Andy Ribbon sighed heavily as he sat down after a long day's work. While the new Corona Virus hadn't really hit Lyre or Animalia, that didn't mean that there was a lot of fear over it. He did a lot of work at Horizon Light in helping with those coming into the emergency room. More often than not this was typically dealing with some physical injury or something of that nature, but occasionally some sickness cases came in, though more often than not this had been cases of the Flu or something else. There were also occasional issues that related to Diabetes or heart disease, though given how large Animalia had grown since the initial outbreak, many of those sorts of cases began to decline, particularly as some of those that were most at risk became Animalians through Project Phoenix.
The present pandemic changed that, as it brought with it a great deal of fear. For Lyre/Animalia both had a lot of contacts with California and Las Vegas thanks in part to their support for Animalia when it was born, and that often included a lot of travel to and from those regions, and with testing so low at the present time, no one had any real idea as to how much potential contact had occurred. This brought in a fair number of people, often older people, coming into the emergency room to ask for tests because of something. Andy and his staff often did the best they could with what they had available, but the general supply situation was still rather low.
"Rough day, Andy?" came a voice from the kitchen. It was a soft and sweet voice, filled with some form of affection which Andy recognized.
"Yeah..." Andy sighed as he looked up the couch to see a gray and black furred tabby Animalian step into the doorway that separated the kitchen from his living room. The Animalian was as beautiful as any Animalian could be, and with her six friends/sisters, she had become a steady part of Andy's life even before Animalia. They'd remained with him after their uplifted, and all were happy to flirt with him at times or at least saw him as a friend, though the gray and black one, whom he'd named Fluffy before Animalia, was presently the only one that was there or awake at the present time. She held a modest sized mixing bowl under one arm and looked to Andy with some degree of worry... as his mind wandered back to shortly after the initial outbreak began.
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"Meow!" a small gray and black Tabby mewed as Andy set about readying some bowls of milk for the local cats in the area.
He lived in a decent part of town, but there was often a fair amount of local cats that wandered around the backyards in the area. While Lyre didn't necessarily have a major problem with stray cats, there were a few that moved around the area. Most of those that came into his yard were actually pets of the neighbors and Andy could often tell that by the fact that they had collars. With a great hear, Andy had often taken to leaving out bowls of milk for them as they came by his house. They didn't always drink it all, but Andy felt it was good to help them and would be necessary for actual strays like the black and gray tabby presently meowing at Andy's feet.
"I can guess that you're hungry, Fluffy," Andy said to the cat and referring to the cat's long fur. It wasn't bad, but there were some times when Andy had a day off from local clinic that he felt that he could stand to brush the cat and keep its fur from matting, as it did seem to visit fairly regularly. However, for the most part the cat only allowed contact it wanted. It might rub up against his leg and accept maybe an occasional pat on the head, but nothing more than that. As such, Andy ultimately let Fluffy have her way with things, particularly as Fluffy also got along well with the neighborhood cats.
The cat answered with a meow and looked to him from a clear plastic picnic table as Andy unscrewed the metal lid from a milk cannister he'd picked up from the Brown Farm. He'd often picked some spare canisters over the years to feed the cats and used what they'd had left over from when their cattle were milked. Often times it was somethin rather limited, and not much more than a decent sized bottle. This time, however, he'd found a whole can left at the point where he normally came to pick up that leftover milk. It was heavier than expected, but Andy wasn't about to turn down what the Browns often gave him to assure that the neighborhood cats were. Thus he set about move things away to pour the milk into one of the bowels he used to feed the cats with.
"No... you'll need to wait until I've poured it," Andy said to Fluffy as the cat came forward, though it stopped as the milk began to splash a bit into the bowl as he poured the milk into it.
"Meow," Fluffy mewed to him and looked at the bowl.
"Yes, I know you're hungry, but we don't want to make a mess, now do we?" Andy replied and waited for Fluffy to "meow" again, "and besides, it's getting late and I have work tomorrow..."
"Rrrrr," Fluffy responded in a way that to Andy sounded almost frustrated.
"Now you know that you'll have company," Andy replied, "I'm sure Jasmine, Topaz, Pearl, Jade, and Garnett will be by eventually. And you get along well with them."
Andy wasn't sure on what the cats that were pets of his neighbors were named, and thus he'd often named them after a gemstone that he'd heard of, mostly because he thought the name sounded sweet. The only reason Fluffy didn't get a similar name was that Fluffy was a long haired cat of some variety while the others all had short hair. Thus Fluffy's long fur stood out and did look fluffy. Andy couldn't help himself with Fluffy's name. The others were more familiar with people and relatively friendly, even with him, but because they were semi-indoor/out-door cats, they weren't always the sort to crave attention. They came to his house because he put out milk, but he figured that was about it.
He watched Fluffy as he screwed the metal lid back on the milk canister. The cat watched him with her eyes and followed his movements as he moved to set the bowl on the ground outside a sliding door. For a few moments she sat quietly as Andy then turned back to pick up the canister and to carry it inside. Andy heard some other "meows" in the area, and figured this was probably the others, as they often did seem to turn up at around the same time. Some of it didn't make sense, but to Andy, caring for them in a way made the most sense...
The last he saw of Fluffy for the night was when he carried the canister through the sliding door and then shut it was Fluffy jumping from the picnic table to the ground and moving to investigate the milk bowel. From there he set about moving the canister to the garage, where it was cooler, and then setting about to go to bed...
