Day 17- Cody and a Tooka

When it came to bringing in unregistered items, Cody was fairly lenient. So long as his troopers asked before hand, and nothing had been stolen.

And the troopers knew this. Yet, some insisted on bringing unauthorized things along anyway.

Tookas were a particular favorite to try and smuggle on board. Waxer and Boil had a habit of "accidentally" adopting them.

Cody warned time and time again that really pets were an inconvenience. He didn't necessarily not like them, but they used up needed their resources. Quite honestly, he wouldn't mind having one around, but he knew not only was it against regulations, but it used what they needed to survived. And no, they would not be cutting anyone's rations for a tooka.

Now, there was one particular time they did manage to keep a tooka on board for a whole week. Cody asked to be rid of it immediately. However, when he found it, they were already back on the cruiser going through hyperspace. Needless to say, setting back on any planet would have been a challenge at that moment.

So, the Tooka stayed.

It stayed and all the troops became quite fond of it, Cody included, as reluctant as he was to do so (they would have to let it go sooner or later, and getting attached to it would really be a waste of time).

The tooka wanted to live in the mess hall, but that really wasn't an option; there was the danger of it eating more than they could afford. So, it slept with one of the troops in the night, and remained supervised during the rest of the day.

Cody would never have admitted it to any of his men, but he enjoyed the company of the tooka. If he was filling out paperwork, the tooka would be with him. When he was giving the mission debrief, the cat climbed onto his shoulder and stayed there. It was comfortable, and had found a new favorite spot. It wasn't uncommon to see later on Cody walking with the animal perched on his shoulder.

Unfortunately -and to everyone's disappointment- the tooka did have to leave. When the next assignment came up, the men agreed it was time to let their pet go. When they landed on their next planet, they would set it free.

Cody didn't want to be in the gunship that had the tooka in it; he wouldn't say, but he didn't want to watch it go.