In Alien Hands: Meeting Merle

Day two - Breakfast -Merle

Like most of my species, I don't need an alarm. We feel sleepy as soon as the sun goes down and have no problem falling asleep any time after then. The first signs of daylight quickly bring us to full wakefulness, Without a harsh wake-up. Before I got up, I listened for Holli. I could easily hear her breathing and heartbeat through the floor below me, she was still asleep.

I had stayed up later than usual last night, listening to her wander the house before going to sleep. My family was not unfamiliar with the mental process humans had to go through before taming. She'd undoubtedly try to escape that night, with any luck she'd see the sky and quit immediately. I was lucky that night. She'd gone right to sleep. The house was human proof, of course. The kitchen was fitted with a gate to keep her out, away from the stove. The drawers and cabinets were locked, and the back.hard surrounded by a fence that impossible to climb. Not bad for a rental. My family and I had paid extra for all this, of course.

I rolled out of bed and got ready for the day - it was gonna be a doozy. After breakfast, the vet was coming for an exam. If the stories my siblings were true, I could expect some screaming, crying, and she'll resent me for a while afterwards. It was, however, necessary. Pet shops don't do much more than process them and sell them. They get a mandatory quarantine before landing on planet, but no real exam beyond diagnosing clear problems. There could be deadly issues with her and I'd have no idea until it was too late if this wasn't done.

I might be far from home, but my family still had connections. One of the best Vets on the planet was coming to examine her. He wasn't taking in New patients last anyone knew. He's at the front of his field, an expert, and a good family friend. He'd be here in an hour.

I could hear Holli getting up when I reached the bottom of the stairs. After shutting the kitchen gate behind me, I had to figure out what to make her. I knew little about what she liked, so I'd have to go with what my family's humans liked. I knew Lyndsey, my brother's human, liked eggs. Bruice liked eggs as well, but not as much. Aspin was indifferent, and Raychel was the only one who hated them. So, 50/50 she likes them and a 25% chance she hates them. Worth a shot.

After I had started cooking the eggs, I heard her approach the gate. After turning to look at her, she took a step back. She definitely needed taming down. That was going to take some time. I dumped the eggs into a bowl and grabbed her a slow-feeding fork.

In pet stores, humans are fed a diet of fruits and vegetables. While these are nutritionally complete, they are vastly unfamiliar and bland to them. They often become extremely excited once given normal foods again, eating too fast and becoming ill. The fork forced them to eat at a normal pace until they can be given a normal fork. I walked past her, hiding a chuckle when she fell backwards as I went past. After setting her bowl down, I grabbed the cushion I had purchased for her and put it in front of the food.

This was her first lesson, whether she realized it or not. The cushion was to be a way to show her where to sit, a suggestion at least. After a while, she'll be so used to it that she'll automatically sit where ever I put it. She waited until I was back in the kitchen before sitting down and eating her food. I could hear her frustrated sighs as the fork forced her to slow down. I made her some saxer juice, a known substitute for orange juice. Saxer fruit is relatively expensive, so it is rarely given to humans in stores. I poured this in a slow-cup, which would prevent her from choking on her juice. After giving this to her as well, I took her bowl, washed it, and quickly cooked up my own breakfast. After scarfing it down, she was done with her juice.

It was still half an hour before Rown, the vet, would arrive. I settled down on the couch, moving her cushion to the far side to encourage her to sit. After again struggling not to chuckle at her struggling to climb up onto the couch, I flipped on the tv. First came on a soap opera, but I quickly switched it to a cartoon for young Dog-men. I thumbed through a novel, watching her as she absorbed the show out of the corner of my eye. I saw her shift when she recognized the cartoon humans on the show, which happened to be adorable.

As the show was ending, Rown arrived with two assistants. He was dressed in the classic purple shirt (it is kept consistent to prevent distrust and confusion among humans and their owners) and his assistants in dark blue. By this time, Holli had backed off into the corner of the room to avoid the strangers and me.

"Did you decide on a name for her?" Rown asked .

"Yep. Holli."

"That's a cute name. You didnt try and build a bond with her, right? Any repertoire you may have built will be long gone after all this. " Rown was always straight to business. I

"I was tempted, but i didn't do much more than make her some breakfast and put on a cartoon."

" Good. Good. We'll get started once she starts to lose interest. We'll have to corner her and pin her down. The young ones like to kick so we'll need to hold her down completely. " Rown said. I gulped. This was going to be disturbing. "She'll probably make a lot of noise, so we'll need to muzzle her. If we dont, she won't stop until we finish." He continued.

At this point, Holli had turned her attention to the carpet. All four of us silently does to our feet, being sure to block all but one path, between the two assistants. The plan was that she'd bolt between the two assistants, who were ready to grab either arm, pin her to the ground, and pin her legs. If stay on her left to comfort her and Rown on her right to do the exam as quickly as possible. I 'd switch with the assistant on my side when he head needed to be manipulated.

She immediately started to cry and scream. While Down rifled through his case for the muzzle, I did my best to comfort her. I switched with the assistant, who held her head still while Rown attached the thing to her face. We switched once more, and the perfect immobilization seemed to calm her in some way. She soon went limp and stopped fighting.

Rown took down all her stats on her chart. He checked her eardrums and nose for injuries and dropped a dye in each eye to check for parasites.

"Okay, now for her mouth. This shouldn't be too difficult. Her instinct is to stretch her jaw, giving me time to stick in a gag and get a good look. " he explained. He definitely was an expert. He unbuckled her jaw, dropped in the gag, and finished with her mouth in two minutes. He quickly pulled out the gag and latched the muzzle before she knew it was out.

"On to range of motion. I'm just going to manipulate each joint as far as they will go without hurting her." He did all this expertly as well. He started at her toes, moving each one , then up to her hips. He moved to her finger tips, and up each arm.

"Now for vaccinations, the fun part!" He said sarcastically . He pulled out a blind rag, a sense black fabric which prevented all light from going through, but still formed around a human's face well enough to prevent light seepage. He placed it over her eyes, preventing her from seeing what was coming and tensing up, causing more pain than necessary. After pulling out three needles, he prepped them to be injected in rapid fire succession, further preventing her from having time to tense up before the next. Each shot was injected within 10 seconds.

"Now we let her go. She'll bolt behind the first door she finds and will close it." He motioned towards her room. I nodded. Rown removed the cloth and her muzzle, and we released her on the count of three. As predicted , she shot up and bolted to the room, shutting the door behind her. I could hear her hide under the covers on her bed.

"She looks fine. A little thin from the pet store rations, but nothing a bit of TLC won't cure." Rown smiled and shook my hand. He and his assistants left out the front door, waving goodbye.

After a few moments, i turned my ears back to Holli. I could hear her sniffling. I slowly approached the door and gave a few gentle knocks. Now we'd really get down to the taming...