Drowning in Animals

A Surprise Comes From Somewhere New

Having an extra member in the house wasn't as difficult as Thomas thought it was going to be. To be completely honest, Logan was far more relaxed and much easier to take care of than the energetic Patton. It wasn't even two weeks after Logan had joined the family, when Thomas was woken up by a call at around 5 in the morning. He picked up the phone without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?" Thomas said, voice still laced with sleep.

"Thomas! Thank goodness you picked up!" Talyn's voice said, relieved.

Thomas was immediately fully awake at hearing their voice filled with so much worry.

"Talyn? What's going on?"

"I went to the vet to give the cats their check ups because you know that Kai was pretty sick recently and while I was waiting... You just got to get here."

"Okay, I'm on my way." Thomas hung up the phone and quickly got dressed before rushing downstairs. "Patton! Logan! Come on boys! We're gonna see Talyn!"

From down the hallway, Thomas could hear the footsteps of Patton and the dog finally stumbled sleepily up to Thomas with a half asleep Logan on top of his head.

"Hey guys. You ready to see Talyn?

Patton's tail immediately started wagging after he heard the name.

"Alright. Let's get in the car and go see them!"

When everyone was in the car, they made their way to the vet. It didn't take too long since they lived in a relatively small town. Thomas expected to have to go inside to meet up with Talyn but when he got there, he seen not only Talyn but Joan as well, both standing outside, Joan holding a pet carrier. Thomas parked the car, put Patton on his leash, and walked over to Talyn and Joan with Logan on his shoulder.

"Hey guys. What's going on?"

"Come inside and we'll show you," Joan said, walking into the building followed by Talyn and Thomas.

Inside, there was a veterinarian that was standing by the main desk, holding a very skinny, shaking fennec fox.

"Is this the guy?" the vet asked.

"Yes. He's taken in two animals in the past month or so and I don't think he'll stop anytime soon," Joan explained, picking fun at Thomas.

"What happened?" Thomas asked, ignoring Joan's comment and focusing all his attention on the fox.

"Apparently some guy smuggled a fennec fox to his house and didn't want to take care of him so he dropped him off while we were here. So I called you and told the vet that you might be able to take care of the little guy," Talyn explained.

Thomas looked into the sad eyes of the fox and just couldn't find a reason not to take the little guy home and sighed, "Alright, I can't say no to that face. But only if he'll let me and he gets along with the boys."

"Well, let's just see then," the vet said, carefully placing the malnourished fox on the ground.

Thomas bent down in front of Patton and placed Logan on the dogs head. "Okay boys, be careful with the guy, okay? He's a little frightened and needs someone to take care of him."

Both of the animals looked like they understood what he was telling them, so Thomas moved out of the way.

Immediately, Patton slowly moved closer to the fox before dropping his head on his paws after seeing the fox's shaking seeming to get worse, causing Logan to get off balance for a moment. The fox suddenly snickered, leading the dog and bird to freeze.

"S-Sorry. That was funny," the fox suddenly said.

Patton and Logan looked at each other before Logan hopped off Patton's head and Patton stood up.

"So... um... I'm Patton and this is Logan. We live with Thomas!"

"Salutations."

"I'm Roman. Pleasure to meet you."

"Do you want to come stay with us?"

"Patton!"

"What?"

"You can't just outright say it. But since the damage has been done, I guess we have no choice."

The fox thought for a moment before saying, "Since there is no way for me to get back home, I guess I have no choice but to stay with you!"

"Yay! New family member!" Patton said, practically jumping up and down.

"I think it went well," Thomas said.

"Is that what you got from that? 'Cause I understood none of that," Joan said.

"Well, just look at them, clearly something went well."

After a little bit of explanation, the vet agreed to let Thomas take Roman with him. The vet told Thomas everything he needed to know about keeping a fennec fox, like what kind of food they eat and what kind of lifestyle changes he will have to make. Let's just say Thomas was a little worried about the food portion of that discussion. The vet then gave the fox to Thomas and handed him a crate so that Roman wouldn't hurt himself on the car ride home.

"Talyn and Joan. I can take you two back to check on your cats now."

"Good luck, Thomas," Talyn said, following the vet.

Joan patted Thomas on the shoulder, "You'll do great. That's why we called you."

"Thanks, Joan. Now get in there, you've got your own children to take care of."

"Yeah, yeah," Joan said, picking up the cat carrier and walking over to the room with the vet and Talyn.

"You know, you make fun of me for keeping so many animals in my house, but how many animals do you have again?" Thomas said, jokingly.

"Shut up, Sanders," Joan said, walking into the room.

"You know I'm right!"

Thomas then looked down at the three animals at his feet, "Alright boys, let's get the new guy home."

Thomas set the carrier down on the ground and opened it, waiting for Roman to walk inside. Roman hesitated for a moment.

"Go on, kiddo. It won't hurt you," Patton encouraged.

Roman looked over to Patton and Logan before nodding and walking into the carrier. Thomas closed the door and walked to the car with Logan and Patton.

When they got to the house, Thomas put the carrier down on the living room floor and opened the door. The skinny fox stepped out of the carrier and onto the carpet, which felt uncomfortable under his paws as they were used to hard surfaces or sand.

"Welcome home... uh... I never asked for your name..." Thomas realized.

"Roman," Logan informed him.

"Oh! Thank you, Logan. I see you two have things covered for me."

Thomas bent down to scratch Logan on the head with his index finger and to pet Patton on the head. Logan eventually flew off to the window sill and Patton shimmied his way into Thomas' lap.

Patton looked over at Roman, who was exploring his new home, and smiled before pushing his face into Thomas' chest and closing his eyes.

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A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry this is so late! Also, sorry that this was such a short chapter. I promise that next chapter will be longer. It was really difficult to come up with ideas for this chapter for some reason. I don't know why I haven't been working on this lately but I've gotten back into writing and the next chapter should, hopefully, be out soon!