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Andy awoke the next morning to find things very different from when he went to bed. He found a large furry head nuzzled up against the right sight of his head and another nuzzled against the left side of his head. A third lay directly on top of him and his covers. Two more were curled around his feet and even through his covers he could the weight being put on them. Further back a sixth figure lay asleep on the footboard of his bed, it didn't look super comfortable to Andy, but that wasn't the biggest thing. That was in the steady purring that he heard from each of them and even felt reverberate through the covers and into him. And then the one on top of him opened her eyes.
"You're awake!" the gray and black tabby Animalian said with a growing smile and think licked at his nose and then his eyebrows, as if to groom him.
The statement got the other five to wake up and Andy could only watch as six Cat Animalians woke up and looked to him, each with fairly friendly smiles appearing on their muzzles. If surprised Andy greatly, as while he'd seen the news reports regarding Animalia over the summer, he'd thought all of that was limited to the Brown Farm and the areas immediately around it. He didn't think that it would come into town.
"Who... what... how did you get in?" Andy stuttered as he looked to all six Animalians and noted that the were all decidedly female. Though his eyes focused the most on a gray and black tabby with longer fur.
"I'm Fluffy, as you've called me," the gray and black tabby spoke, "and figuring out your doors was a lot easier once we all had hands to open them... and you've been so kind to us..."
"Even if you weren't an owner," said an all black cat with green eyes, "which we liked. So... when we became Animalians, we thought we'd give you comfort and companionship... though we also found that your bed is smaller than we expected..."
"More that we got bigger," said a brown furred Cat Animalian, who then turned to Andy, "My owners had a little girl who "named" me "Fuzzy Butt," but I think prefer the name you gave me, Garnett. It doesn't refer to my anatomy."
"Like Fluffy... I was a stray, but I do like the name "Jade..." I think it matches my eyes," said the all black Cat Animalian.
"I liked the name my owner's gave me, Lovely," a calico colored Cat Animalian commented, "but I liked the name you gave me too... Topaz. So... I figured that like Humans, I'd take two names. You can call me Lovely Topaz. I think it sounds nice."
"My owners called me "Snowflake," but I think I liked the name you gave me more," an all white Cat Animalian spoke, "Pearl."
The last was a bluish gray, and likely a Russian Blue based on her with green colored eyes, though they were a slightly different shade from Jade's. She straightened the fur on her hips for a moment and then said, "By pure luck, you've actually given me the same name my owners did, Jasmine."
Andy's eyes practically bulged out of his head as he looked to them All six cats that he'd typically seen come to his backyard and drink the milk that he provided had somehow become Animalians and decided to enter his home and join him in bed, almost as in the same way that some pets often cuddled up to their owners.
"How?" Andy managed, partially in disbelief.
"We don't know," Fluffy said weakly, "you'd left the milk out for us and I got a drink... and so did the others and then we all started changing... becoming..."
"Animalians," Jasmine finished for Fluffy, getting the sense that the stray cat wasn't as familiar with what had happened over the summer, "My owners saw all the reports on that on the news... they live outside of Lyre."
"I think we look good as Animalians," said Lovely Topaz.
"And we wanted to thank you for all your kindness," Fluffy picked up, "there were some things about your behavior that I didn't understand... but once I became an Animalian... I strangely seemed to have some sense of that. You care... even for those of us that would already have owners. We all agreed that we liked that."
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And from there, Andy had found himself with six friends who all happened to be female and all had at least some interest in him. He helped them get some form of employment in Lyre or Animalia, as the town grew, and it all worked out fairly well. This then in turn lead to them pooling their money that they earned for upgrades to Andy's own home, including buying a king sized bed that could would fit more than one person comfortably. Those that had owners did get along well with them and often were out of the house to help them too, but the one that was almost always at Andy's was Fluffy. She took over much of the housekeeping, cooking, and organizing, and insisted on doing it, no matter how many times that Andy told her she didn't need to. She ultimately told him that she was making up for the care he'd given her over the years before her uplifting.
And that was set things up from where they were now, as Andy looked up to Fluffy who was likely preparing at least hers and the other cat's dinners.
"Yeah... a rough day," Andy sighed, "People are still scared and are wanting to be tested..."
"For this Covid 19?" Fluffy asked, her voice nervously, "I'd seen some things on the news that's said that even pets could get it... which..."
"Could theoretically mean Animalians could get it," Andy nodded, "Thankfully... Lyre and Animalia hasn't had too much of a risk. We had one or two Humans from Lyre get it... but they have recovered and there have been no reports that anyone they'd interacted with got it... though possibly because Lyre and Animalia have tried to arrange more with regard to testing. The real potential hotspots for this thing regarding Animalians is going to be either Dino City and Skull Island here in America. With the other colonies... I'm not knowledgeable enough on the local situation to know. But with those two American colonies... with Florida and Texas both putting in place rapid reopening plans... particularly while their case numbers are still going up... there is the greater potential for exposure, and with testing being so low... no one can be sure. Shoot... even with the few cases that made it to Lyre, and managed to avoid community spread, people have been afraid and wanting to be tested."
"When do you think it will end?" Fluffy asked, "Garnett is worried about her former owner. The girl's done well at school... but she's seemed sad, according to Garnett, mentioned not being able to play with someone... I think Polly was the name... or was it Molly..."
"I don't know," Andy managed with a sigh, "all we can do is hope and pray."