Abigail and Animals.

"Xander, come see this." Cordelia called.

"What is it?" He asked, coming into the kitchen. Cordelia was standing at the backdoor, looking out.

"Seems Abigail can communicate with animals too." She said.

Xander looked out to see Abigail holding a squirrel, with two others sitting on the picnic table next to her. With his enhanced vision, Xander could tell, each of the squirrels had an injury. One was missing part of its tail. Another had a missing eye and the one Abigail was holding, actually had some blood on it. It was holding still while she cleaned the blood off of it. Then he heard her say. "There, all clean. Its just a little booboo. If it still hurts or starts bleeding come back, I'll fix it again." Which was pretty much what Jesse had said when she got a small cut on her hand recently, at the same time, she had her hand on its head, using mind touch. The squirrel scampered off. She turned to the other two and said. "I'm sorry, I can't fix your boo-boos. They're too old. But your tail is still cute and fuzzy and your still a very nice squirrel." Again using mind touch as well. "I'll tell my daddy about the mean kids who threw rocks at you. He can talk to their daddies, who will tell them not to be mean." As the two squirrels scampered off as well.

When Abigail pointed out the boys from the mind touch with the squirrels, Xander did indeed tell their fathers that they'd been seen throwing rocks at and injuring squirrels. He just didn't tell the fathers who the 'witnesses' were.

Once, while at the beach, Abigail saw a sea gull. Several people were avoiding it, as anytime someone came near it, it would screech loudly. People were afraid to get near it because they thought it would attack them. Abigail rolled her eyes and said. "It's scared and it's hurt. Back up." And boldly walked up to the seagull and put her hand on its head. Once it calmed down, Abigail lifted it up and everyone could see some plastic caught around its leg. It must have been there for awhile, since it was wound tight and cutting into the leg. That one necessitated a visit to Ms. Sam, Medicine Woman for the Chumash People. "I'm usually not an animal doctor, Abigail, but I'll see what I can do." She managed, with Abigail constantly reassuring the seagull, via mind touch, to cut the plastic off its leg and clean the injury. It left a scar. After a few days, they were able to let it go and Abigail looked awed as it flew away. "Daddy, it looks so happy flying!"

He supposed it did look happy.

When Abigail brought a dog home one day, Xander felt he had to say something.

"Honey, does that dog belong to someone?"

"Yes daddy, but he'd rather stay with me. They never play with him or talk to him. He lives in the backyard. I told him, I'd share my bed."

Xander eventually got her to tell him where she found the dog and talked to the people. Turns out, they'd decided they didn't want a dog after all, too much work they said. Xander wondered, if they left it in the backyard all the time and never played with it, where was the work? Bobby, as Abigail decided to name the dog, did indeed sleep on her bed. Xander and Cordelia would take turns helping Abigail walk Bobby. Abigail and Xander played with him, so did Morgan and Allie when they came over to visit, and Bobby took to napping on the couch beside Cordelia, who told people, he was guarding the baby. Bobby, dog of indeterminate breed, fit into their Pack very well.

"Daddy, I don't like snakes." Abigail told Xander one night. Afraid she might have been bitten by one, since she had no fear were animals were concerned, he said. "Did one hurt you, honey?"

"No daddy, but they don't think like other animals. Their minds are cold. It's like being in a freezer. Unless one's hurt, I'm not going to talk to them."

"Okay, probably a good idea. Some of them like to bite."

When he told Jack about the conversation, his response was, "We never have to worry about her being friendly to a Goau'ld then. I kinda wondered if she'd ever try to talk to talk one, they way you guys can. Teal'C did his meditation thing once with junior and it was real nasty to him. She really does not need to know what goes on in the minds of evil, maniacal galactic baddies."

A sentiment Xander could wholeheartedly agree with.

Over the years, Abigail kept up a steady stream of animals that she brought home. They'd often find animals in the backyard. But the bat that flew out of Abigail's closet at Cordelia, while she was putting clothes away, did kinda cause some upset. But once Cordelia did her own mind touch with the bat and found that it was actually guarding Abigail because it had seen some ugly little grey demons watching her from the shadows one night sent Xander and the Pack on a hunt for them, where they once again explained in careful, precise and painful detail just why kids, but especially the Protectors kids, were off limits.