Pretty Kitty and Me: The Best Petpet Ever!

     A recent trip to the Kadoatery has gotten me thinking about well, a lovely petpet to call my own, and it wasn’t long until I let Jenn (pandacat838), my almost-as-lovely Neopian owner, in on my ideas. All those Kadoaties sitting in their little lonesome cages were a pitiful sight, and that was even considering that it was nothing more than a short-term stay. Soon, they would be back in the arms of their doting owners, and yet, the time apart was enough to bring a tear to my eye, and apparently, many tears to theirs, especially after 11pm NST.

     You can probably guess my next train of thought then. Indeed, my latest and greatest aspiration was now to perhaps find a little petpet who never had a Neopet to call theirs, where every day felt like it was spent in the Kadoatery with no Happy Anniversary Negg or Container of Purple Liquid to bring a smile to their dampened demeanour.

     I suppose you can say that Jenn wasn’t initially drawn to the idea, having spent a Neopoint too many, in feeding a good 250 Kadoaties (she says that she gets a nice trophy for her efforts and she’s up to 265 now, not 250, but I really didn’t see the point). After a lot of convincing and a little dragging of feet, Jenn and I finally made our way to our local petpet shop, where a friendly Usul greeted us at the door (who was much nicer than the grouch in charge of maintaining the Kadoatery, I might add).

     “Well, I suppose you can show me what you have in stock,” I heard Jenn say behind me, high-pitched voice and all as she followed the petpet shopkeeper around on a mini-tour. Oh wait, I thought I was going to be the one deciding, not her!

     Racing ahead as fast as my pea chia legs could manage, I stumbled around, peeking into the cages with widened eyes until I heard a soft purr, a friendly face that I was more than familiar with, after Jenn’s many trips to the Kadoatery. She was perfect, and would save Jenn any future trips, since I was sure she had more Happy Anniversary Neggs just waiting to be fed at home! Besides, having fed so many of them, wouldn’t Jenn also like to have a new petpet to call her own (or well, my own, but what’s her’s is mine, and what’s mine is….sometimes hers, if she asks politely and I’m in a good mood at the time).

     “This one, this one!” I squealed with excitement as Jenn came over to join me, albeit with a bit of a skeptical look on her face, heightened when she stood on tippy-toes and began to read the display.

     “Name, Pretty Kitty,” she told me. Hey, it sounded reasonable, and I just knew that my petpet was going to be pretty to me, even if the rest of the world thought her to be shabby and ugly. The fact that she was in fact, inherently beautiful, and had a name to remind the world of such, was only the icing on the cake, or the bow on the Kadoatie.

     “Description, read the description!” I reminded her, with gentle prodding, although I already knew that nothing could make me love my soon-to-be-petpet any less.

     “Description….” Jenn started out, and I could just feel the hesitation in her voice. “Well….it’s otherwise known as a pain in the neck. When it’s bedtime, and the lights go out, the Kadoatie….seems to cry, and I mean cry a lot. It sounds like uh, well, a requirement of owning a Kadoatie is keeping the lights on, even when we’re sleeping.”

     “Well I mean, it seems like you’re always eating or sleeping anyways,” I reminded Jenn, much to her discontent. She glared at me, arms crossed, looking nowhere near as sweet as Pretty Kitty in front of me.

     “Just because I sleep 14 hours a day doesn’t mean I sleep with the lights on!” she protested, and I had to agree with her, for that girl could fall asleep anywhere, any time. Fair point, I suppose. “And I came to the pet store with you, didn’t I?”

     Okay, another good point. We had to pass Neopian Fresh Foods on the way here, and although the owner was a chia like myself, I still question whether he would have been able to distinguish between me, the pea chia and well….nevermind, you get the point, let’s not go there, shall we?

     “So uh….crying, huh?” Jenn asked, turning to the shopkeeper with an unamused look on her face. “Let me guess….11pm?”

     “I…I try to make sure my shifts here end before 11pm, it’s better for me in terms of timing. Lower maintenance, you know?” the shopkeeper confessed sheepishly.

     “Go figure,” I hear Jenn mutter under her breath before the shopkeeper cut her off, with a sudden change of tone.

     “Pretty Kitty will be the talk of the town, I mean, just look at those eyes, and that big fluffy tail. Sure, she uh, needs a bit more love and care and attention than say, the rocks we have on the shelf over there, but maybe you’ll find the effort to be more reward than work?”

     “The rocks you have?” Jenn mimicked the shopkeeper’s words, the mention of another petpet having piqued her interest.

     “Mhmm,” was the shopkeeper’s reply. “You can paint them all sorts of fun colours, and they make for very loyal, steadfast petpets. Will never get lost on their own, although they’re sometimes forgotten. Really quiet too. By that I mean, you’ll never get a word out of them, but…I suppose they’re lovable in their own way right?”

     I stubbornly shook my head – and the rest of me, as was characteristic of a pea chia, spinning left and right until I was about ready to collapse with dizziness. “I don’t want a pet rock,” I protested. “I’d rather have a Kadoatie even if she cries ALL day, not just at night! I mean, since when have you heard a pet rock cry?” Or say anything. Or do anything.

     “Really, your pet has taken a liking to Pretty Kitty, and I might have to argue that the opposite is true. I have to mention that Pretty Kitty doesn’t purr at the sight of any ordinary Neopian. Usually she just well…she kind of hisses at you, and tries to bite through the cage. So you know, she might like you. Just a little bit, and maybe soon, it’ll be a lot, so much that most of us would call it love.”

     “Or maybe it’s because she smells the Container of Purple Liquid I have in my bag,” Jenn mumbled, turning away as she fumbled with her zipper, before pulling out the rare and expensive treat. “I bet if I drank this myself…”

     “You wouldn’t, that’s petpet food!” I reached up to try and pry it from her hands, but of course, pea chia arms always seem to get in the way.

     “Come on,” I heard the shopkeeper say, with a sly smile and a quick wink in my direction that I hoped escaped Jenn’s view. “Kadoaties are super rare, that’s r99 for you.” I grinned as I watched her eyes light up at the mention of r99.

     That, my friends, is how I ended up with a Kadoatie for a petpet, and poor Jenn, I suppose we can say she ended up with a second pain in the neck.

     The End.