Jeff headed to the petting zoo at the outskirts of the zoo. Unlike the exciting exotic animal exhibits, the farm animal area seemed poorly attended by visitors, only a few families wandering around the pens. In the center of the of the area was a large enclosure filled with all sorts of animals common to farms, the creatures acting docile and otherwise uninterested as the sparsity of children followed after them and pet them.
A seven year old boy named Liam was alone in the big main pen away from the other groups of children. He was a bit of a runt, even for his age, sporting a short dirty-blonde bob haircut and lightly tanned skin He was trying his best get a jack donkey’s attention, playfully pushing against his broad flank, petting and tugging his mane, but all the large creature just ignored him, idly gnawing on the hay strewn about the grounds of the enclosure.
“Are you hungry, big guy?” Liam pat the donkey on his belly as it kept sauntering away, clearly disinterested in him. The boy looked around, spotting a hand-crank feed machine sticking out of a turn style on the pen’s fence, 25 cents per handful. Liam’s eyes lit up, realizing food had to be the way to get his attention and to maybe make an animal friend.
“Mom!” The young boy called out to a woman in her late thirties sitting alone on a picnic bench as she idly scrolled through Tindr matches on her smart phone, paying no attention to her son. “Mom! Can I have quarter? I need some treats for the animals!” She didn’t move a muscle save for her finger swiping left every few seconds, ignoring her son until his cries died down, the boy eventually giving up.
“Hey kid,” Jeff smiled at the boy, holding a shiny quarter in his hand as he walked up to him on the other side of the fence, “Got a need for some feed?” He chuckled.
Liam shied away, taking a few steps backward away from the fence until he realized the stranger was offering him a quarter.
“Oh! Umm… thanks, Mister.” Liam smiled awkwardly, taking a few anxious steps forward as he reached out for the coin resting in the palm of Jeff’s hand.
“Hey! Hold your horses, little guy.” Jeff smiled, his fingers clamping around the coin as he lifted his hand out of reach. “I can get it for you, don’t you worry!”
As Jeff approached the machine, he fiddled with his phone on his other hand, quickly pulling up Liam’s profile and making a few adjustments to as the young boy looked on. When he was finished, he held out his palm to the bottom of the machine and turned the crank, the quarter disappearing into the hole as the inner mechanisms whirred, dumping a hardy serving of sweet grain feed into Jeff’s hand.
“Thanks, Mister!” Liam shyly smiled, holding out both hands flat, hoping that Jeff would simply dump the animal food onto his hands, but Jeff had other plans.
“Nope!” he grinned, closing his palm as the boy tried to scoop the feed out of his hand.
“H-huh?” Liam staggered back, looking up to Jeff with a confused glance, “I th-thought this was for me…”
“It is…” Jeff smiled, lifting his hand up to the young boy’s head, resting it on his scalp as he gently stroked him. Liam let out a gasp at the sudden unwanted touch, reaching up to try to wrest Jeff’s hand off before… realizing that maybe he liked it – he liked being pet. Liam’s eyes lidded a little as he felt Jeff gingery rustle his hair, that hand of animal feed opening up again, but this time getting pressed up right under Liam’s nose.
“W-wait… you want me to…?” Liam said before drifting off into a coo, his mind feeling lifter as an alien-feeling, light-headed fog whisper over his young mind – loving the feeling of finally getting the attention he craved all day.
“Yeah,” Jim smiled, “Go ahead, I said it was for you.”
Liam’s hesitated a little at first but gradually his head gently dipped down, his chin resting on Jeff’s thumb as his tiny lips picked out one of those dried cubes of grain. He took it in his mouth, suckling on the hard chunk of feed before using his back teeth to crunch down on it and chew it into powder. It wasn’t bad… in fact it tasted like dry breakfast cereal. The boy let out a pleasured sign as Jeff kept stroking his head, one-by-one those pellets disappearing into Liam’s mouth. His lips grew a little larger, a small muzzle starting to develop that made it all the easier to eat the animal food with.
“That’s the idea… good –