Sanctuary

'''They were left in the sanctuary, waiting to be adopted. But, the spirit of adventure called them...'''

The Sanctuary
By a small and charming brook sits a humble building. The walls are made of painted white wood and the shingles are orange and in a cutesy and youthful style. Each window shape varies from squares to circles and the glass panes are covered with spotted curtains. The door has a heart-shaped cut-out, allowing visitors to peer in. A little bell hangs from it. It lets out a chime when it swings open.

This charming little shack is the Pet Sanctuary, where ownerless pets reside. Ferrets and hamsters skitter through plastic tubes. Platypi, ducks, and crocodiles paddle through their own ponds. Arctic critters hop from ice trays, pretending that they are icebergs. Butterflies and honeybees pollinate potted flowers. Bunnies of different colors and golden shades peep up from their holes, along with the uncommon meerkats. Cats and dogs leap to the counters. Snakes sun their scales on flat rocks. Falcons and eagles perch on overhead bars. Roosters crow their cock-a-doodle-doos and the baby chicks cheep their little heads off. The skunks are freshened up by flowers braided in their tails. Peacocks spread their mighty feathers. Ponies trot along the tracked in dirt, in which the piglets wallow. Heat lamps guard rainbows of eggs, waiting to hatch. This ruckus is all normal for a sanctuary of pets.

However, one particular platypus was bored of it all. She had been here for several months ever since she hatched from an egg. The sanctuary was often glanced over, leaving it devoid of those who wished to adopt. This platypus, simply referring to herself by the name of Sandy, crawled out of the cold platypi pond, shaking her damp white fuzz. She slunk into her selected Pet Stop clothes that had been left by the owner of the sanctuary. Sandy had been provided with a little pet sweater, the wool matching her fur, with light gray stripes and a black bow to reside by her frizzy bangs. The platypus lapped at the dew that still aligned itself on her duck beak.

Sandy's brown beaver tail slapped at the ground as she walked about, hoping not to run into any other pets, who would always go out of their ways to question her very odd and unusual behaviors. She thought the coast was clear when she encountered a pet she despised. It was a crocodile who named himself Ado. He was an aurora blue color and had a choppy and toothy grin that appeared in a fiendish way.

"What's wrong, lil' Platty?" Ado taunted, fangs glittering. Sandy hated when he called her "lil' Platty". "Scared of me, as always?"

Sandy wasn't scared. Ado always tried to be her lover and when she rejected him, he stupidly mistook it for fear. The platypus' beaver tail thumped on the floor faster. "Shut up, Ado!" She growled, the gristly groans bursting through her bill. "I already told you, no! I don't love you!"

The crocodile did not accept the answer. "Aww, are you sure you don't want me? I know something that might seal the deal." He readied his jaws in a puckering position. He was trying to kiss her.

Sandy backed up, attempting to avoid Ado's smooching lips. "No, never. Get off my case! I'll never!" Ado still did not deviate from his plan. Sandy backed up farther and farther until she hit something with a THUD. Her eyes glanced upward, seeing what had been hit. She had walked into a counter of heat lamps and straw nests. A black and white striped egg leaned out of the straw towards the edge. A fragile egg in a life-sealing shell, tumbling onto a killer floor, losing its balance from what seemed to be a simple bump.

Ado froze. Sandy froze. Everything froze.