CHAPTER ONE

The first story my Grampa ever told me was the one about how he got adopted.  I believed every word to be true.  As I got older, I still believed him, even though my mom didn’t.  It just sounded too strange to her.  

She’d often argue with Grampa about what kind of stories he was telling me.  When he insisted they were all true, she just threw her hands in the air and gave up.  Until the next time.

Y’see, Grampa always said that he’d been adopted by aliens … like, real aliens from outer space, called floog!  One of these floog, whose name was Xerix, was a scientist from another planet who came here to study us Earthlings.  

He disguised himself so he could learn what he  could.  And,  among other things, he learned how we humans had the custom of adopting pets.

This custom sounded interesting to Xerix.  He decided he would adopt a pet himself, and take it back to his own planet.  He just couldn’t make up his mind about what kind of pet to get.  Then he saw those two-legged pets in people’s yards!

To him that kind looked like a lot of fun.  They seemed to be able to get along with most other pets and their owners.  They could even talk, you see, and he thought that would be great!

Xerix learned that he could adopt the two-legged kind at something called an orphanage.  Yes, I know.  Orphanages are  places for little children who have no parents to take care of them, but Xerix didn’t know that.  

Everyone he talked to thought he was just an odd little man, who was curious about things.   However, they did wonder how he could not know what a pet was.

Xerix had missed the clue about human children, you see.  To him all humans were these very large creatures.  Xerix was only a little alien, about three and a half feet high.  He had no idea that humans started out real small, like me for instance.  He kind of jumped the gun on that one, because I could be a handful.  Just ask my mom.

Boy, was Xerix in for a surprise.

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