Beginning Chapter One ... Two ... Three ... Four
I finished dinner silently. The day had not gone well. After a few hours of review with Gork Tag, it became clear that the major earth crops were major here because they were well-adapted to Earth conditions. From cows and sheep needing grass to hippopotamus needing water, it seemed like any agricultural animal needed a support "tail" that would be hard to duplicate anywhere but Earth. We decided to break while I had dinner and time to think.
I went into my office at home deep in thought. I turned on the viewer. Bandit, the most precocious of the family cats, jumped up on the desk intent on getting "pats." Bandit was very insistent, and as the viewer came to life, I was obliging him by rubbing his ears and neck as he had his feet on my chest and was licking my mustache.
"Ah, is that one of your offspring, Mr. Curio?"
I chuckled, "No, Gork. But a good guess. This is Bandit, the family cat." Bandit put on a good show. He pranced around the desk as I stoked his back and tail, then rolled over so I could scratch his belly. The purr was almost deafening.
I looked back at the screen. Gork Tag was fascinated. "What are you doing to this... "cat"... is it?" he asked.
"I'm patting it. He enjoys getting patted, and I enjoy patting him. He is covered with a soft fuzzy fur and his purr sounds nice."
"I hear that you are both enjoying it.... Does this cat enjoy getting 'patted' by everyone?"
There was something different in Gork Tag's voice. The talk of cows and pigs and such earlier had been business-like. I could sense even with my limited acoustic perception that this was different. I thrilled.
"Well, everyone in the family can pat Bandit. He will even tolerate the dog, but to dog doesn't pat him, only people do."
"The dog?"
"Another animal that people like to pat, would you like to see him?"
"You keep these animals just to touch them? You don't consume them?"
"That's right. These animals are called pets."
"And you raise them to touch them and listen to them?"
"That's right."
"Mr. Curio, I'm so glad you invited me to your home! Here is something we can talk further about!"