The New Pet

A new stray finds its way to the Cullens' front door step

Prologue:

It has long been said that strays make the best pets or at least the most interesting ones anyway. They show up at the park while you're having lunch and con you out of your pastrami on rye with a signal forlorn look. They follow you home from work on miserable afternoons and end up spending the night in your garage, your laundry room, your den, and eventually your bed. They greet you unexpectedly on your front porch when you go out to get the morning paper and, by the time you realize their in a motherly way, their having a litter on your favorite sweater.

Perhaps the most difficult strays to deal with though are the ones your kids bring home. They usually find the poor pathetic creatures half dead in a ditch by the side of the road. Now suddenly you're faced with the hard choice of letting nature take its course or mortgaging your house to pay the emergency vet. One look into your kids angelic faces and the decision is made for you but the difficulty doesn't end there. That's where it begins.

"Daddy, can we keep it?"

"Pleeeeeease, Daddy?"

"We promise, we'll take good care of it."

What's a father to do?