long day of travel seemed to have sapped little of his energy.  Radar too perked up a little after eating his puppy chow, and went nosing about, sniffing out the rooms.  In the second bedroom, he stopped and perked up his ears.  This room had two single beds, a small closet and dresser combined,  and a nightstand between the beds.  Radar stepped forward and cocked his head to look under the second bed, and began yapping.  

(23)

[Zoophilos]

The Jonisons started at the sound of Radar's yapping.
"What's with Radar?" Therese wondered aloud.
"Radar, watcha doin'?" Jared called.  The only response was that Radar's yapping became louder and seemingly more urgent.  Jared got up and went into the bedroom after Radar.
"Oh, dear."  Radar had caught a wood Rattegan by it's tail.
"What is it, Jared?" Therese called.
"Just a minute, dear!" Jared gently took the rattegan's tail from Radar's mouth.  "Good job, Radar," he murmured to the puppy.  His first thought was to quickly knock the rodent's head against the wall and then toss it out the window, so Therese wouldn't have to know about it.  But he hesitated.  Killing a creature in Evelon didn't seem quite the same as killing an animal back in his world.  What if this was an anthro currently in animal form?  He glanced out the window.  There were no soft spots outside that he could try to aim for if he tossed the rodent out alive.  The only other way to get rid of the creature would be to take it down the stairs and release it, but he would have to take it through the dining room past Therese.  But before he could make up his mind, keeping Therese from knowing about the rodent became a moot point.
"Oh, wow!  Dad's caught a rat!" Jason had followed his father from the table.
"A RAT!" Therese echoed Jason. "Rayim, you said this was a good house!"
"It is a good house!" Rayim answered, "Well, it was a good house!  I guess a few squatters moved in after the last time I was here."  Jared moved to the doorway, gingerly holding the rattegan by its tail.  The creature wasn't bothering to struggle and hung limply.
"Is it dead?" asked Audrey.
"No, it's definitely alive," her father replied.  "I was thinking of taking him outside and releasing him."
"You can't release it right outside the house," Therese protested. "It will just come right back in, through whatever hole it got in by in the first place."
"Maybe we could keep it," Jason said.  He loved rats, having kept several as a pet in his childhood.
"You can't keep a wild rat, Jason," Therese told him.  "A wild rat isn't the same as a pet rat.  They'll bite, and they often carry diseases." Jason looked a bit disappointed.
"This isn't just a rat," Jared put in, "This is a Rattegan.  They each have a bell and a scroll attached to the tip of their tails, and magical flames on their backs to ward off predators."
"Maybe wild rattegans are different from wild rats," Jason said, looking hopeful again.  "Dad, you haven't studied rattegans yet, have you?  Maybe this is an opportunity!"
Therese was unsure about this opportunity.  Jared was unsure about doing something Therese was so unsure about.  But at any rate, he couldn't just keep holding the poor creature by its tail, so they searched their bags for something to contain it in.  Audrey came up with a small plastic container, originally intended to hold insects.  It was large enough to hold the rattegan for the moment.
As soon as dinner was finished, the men in the family began searching the house for possible entrances for a rattegan.  Jared found a small hole in the window corner, and blocked it up.  Jason found another small hole under the door to the stairway.
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(2)

[Zoophilos]

After talking with Therese a bit more, Jared decided that releasing the rattegan away from the house would just be passing the problem to someone else.  So he decided to keep it and see if the Preservation Zoo would take it.  If not, Whisper Forest wasn't too far from the zoo.  So they kept the rodent for the night, giving it a few crackers and some tissues so it could at least make a nest for itself.

In the morning, the rattegan was gone.  A small window in the middle of the top of the cage, which served as a small opening, had been partially melted so it could no longer latch shut.
"Guess we should have thought about the rattegan's flames being able to melt plastic," Jared said.
"Guess now we have to catch him again," Therese said.
"If he is an anthro, I hope he at least has the decency to either appear in human form and introduce himself, or else leave and go somewhere else." Jared muttered, turning away from the little container left on the floor.  Audrey studied her insect cage somewhat regretfully.  Looking over the scorch marks, she noticed something strange.  It looked like her container had been burned from outside.
"Hey!" Jared's voice echoed from the kitchenette, followed by an eager bark from Radar.  Then scuffling sounds emerged - and then Jared.
"Look what Radar and I found in the kitchen, trying to make off with some crackers!"  It was the same wood rattegan.  He looked kind of sheepish.


