It is currently 20:40 Pacific Time on Sun Mar 14 2004. Currently in Saint Claire, it is clear outside. The temperature is 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 10 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.38 and steady, and the relative humidity is 86 percent. The dewpoint is 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius.) Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (43% full). Zoo - Cell At the very back of the building, one of the inner offices isn't open, nor does it have a blanket covering the entrance. Instead, the doorway is sealed closed with steel bars from one of the animal cages. Bent pieces of metal have been hammered into the cement wall and act like hinges, allowing the makeshift door to swing open and closed with a little effort. Similar semi-circles of metal have been embedded into the opposite side of the doorway and when metal pipes are slipped through these, they effectively lock the makeshift door from the outside. The room itself is roughly fifteen by fifteen feet and consists of a single musty mattress, a pile of ratty blankets for warmth, and a bucket for sanitary purposes. In addition to these basic necessities, the floor is littered with chew toys, large bones, and a handful of mangled softballs. Any way you look at it, the room is little more then a cage and a sparse one at that. It doesn't take very long for Squeaks to completely distroy the cake. Although, it almost looks as if more cake got onto her face and hands then her stomach. Having found such a tasty treat in the first box, the young Mule makes a grab for the second box. Cornpop scuttles along outside the bars of the cell, then stops and rises briefly onto her hind legs to stick her whiskery nose in the air for a good sniff. Dakota leans down and pushes her box over to Squeaks, pulling off the unattached lid. The large box is full to brim with a whole assortment of things: toys that squeak and ones that crunch, a solid rubber ball, a big stuffed bear with pleanty of stuffing inside to spread around, and handfuls of smaller goodies like cookies and other tasty snacks. "There ya go kiddo. That should last you all of ten minutes." Alicia says with a chuckle as she leans against her chest some. "Oh, your mother says that she loves you and misses yeh." She says softly. "She'll be home soon." The stuffed bear goes flying, as Squeaks goes through the box. She wants those cookies. The pup is rather focused on the box and doesn't respond to Alicia's words. Really, its difficult to tel how much English she understands. The little sickly rat sits back down and watches from outside the bars, leaky black eyes blinking rapidly. Her whiskers twitch and her jaws work in some arcane rodent way. Dakota takes a step away to give the little Metis enough room to devestate the box and all of it's contents, looking over to Alicia as she mentions Renee, looking interested. "You talked to her? How's she doing?" "She's.. um.. alright. She called me from down south. Just taking some time off, ya'know." Alicia says with a shrug of her shoulders. "I suppose she is just enjoying her vacation. We didn't talk long." Squeaks pulls a handfull of milk bones out of the box and sits down with them, eating them one by one. She is eating slower now, having just finished eating an entire cake. The kid stops eating after a moment and her nose twitches. Tongue running over her nose, the pup looks over at the cage door and then throws one of the cookies at the bars. It hits the metal with a ping and comes to rest relativly close to the sickly rat. Cornpop utters an audible squeak and scuttles over to investigate the milkbone. After sniffing it for a bit, she crouches down at one end and starts nibbling. Dakota nods her head slowly to Alicia's words, but before she can say anything back, the flying bone and the squeak of the rat draws her attention, and she looks over to the small mammal. Alicia lets her eyes stare over towards the rat for a moment, before turning her attention to Dakota. Rising upwards, she stretches herself out some, then pops a few joints. "So, what now?" She asks her cousin. A few milkbones remain clutched in one cake-covered hand, as Squeaks crawls back over to her corner. The stuffed bear is picked up on route and dragged under the blankets with her. Cornpop continues nibbling on the milkbone, keeping a wary watch on the big people all the while. Dakota removes her eyes from the rat and back towards her cousin, "Well, suppose we can leave her to digest." She says with a grin, glancing over to the lumped blankets containing Squeaks. The pup yawns and then squeaks a few times like and overly large rat, as she makes herself comfortable in her 'bed'. The sound really just doesn't sound right, coming from a minature Crinos. "Yah. We should probably get home anyways. I'm sure you wanna see Jer and I got some stuff to take care of before I turn in." Alicia offers a smile over towards the pup, then slips out the door, waiting for her cousin to depart as well. The lock is soon put back into place. "Take care Squeaks." She calls in softly. "Happy birthday." Cornpop scampers quickly off as the two head for the door and disappears into the shadows, leaving the nibbled milkbone behind. Squeaks sleepily licks some of the cake from her paws, quickly falling asleep. "Happy birthday," Dakota echoes quietly, a soft smile on her face as she turns away from the cage and makes her way back out.