Commander (the_commander) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-05-24 04:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, commander tyra shepard, fluttershy |
"He's a special needs hamster?"
Who: Shepard and Fluttershy, also Jarhead the hamster.
What: Shepard wants a hamster, and also offers to buy a bird for the Ranch
When: Same day as this log, backdated to before Shepard gets consumed by Tali/Garrus worry.
Where: Fluttershy's Petshop
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13 for hamsters that will cut you.
A big hummer parked across two spaces outside of Fluttershy's pet shop, and a blonde woman got out of it. She walked inside and looked around.
The pet shop was clean, neat, and well stocked. It was the kind of casual shop where the pets were as out in the open as was generally safe - a few well trained birds sat on open perches, and a deep play-pen style bin had been set up with kittens playing around inside of it.
The owner was in the middle of trying to calm down a bird that rested on her finger, "Oh I know she didn't buy you, but that was days ago... I'm sure someone will admire you and take you home. You're such a good singer and your plumage is sooo pretty..."
"Hello?" The sound and smell of animals surrounded Shepard, and she found herself smiling. But she'd come here for a specific reason, and so she made her way to where the small animals were. There was no space hamster, which was a disappointment, but there were dwarf hamsters, which weren't much different. She wondered why one was alone.
Minerva gave the little bird a gentle nuzzle, then let coaxed it back onto its perch. She had customers! That always brought up feelings of terror and anxiety, mixed with enthusiasm. Today, the enthusiasm was almost winning.
As long as it wasn't that scary asian girl again. Oh she really hoped that that chinchilla was alright and hadn't been fed to any big scary snakes...
She poked her head around the corner of some shelving, and waved at her new customer, "Oh uhm... hello. Welcome to my shop."
"Hello there." Tyra smiled. She'd used as much coverup as she could find over the scars on her face, but they were still very much present, and ached incessently.
"Why is this little fellow here all alone?" She peered into the cage. The hamster inside was white with a couple spots of gray. The big eye above his cage startled him, and he hamster!flailed, before giving Tyra the evil eye.
The appearance made Minerva wince a bit, mostly in empathy. The person before her didn't seem too scary otherwise, though, and her favorite subject was pretty much animals, so she replied with a bit more confidence than usual.
"Oh that's ... well that hamster there, he has..." Minerva searched for the wording, and then lowered her voice even further than usual to spare the hamster's feelings, "He has special needs. People keep buying him and bringing him back... it's so sad. He feels hurt and rejected, and I think it makes him lash out. He doesn't want to be loved anymore."
"He's a special needs hamster?" Tyra looked at her incredulously, then at the hamster. The hamster looked like he was trying to scale the inside of the cage in an effort to get at her. The hamster had cahones. The hamster looked like he was going to cut you. This was a marine hamster.
Minerva hung her head and nodded, "Yes. I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to buy him anymore, I'll... I'll probably have to take him home myself someday."
"This hamster looks like he wants to cut me," Tyra said, a grin spreading across her face. She had to have this hamster, "He's a marine. A jarhead. He's the perfect hamster."
"Well, I... I guess that's a matter of opinion..." Minvera trailed off, then held up her fingers. Several of them had tiny bite marks on them, "He really does cut you. He... thinks that your fingers are food."
Tyra grinned, then tapped on the cage. The hamster jumped at her finger.
Minerva winced at the interaction, and tried find another pet to capture Tyra's attention.
"But I have ... I have a LOT of bunnies, and they're cute and nice and I'm litter training them? And I have this bird here, he sings on command and has really pretty plumage..." She encouraged the bird to start singing, "See?"
"That bird is beautiful," Tyra admitted. "But I don't really have the time to care for a bird. However I work at a place with troubled teens. He might work out there?"
"Oh! I..." She restrained herself from bouncing up and down repeatedly with glee, "Yes! He would be great with troubled teens! He's very gentle, you know... you can carry him around without worrying about him biting you at all."
She demonstrated by holding her finger out to the bird, who willing hopped right on and then proceeded to make its way up to her shoulder. She nuzzled it with her cheek and smiled, "Did you hear that? This nice lady might have found a home for you!"
Tyra laughed, "I'll send Roy or Scott down, okay?" She found the scene incredibly adorable. This was a woman who very much loved animaly, "But lets take care of Jarhead here."
