TYNG: Petpetsitting - Part Two

      "We need to bring some of the TYNG members in to help us," worried Anise, no longer her optimistic self that she was around all of the other members. "If we don't, it will be utter chaos, whether you've played Petpetsitter till your eyes fall out or not. Oh well, one consolation is that we're going to get paid a pretty penny for this," she continued murmuring to herself until the pair of them got back to their Neohome. Their owner greeted them jovially.

      "What have you been up to?" she asked, a big smile on her face. Then, without even waiting for an answer, she said, "I've bought you guys your favorite food for you today for supper!" she flounced into the kitchen.

      "Tigersquash corn dogs!" squealed the two pets. They raced to the table and started to shove the delicious food into their open mouths.

      "You two eat like Moehogs!" giggled their owner.

     ~()~

     The next day, Anise and Oliver took a stroll around the neighborhood and saw, to their delight, Janelle's posters tacked up on boards, lamp posts and other things that posters can be put on.

      "This is going to bring in some business," remarked Oliver, patting the posters affectionately. "Quite a bit of it, actually."

      "People will start to go on holidays soon now so they can give us their Petpets and we'll take care of them for the entire time they're gone," summarized Anise. "We'd better get back home in case some of them are already coming to drop their Petpets off."

      The two siblings padded or bounced to the Neohome where they organized the attic room upstairs with all of the things that Petpets would need, waiting for someone to come. Soon, a knock on the door said that they had their first customer.

      "I'll answer the door and take the Petpet up to the attic and you go and tell Jeff to come over and help us take care of it," said Anise, suddenly getting organized and aloof.

      "We don't need help to take care of one measly Petpet!" objected Oliver. "We can take care of it ourselves!"

      "Have it your way," shrugged Anise, before opening the door to find a Faerie Kacheek flapping its wings and floating about a foot above the doorstep. She was holding a small kennel. A small blue muzzle protruded from the front and it started yapping.

      "Will you take care of Fluffy for me?" asked the Kacheek. "My family's going on vacation for a few days and I can't bring my Petpet along. The list of what she needs is stuck to the side, and her food is in the back of her kennel." Then, putting her yellow face in front of the kennel, she smiled sweetly and said "I'll be back, Fluffs!"

      After the Kacheek had flown away, Anise and Oliver carted Fluffy to the attic, where they had set up Petpet bath tubs, scratching trees, a pipe maze in a corner, a cage for Petpets who don't behave themselves, cushions, beds and some toys littered about the room. They had closed the windows firmly and locked them so if they had any flying Petpets, they wouldn't escape.

      "Let's get you out of here, Fluffy," said Anise. She opened the door and a gleeful Anubis ran out, barking shrilly. The siblings backed away from the hyper Petpet which was playing with a purple Petpet ball. Anise took the sheet of paper that was stuck to the side of the kennel and read aloud "Fluffy will need one bowl full of Anubites (located in her kennel) at about noon each day. She can't have more than one serving or else she will get very sick. She won't play with a plushie, so if you try to give her one, she will rip it up. She will only sleep on a Petpet cushion. You'll need to keep her for three days while I'm gone. Take good care of her!"

      "That doesn't seem too hard," said Oliver. "We've got a Petpet cushion, and her Anubites are in her kennel," he reached in and pulled out a tightly sealed dark blue bag of Anubites. "Is it noon yet?" he asked.

      "Not yet," grinned Anise. She had taken a piece of paper and had scribbled down on it at right about the middle "Noon - feed Fluffy (Anubis) one bowl of Anubites."

      "Good idea," praised Oliver. He bounced downstairs on his tail as he heard a sharp rap on the door. "Here's another one!" he shouted over his shoulder. Opening the door, he found a blue Acara holding a rolled-up list in one pink paw and a small yellow Spyder in the other. "Hello," he said courteously.

      "Hi!" said the Acara, smiling at him. "This is Jay. You don't have to worry about him spinning webs all over your house because he was born without the ability to spin webs. Handy, huh?" then, stroking the yellow Spyder's back, she said "I won't be gone long! This Blumaroo will be very nice to you, and you will have a very good time!" she smiled up at Oliver and handed him the rolled-up note and the Spyder. "The instructions are on the note!" she said. "Take good care of him."

      "I will!" called Oliver as the Acara walked away. "Jay, are you? Well, you're going to get along well with my Spyder, Daz."

      "Who is it this time, Olli?" asked Anise, as her brother entered the attic to find Fluffy curled up on the cushion, her eyes closed.

      "A yellow Spyder," said Oliver. "His name is Jay. He's going to get along very nicely with Daz."

      "I'm sure he is," said Anise absentmindedly. "Where are the instructions?"

      "Right here," Oliver produced the small note and handed it to Anise.

      "Jay will eat anything. Make sure he eats twice a day, morning and night. If he doesn't, he'll get sick. He will sleep on anything and play with anything. He's very easy to care for. Take good care of him! I will be back in four days' time."

      "He's just like Daz!" said Oliver, patting Jay who started to purr. He them jumped up and the two Spyders scuttled around the room and played in the Petpet maze. "If another one comes, it's your turn to answer," said Oliver, watching Chera and Fluffy run around the room, yapping shrilly.

      "Yes," said Anise. She put down her pencil and looked at the piece of paper. She had added Jay's mealtimes - morning and night - to the list. "I'm thinking that we'll need some members' help pretty soon," she frowned. "And they will sleep up here, and we will have to sleep up here too to make sure none of them escape!"

