While a talent scout talked with "Canary Diamond" and her family, the cookout in the Wesley backyard for Memorial Day, and for those gathered, the smell of the cooking meats and veggies from the Wesley family grill that Memorial Day evening was enticing. While their wives talked and lounged on the white plastic patio furniture, the fathers of Animalia's "ambassadors" gathered around the grill and even relished in the smokey scent of what was cooking. Of course, Martin was more partial to the corn and carrots wrapped in Aluminum foil and Luke and Thomas were more interested in the hot dogs, hamburgers, and steaks, but that made since given that the Browns were American Quarter Horses, Thomas a Siberian Husky, and Luke a Grey Wolf.
"Are there times when you... miss... being able to sample everything?" Sophie's father wondered as he looked to both Martin and Thomas.
Martin gave a small snort that lead into some chuckling, "I suppose there are times when I DO miss somethings. But it isn't that bad. Remember that meat is not the only potential source of protein. Nuts are good too... and so on..."
"And there are some times when I'd enjoy just feeding chocolates to Julia... but in many ways there are things about being an Animalian that go beyond just diet," Thomas Wesley answered, "Julia and I are happy together and we have two adorable puppies."
The men all took a few glances to see where Julia had Bell and Bash cradled in her arms with their wives almost fawning over the youngest members of the Wesley family. Sophie and Jessica's fathers both turned back to see that Thomas had a warm smile on his muzzle and his tail was wagging left to right with some speed, indicating that the Siberian Husky Animalian was happy. That gave both of them some things to be confident in. The fact that their daughters had all befriended each other had lead to these sorts of cookouts on holidays like Memorial Day and the Fourth of July and soon lead the parents actually making friends with each other as well. The Animalian outbreak the previous year had been a surprise, but for both Sophie and Jessica's fathers, they were glad that the Wesleys and the Browns seemed to remain just as they always had, even if they were physically furry and far more muscular than they ever were before.
"A lot of Animalians seem to have that fixation on love and having families," Jessica's dad commented, "a couple of couples that come into the grocery store for things... that seems to be their favorite subject."
"Probably a relation to the fact that as mundane animals, those of us who were uplifted knew that we HAD to breed in order to keep our species going as we could never know when our prey would be gone... some disease would ravage the pack... or someone in a helicopter would shoot at us," Luke commented, "that sort of thing remained... but then became combined with our gaining understanding on human emotions and how many human families seem to love and care for their children and their mates greatly. It's something where Animalians like love as an emotion and want to feel it... with our mate and to give it to our children, just like humans do."
"Not all humans, if the fight from today was anything," Sophie's dad commented off hand.
"Pardon?" Martin wondered while Thomas lowered one ear in confusion.
"You didn't see the fight at the Giants game?" Sophie's dad asked, "Harper got hit and the benches cleared."
"Was it intentional?" Thomas wondered, remembering that ESPN was covering a series of baseball games to celebrate memorial day.
"That's what the commentators said," Sophie's father commented, "though Harper didn't exactly look like the greatest fighter out there..."
"Both will be in trouble," Martin commented, "if the benches cleared, it was clearly a big fight which will get both in trouble."
"Probably," Sophie's father admitted.
"People tried to kill each other on a baseball field?" Luke wondered.
"No, more that one player got hit by a pitch and decided to get even by trying to punch the pitcher that hit him," Thomas explained, "the fight would have been broken up before there was a a chance of anyone being killed... which I'd also doubt was not anyone's intention."
"And the purpose of this sport is not to do combat?" Luke asked.
"Not in the way it actually happened," Sophie's father commented, "normally it's simply to be the ball game."
"But competition gets in the way," Jessica's father commented, "One guy resents being shown up in the past... get's even for that and the other doesn't like being targeted and gets even..."
"Doing something equally silly," Sophie's father finished.
Luke only shook his head as he noticed Thomas give a sniff and was soon collecting the actual food with tongs and moving them onto plates that were set on one of the platforms on the side of the grill. He generally agreed with what Sophie's father had said regarding this fight at a baseball game. In many ways he did understand competition and the desire to come out on top, as it did relate to how non-uplifted wolves would battle for the rank of Alpha in their packs, but in many ways since being uplifted and seeing the rules that humans had for their sporting events, even potential combat sports like wrestling and boxing, he couldn't help but feel that at times certain things that came about, like this apparent fight at a baseball game, were as Sophie's father described... silly.
However the crackling of Aluminum foil and the placing of cooked food on plates brought attention back to the grill and Luke couldn't help it as Thomas took over a few plates with food over to their wives who were still gathered on the patio. Even with the sides and buns that were bought for the Sophie and Jessica's parents to eat with their hamburgers and hot dogs made Luke feel hungry. Thomas took the first set of plates over to their wives and soon returned to serve the others, which Luke liked and felt welcome in. Even with the fact that they weren't all Animalians and those that were weren't all the same type of Animalian, they did all seem to get along. It felt good to feel welcome and Luke liked the ideas of these sorts of cookouts. He figured he'd need to figure out a way to do the same so that he could host a similar cookout in the future.