"Oh... okay..." her heart sunk a bit, and so did her face, as she coaxed the bird back into its cage.
"I... I guess. Are you sure? I really don't think either of us could take it if you had to bring him back again."
"I won't bring him back. I'm not looking for a pet that I can cuddle or pet. I want one with personality." She paused and looked at the rabbits, "No offense."
"Rabbits have personality! Angel has a LOT of personality." Where WAS Angel, anyway? She looked around her shop frantically, then frowned when she realised he was napping on her counter, "Oh... well... most of the time he does."
"Do any of the rabbits want to cut me?" Tyra asked, chuckling, "But like the bird, I think they'd be more work than I can do. This little guy, just needs a wheel, a clean cage and an occasional talking to."
Just don't ever give Shepard fish.
"But... But that's not all he needs!" Minerva frowned, and shook her head, "He needs love! He needs someone to be kind to him and pay him attention, to feed him tasty yogurt treats and coax him out of his cage and get him to love again..."
She sounded both fiercly passionate about the subject matter and somewhat dismayed that she even had to be saying anything at all.
Shepard held up her hands, "Easy. I'll give him plenty of treats and attention. I'm sure he loves, just a tough sort of love." She wanted to reassure the woman.
And it's a good thing that Tyra was working so hard to reassure her, because she was almost in tears over the whole thing.
It was probably a combination of the hamster dilemma and the whole chinchilla thing. She really wished she'd never sold Eddy to those women after all.
She calmed herself down a bit, taking a deep breath that ended with a hiccup. It was adorable and really kind of pitiful. Finally, she nodded her head, "Well... he'll need a good cage. Lots of space to be himself, and good bars to climb... and a GOOD wheel. You want one of the silent running ones so he doesn't keep you awake..."
Tyra couldn't help it. She had a soft spot for adorable women, so she enveloped Minerva in a hug, "Just get me whatever I need. A nice big cage, lots of bars, and TWO wheels. Lets spoil him!"
This customer was now Minerva's favorite customer in ever EVER. She wanted to spoil and love the hamster! She wanted to find a home for her favorite bird! And now she was providing HUGS!
She wasn't even scared of the hugs! This woman in her shop was like... Minerva didn't even know. But she felt extremely trustworthy and definitely not a scary hugger.
She squeed, though the squee escaped her throat more like a very happy whisper of glee, then let the hug go to start collecting a bunch of equipment for to spoil a hamster. With a bit of a bounce in her step!
At least the skittish woman wasn't scared of her scars. That made Tyra feel very relieved. She shook her head as Fluttershy bounced around the shop. This might turn out to be a bit of an expensive outing, but she'd been wanting a hamster ever since she'd caught a glimpse of one in her dreams.
The prices at Fluttershy Menagerie were pretty reasonable, all told. Two wheels, a good sized cage with some tunnel pipes attached, food, bedding, and all the other necessary things came to just under 80 bucks.
"The most expensive part is the cage, but this one, he... he really likes to have lots of room to move around, you know?"
Tyra nodded, taking out her card, "Yeah, lets pay the damages for Jarhead."
He was a cute little hamster. That wants to cut her.
Minerva nodded her head with a big happy smile on her face, and took care of cashing Ms. Tyra Shepard out, then bagged everything up.
Finally, she got a take-home box out, and put on some gloves, "I just have to get Mr. Jarhead out of his cage now..."
"Let me get him. I think I know how to handle him." Like any man, she distracted the hamster with food. While Jarhead was nomming on a treat, she scooped him up and scritched his back, then put him in the take-home box.
"You were so good with him!" Minerva half-squeaked in delight, "He's ... going to a good home, I'm so happy."
You could tell she was happy, because she was talking just slightly over a whisper.
Tyra squeezed Fluttershy on the shoulder, "I'll be sure to get his food from here. So I can fill you in."
With as crazy as her life was getting, a dose of Fluttershy might be a nice change.
"Oh! Oh... if that's... if that's not too much trouble, I would love that. I love to know when my pets are doing well in their new homes."
The younger woman couldn't really contain her happiness about this situation, and just HAD to smile. A huge, huge smile.
"It's no trouble at all." Shepard smiled at the woman, and then departed with her new pet. God help the hamster, who is forced to suffer her driving.