Disclaimer: I do not own Home, or anything in the franchise.

Bringing Pig Home

Oh walked into the kitchen for some breakfast.

"Good morning, Tip! Good morning, Pig Cat! Good morning, Miss Tucci!" He greeted the family as he took a seat at the table.

"Morning, Oh!" Tip replied while preparing breakfast for Pig. Once she had Pig's food bowl ready, she put it on the floor next to the table.

"Morning, Oh!" Lucy responded while putting some pancakes in a stack on a plate.

Tip took her seat next to where Pig was eating, and beamed at Oh. "Oh, today's a special day for us!"

"A day that is special? What is it? It is not being someone's birthday, right? I has not got presents to give." Oh turned slightly yellow in fear of forgetting someone's birthday.

"No, it's not anything like that, but it is close." Lucy answered, putting the stack of pancakes at the center of the table. Then she, Tip, and Oh began to pick out pancakes to put on their plates.

"Then what it is?"

Tip glanced down at the cat beside her. "Today's the anniversary of when we got Pig. It's been four years since we got him."

"Four years? That is long time ago." Oh got a curious look on his face. "How did you got him?"

Tip swallowed a piece of pancake. "Well, four years ago, we lived in Barbados…"

Nine-year-old Tip was on her way home from school. School was close enough to her home in Barbados that she could walk there and back every day. Mom always left home, and arrived back half an hour to an hour after she did. With school no longer restraining her for the day, she was free to move at her own pace.

Crossing an intersection, she hummed a song that her mom liked to listen to, a song which she also liked as well. She was about to start the next verse when she heard a noise in the alley she was passing. She froze in place, and glanced down the alley.

What did she hear?

It was so quick that she didn't get a chance to identify the sound. It almost sounded like a bang, but she was quite sure.

Waiting a moment, she listened for another sound, but all she heard was silence. Assured that it was nothing, she shrugged, and turned to continue heading home.

Blam!

She whirled to the alley again. She had definitely heard something that time. If she squinted, she could make out the slightest bit of movement in the shadows.

"Hello?" The young girl called out softly. Giving her backpack straps a slight squeeze for reassurance, she took a hesitant step into the alley. With the first step taken, she found it a little easier to make the others.

As she went further into the alley, she saw more visible movement. Something was obviously shaking the garbage can nearby.

Eyeing the garbage can tentatively, she tiptoed towards it, reached out for it, and quickly threw it down in hopes of it doing something.

She heard a screech as garbage clattered to the ground. Afraid she might have startled something, Tip took a step back to give whatever it was some room.

For half a minute, she didn't see anything appear from around the garbage can. She started to think she had spooked whatever it was so badly that it went into hiding.

Mentally slapping her forehead in annoyance at her own paranoia, she lifted up her eyes to look at the spilled garbage again, and it appeared to her that her assumption was wrong.

Around the garbage can came a small cat with white fur on its underbelly, and had black and orange blobs on its back. It even had a curly tail like a pig's.

Silently, Tip watched as the cat checked over the garbage, and did a little digging through. After a moment, Tip thought she heard the cat equivalent of a snort meant to display annoyance, and the cat clambered out of the trash.

"Sorry, didn't know you were there." She apologized to the cat as it continued to search around.

It's looking for food. Tip thought to herself. She didn't know a whole lot about cats, but she knew enough just how limited a cat's diet was.

Then she remembered that she had a leftover yogurt in her backpack. It had been meant for a snack when she was hungry before or after lunch, but it had gone untouched all day. Yogurt was one of the things that cats could eat even if a little bit.

Taking off her backpack, she set it on the ground, and opened it up. Upon reaching inside, she found exactly what she was looking for.

"Hey cat, come here." Tip said to the cat.

The cat perked up at Tip's statement, it recognized cat in the words, and was able to connect that to the idea that it was being called upon. Though wary of the human it just noticed, the cat approached at a hesitant rate.

Meanwhile, Tip tore open the yogurt. Momentarily sticking her finger on the rim of the container covered in yogurt, she stuck the finger in her mouth to do an experimental taste. Even after being out of the refrigerator a while, it still tasted fine. She approved. Glancing down, she spotted the cat a few feet away from her.

"Hey, you're hungry?" Tip wiped her finger on the yogurt again, and held out a little bit to the cat. "Here, try some. It's good."

The cat sniffed at the yogurt, observing everything about it. Its analysis completed, the cat slowly took a lick of yogurt off Tip's finger. The cat visibly reacted with a twitch of curiosity. Then it went for another lick, and another, and several more after that.

The girl had to laugh a little. The cat's tongue was ticklish on her finger, especially with the yogurt on it.

The finger was soon cleaned, and Tip swiped up more of the frozen dairy product. "Here, have some more." Again, the cat licked her finger clean.

She did this a few more times before she decided the cat had a healthy amount for a feline.

"Okay, I gave you some food. You can go now. Shoo." Tip waved the cat away. The cat appeared to not understand her motions, tilting its head confusedly. "Go on." At last, the cat got the message, and padded off to wherever it came from.

Giving the retreating cat a smile, Tip stood up, and left the alley. Walking with the yogurt still in her hand, she thought about her first encounter with a stray cat.

The next day, Tip walked home from school. When she passed by the alley, she saw the cat wandering around the garbage again.

"Hey, you're back." Tip said to the cat, catching its attention. "You want some more yogurt?"

Taking the yogurt for the day out of her backpack, she repeated the same process as yesterday, feeding the cat finger after finger of yogurt until she thought it had eaten a reasonable amount.