      "I can do that," said Oliver. He heard a loud banging on the door, and he pushed Anise lightly. She fell off of the chair and quickly headed down to the front door after throwing her brother a playful annoyed glare, where a fierce-looking Skeith stood with his tail curled around a small green Geb, huddled close to its owner's massive bulk.

      "Hello," greeted Anise. She bent down and picked up the Geb and stroked it. Its eyes closed almost immediately, and an odd sound that sounded like purring sounded from deep inside the pyramid-shaped Petpet. "What's this one's name?"

      "His name's Sakhmet," said the Skeith. "He'll eat anything, anytime, play with anything, and sleep on anything. Keep him for a week," then the Skeith was gone.

      "He must not be very literate," decided Anise. "Either not literate or very curt."

      "Who is it this time?" questioned Oliver. He turned his attention back to the two Spyders, who were looking at him inquisitively. "Okay, to get past that bend, you need to pull your legs in real tight and then push yourself past with your back ones. Ready?" he picked up Daz and dropped him in the top of the Petpet maze. The Spyder followed his owner's instructions and soon he was past the perilous bend. "See? It's that easy," said Oliver, dropping Jay in.

      "It's a Geb called Sakhmet," said Anise loudly. "Now that we have five Petpets to care for, let's get Jeff or Janelle or someone to come over and help us take care of them all."

      "I'll go and get both of them!" said Oliver. He bounced down the stairs and out of the front door on his springy Blumaroo tail. He came up to Janelle's house and knocked. "Janelle?" he called loudly.

      "Hi! What's the problem?" she asked, opening the door.

      "We need some more people to take care of the five Petpets that we've already gotten," said Oliver. "Bring yours too! Then they can all have fun together!"

      After Janelle had gotten her Petpet (a plain Snicklebeast called Avalbane) from her bedroom, she hurried outside and headed to the Blumaroo's house. Oliver continued on to Jeff's Neohome.

      He knocked on the door and called "Jeff?"

      The door opened and a red Scorchio flapped in the air, looking down at Oliver. "Need help taking care of those Petpets? They can get to be quite a handful!" and with that, the Scorchio flew out of the door and to the Blumaroo's Neohome, with Oliver following behind.

      When they arrived, they bounded up the stairs to find Anise sitting on the floor, biting her tongue in concentration. The list had abruptly filled up and Avalbane soon got lost in amongst the other Petpets. "Collars! We need collars!" cried Anise frantically.

      "Nah, we can tell the difference," said Janelle hesitantly, looking at the stream of Petpets at her feet. "This is going to be nightmarish," she said under her breath. "Where's the mop?" she inquired. "We need one if a Petpet can't get to the bathroom on time!"

      "I'll get one!" said Oliver. He bounced to the door, but not before it burst open and their owner peeked in. Her eyes widened in shock at all of the Petpets on the floor.

     "What the…" she said, before rounding on Oliver and Anise. "What's this?"

     "We need money for TYNG, so we started a Petpetsitter agency type thing," said Anise weakly. "We assumed that it would be okay."

     "Well, it's not okay," said their owner kindly but firmly. "But you can continue on until all of the Petpets are gone. Take down all of your signs outside so that the Petpets will be gone sooner."

     "But-" protested Oliver.

     "And no 'buts!'" growled his owner, before shutting the door.

     "Wow," said Janelle. "Your owner is really fierce; I'm glad I have my own owner rather than yours."

     "Gee, thanks, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," muttered Oliver angrily. He bounced gloomily out of the room, down the stairs and out of the front door. He ripped the brightly colored posters down with the melancholy air of someone cutting up a favorite plushie.

     He put them into a neat stack and brought it back into the house and put it in his room, under the mattress, so that his owner wouldn't see it. Then he returned to the attic to find some of the Petpets quietly snoozing in the many beds and some of them running around and mewing or barking or growling or honking or roaring or quacking or any of the other sounds that many various Petpets make.

     "Chaos, utter chaos," Jeff kept mumbling, his eyes staring off into the distance and not really seeing the sea of Petpets swelling and making all of the Petpet sounds around their feet.

     Janelle was singing quietly to the Petpets, hoping that it would soothe them and maybe even lull them to sleep, since it was getting late in the afternoon and the sun was sinking down to the horizon.

     She succeeded in making some of them pad off to a free bed and curl up and start to snooze. When all of the beds were occupied, some of the other Petpets inserted themselves in beside other sleeping ones and then started to snore along with their room-mate.

     "They're so cute!" cooed Anise, petting Avalbane's furry head as he growled appreciatively.

     "Speak for yourself, lady," said Oliver, trying to cling onto one of the roof's rafters. "And how exactly are we going to sleep up here? Prepare a bed on the roof?"

     "Actually, that's what we might have to do," admitted Anise, looking at Janelle, who was trying to persuade some more of the Petpets to sleep with her soft, sweet lullaby. She succeeded and the Petpets managed to fit three of them in a bed, and in some beds there were even four of them. Now there were only a few that weren't asleep. They were still roaming about, but soon all of them except for Daz and Chera dropped off to sleep. They only fell asleep when their owners fell asleep.

     "Haul your sleeping bag up here," advised Anise. Her eyes were starting to droop and she stifled a yawn. "I'm getting sleepy."

     "Good idea," said Oliver. He bounced downstairs and pulled an olive-green sleeping bag out of his room and towed it up the stairs and into the attic. He set it up and yawned too, his mouth open wide.

     "You guys can head back to your houses and get a decent nights' sleep now. You've been a great help," said Anise, smiling at her friends. "Maybe you can come over tomorrow and invite Ginny and some other members, too! We need all the help we can get!"

To be continued...