(3)

[Zoophilos]

Rayim volunteered to go out and get a sturdier cage for the critter, perhaps feeling guilty about recommending to the Jonisons a house that was already unofficially occupied.  He darted eagerly out the door before any of them could give assent!
They put the twice-caught rodent in the little insect cage again, having nothing else for the moment.  Audrey watched it closely, armed with a cup of water if it should try to burn its way out again.  Jason gave the hapless critter a lecture on stealing, shaking his finger.  
Rayim returned with a wire cage, larger than the insect cage, to hold the rattegan in, by mid-breakfast.  After breakfast, the Jonisons did some house-cleaning before leaving to see the city sights Rayim was so eager to show them.  They left the Rattegan in the cage with a saucer of water and some of the crackers he liked so much.  Jason also gave him some raisins for dessert.

(4)

[Zoophilos]

It was late in the evening when the Jonison family returned from sight-seeing.  When they opened the door to their apartment, they found the cage empty - again.  But this time a large Common Rattegan stood on top of the cage, staring at them with a curious, cunning glint in its eyes.  For a moment, they all faced off, the rattegan glaring, the Jonison's too surprised to do anything other than stare.  Then Radar barked.  The rattegan leaped off the cage and darted under the Jonison's feet, heading toward the stairs.  Then everyone, of course, went crazy.
The entire family leaped about a foot in the air.  Radar darted after the rattegan, yapping all the way.  Then Jason ran after Rader - after grabbing the cage - yelling "Get 'im, Radar!"
"This is getting to be a bit much!" Therese exclaimed.  Everyone else was thinking the same (except maybe Jason).  Jared went off in disgust to see if he could find out how the rattegans kept getting in.  In the end, he found out this larger rattegan apparently chewed and burned its way through the blocked hole under the door.  Then, it seemed to have figured out how to open the door to the wire cage to let the other one out, as the cage showed no damage and the door had been left hanging open.
"I think tomorrow, we're going to have to ask Rayim to find another place for us," Jared said.

(25)
(5)

[Zoophilos]

That night, Jason was disturbed in his sleep by squeaking noises near his ear.  He drowsily forced his eyes open and turned toward the sound, - and jerked his head off the pillow.  Sitting on the nightstand between the two beds, was the wood rattegan again!  With its ears drooping, its head hanging, and its forepaws bunched tightly into its chest, it didn't seem too outrageous to describe it as looking contrite.  When Jason jerked, the rattegan flinched, but held its ground.  After a moment of facing off, it then scurried off the nightstand and disappeared into the darkness.
In the morning, waking to the sound of his sister telling him to get up, Jason found something on the nightstand that hadn't been there the previous night - a single keystone.  He picked it up to look at it.  It was rather dirty, and scratched and pitted as if it had spent more time lying in the streets than in pockets.  Had the rattegan left this on the nightstand?

Rayim had some trouble finding another house available, so the Jonisons couldn't move out just yet.  But for the next several days there was no sign of the rattegans, while going in and out of their apartment to tour the City of Aldrect.  The blocked holes remained blocked.  Jason did catch sight of the little wood rattegan in the alley behind the house, though.  His common sense said to chase it away, but his animal sense wanted to befriend it.  He offered it one of the chewy candies he was eating, setting it on the ground near its hiding place.

(6)

[Zoophilos]

Since the rattegans were no longer bothering them, Jared decided they could remain in their current house for the moment.  This gave Jason the opportunity to keep visiting the wood rattegan in the back alley.  Eventually, the creature trusted him enough to eat treats right from his hand.  Jason tried to think of a name for it.  His sister was usually better at naming animals than him.  She was the one who had named Radar.  All he could think up was "Firebutt"!
"You're feeding the rattegans?!"  The rattegan fled.
"If you feed them," Audrey told him, "they won't go away.  They'll get into the house again and cause trouble.  And they'll become more used to humans."
"Yeah, well," Jason spoke guiltily and defensively, "this one is nice.  And I think I'll keep him.  It's been a while since we've had rats - or anything like them."
"I doubt Mom will let you keep a wild one."  Jason merely grunted in reply; he knew she was probably right.  Audrey bent over to peer after the rodent, which had hid behind a trash bin.  After a moment, she said, "He is kinda cute, isn't he?"

(7)

[Zoophilos]

Well, it's probably obvious by now where this is going.  Just as Audrey said, and Jason suspected, Therese refused to let the wild rattegan in the house... at first.  So Jason's new pet continued to live in the alley behind the building.  As time went by, Jason showed his mother how tame the rodent had become, and asked if he could at least take him to the Zoo and keep him there.  Jared, being such an animal lover, encouraged her to give the creature a chance, so she finally assented to Jason's new pet - if he gave him a bath and some anti-flea medication!  So the wood rattegan was adopted into the Jonison family via a bath, and after being dried off with a hairdryer, (which he seemed to enjoy more than the bath), Audrey figured out a name for him other than "Firebutt".  She named him after a mouse in a book by Beverly Clearly, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, called Ralph.  They called the rattegan Ralphy.

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