"Bye." She waved as she left the cat in the alley again.

The cycle went on for another solid two weeks, and sometimes she varied on what she brought the cat. Instead of yogurt, she would bring fish, or a sausage. On one day during a weekend, she even took out a yogurt, and 'went for a walk' to go meet up with the cat in the alley. Her mom had no idea what she was doing with the food.

After the two weeks had gone by, Tip had felt attached to the cat. She loved looking at the orange eyes, the colorful fur, and the cute, little, curly pig tail. She had wanted a pet when she was younger, but her mom had said she wasn't old enough, and it was just the two of them so it would be hard to take care of a cat as a pet.

Having this little experience under her belt, she felt she was reasonably qualified to take care of a cat. She knew what to feed it, she knew the places to scratch, the fact that the cat bathed itself. She could handle it; she knew that.

It was a Friday when Tip made a split-second decision without even thinking about possible consequences. Scooping up the cat gently in her arms, she carried him home. The cat looked like a boy to her.

"Here's home." She cooed to the cat, putting him down, and letting him explore while she closed the front door. While the cat explored, Tip pointed a look in his direction even though he didn't appear to pay any attention. "Now, I have homework to do, and if I want to prove to my mom that I can take care of a cat, I have to get my homework done first, so don't do anything that will get us in trouble." Taking a seat at the dining table, she pulled out her homework, and began working while the cat observed every little comfort spot he could find.

Her homework was done fifteen minutes before her mom got home, and that allowed her time to play with him.

"Gratuity, I'm home." Lucy Tucci announced as she entered the household. As she put her stuff down, she noticed the completed homework on the table, and wondered where her daughter was. "Gratuity? Tip?"

It was at that point she heard the soft giggling of her child. Deciding to investigate what could be causing such an odd laugh, she followed the noise to her daughter's bedroom.

When she arrived at her daughter's bedroom, she cracked open the door, and was met with a sight she wasn't expecting.

Tip laughed as the cat circled around her on her bed. The cat nuzzled against her left side and her right side, and purred when the girl stroked his back. While she rubbed his back, the nine-year-old girl looked up at the door to her room, noticing her mother peeking in.

"Hi, Mom! I brought a friend home. He's awesome!" As Tip peered down at the cat on her bed, the cat meowed happily.

Lucy Tucci was stunned, no words could express her thoughts at the moment.

"So, you've been feeding him for two weeks on your way home from school?" Lucy questioned as she and her daughter sat on the couch with their guest.

Tip nodded in response. "Yep, I knew cats could eat a little yogurt here and there, and I knew it could eat other stuff we had so I gave him some of that. While he ate sometimes, I would scratch his back, or rub his head. I even let him play with some yarn that was leftover from art class. Cats love that kind of stuff."

"Sounds like you've done quite the job taking care of him in such short times. I'm not sure I could've pulled that off myself when I was your age." The cat chose that time to snuggle up against her, letting her try to scratch his back briefly.

"Thanks, Mom." Tip beamed at the praise she received. Then she put a pleading look on her face. "Please, can I keep him? I won't forget to feed him, I'll clean out the litter box, everything. I do great in school, and I think I can handle taking care of a pet too."

"Well…" Her mother thought.

Tip had brought up wanting a pet before, but she was too young for that at the time. She was older, smarter, and she had obviously taken care of the cat for the past two full weeks, even on the weekends while not having school at the time. The way her daughter interacted with the cat was a clear sign that they had formed a bond already. Lucy had to admit, between her and her daughter, a pet would liven up the house a little. The only thing was Tip had no experience cleaning a litter box, and neither did she. Litter boxes were supposed to smell bad, and they sounded complicated to clean out. That was one potential deal breaker.

"How about we get a litter box, and see how that works? If it works out well, then we can keep him." She offered to her daughter.

"Really? Oh thanks so much, Mom!" Tip threw herself at her mom, being careful to avoid squishing the cat between them, and gave her a hug.

"You're welcome, sweetie." Lucy said as they broke off the hug, and gazed down at the cat. "If we're going to keep him, he's going to need a name. What do you want to call him?"

Tip smiled knowingly. "Pig."

"Pig?" Lucy raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Pig." The daughter then motioned with her hand to the curly tail. "His tail reminds me of a pig's, and he almost sounds like a pig when he's resting. Listen…"

The two Tucci family members were silent, listening for the sounds of a pig. Sure enough, the cat emitted noises every once in a while that sounded like a pig's oink.

"I guess you're right." Lucy smiled at the cat. "Welcome to the Tucci family, Pig."

"Nice story that is." Oh complimented as the family took their dishes to the sink for rinsing.

Tip nodded. "Yeah, I don't know what I'd do without Pig. Before I made any friends here after the move, Pig was always there when I needed someone to hang out with. Having a best friend who lives in your house is great."

"So, what doing we do today?" Oh questioned as Lucy rinsed their dishes.

"Today, we celebrate Pig." Tip told him. "We're all going to the park."

Oh clapped his hands, turning a joyful pink. "I loves the park! The park are always very fun."

"Come on, let's go to the park!" Lucy declared, grabbing her purse and her keys.

Pig watched as Tip picked up his empty food bowl, and put it on the counter.

"Let's go, Pig. The park is your playground today." Tip said to him as she picked him up.

"Park!" Oh enthusiastically ran out the door. Tip carried Pig out after him, and Lucy left last, locking the door behind them.

Okay, so I just loved Home when I saw it last week, and I had to post something for the category. I loved the characters, the story, and I especially loved the flying car! That would be super awesome to drive!