You think having an exciteable dog or a scratching cat is bad for your carpets? Try having a Koratian roommate.

Don't get me wrong. Zodelo is great and I couldn't really ask for a better roomie. He's a young black, about eighteen or nineteen by human years, so he tells me, which means he's four actual years old; he works at the local grain mill, threshing wheat and slicing things up with those claws of his, and so his hours supplement mine to afford us this little house.

But, after a week of living together, the formerly thick and plush carpets in my bedroom were shredded and uneven from him just stopping in to visit me. One week! The living room carpet had to be replaced with hardwood flooring, and now even that is beginning to show signs of scratches through the layers of varnish. It's kind of rare for Korats to live in a house with a non-dirt or non-grass floor, so I guess human technology hasn't had to compensate that much for the damage they do, even though they walk with their longclaws off the ground.

Vacuuming's fun, too. The mutilated strands of carpet - the longest ones - get caught in the machine sometimes, and I have to turn it off and manually haul it to a different section of the floor. The tile in the kitchen seems to be the most resistent to wear, having only one or two nicks in the whole floor, but tile's cold and I don't want it throughout the whole house. I don't like having to wear sandals or socks -all- the time. Especially when, well, Korats don't wear clothes, and so I feel a bit more free to just go around in shorts and nothing else. At least, in the house, when it's warm... people around here are still kinda conservative, when it comes to women not wearing shirts. Well, human women, at least - the other species, it's different, they usually don't have really prominent breasts when they aren't nursing.

Bah, that's a tangent. I was talking about living with Zodie. He's great, he really is. My parents were all upset with me when I didn't wanna share a house with my older sister when I moved out - man, she is so much like them, I might as well not move at all! But then I showed them Zodie and they relented a little. See, Mom works in the nursery, and every once in a while, some Korat cubs are orphaned - normally their parents get killed, sad stuff, man - and she gets to help raise them until they're adopted by foster parents. And Dad, well hell, he's a woodsman by trade, and so he works with Korats on a daily basis. Some humans regard living with Korats like living with really good guard dogs, but my parents actually think that Zodie'll have a really positive effect on my character or something.

Sigh, he probably will. He's a lot more responsible than I am about doing things that gotta be done - like getting to work on time. In an effort not to follow in Mom and Dad's footsteps too precisely, I decided I'd be a breadwinner by being a tailor. I've always kinda liked fashion, and I'm good with a needle and a loom, so already I'm starting to make a name for myself by coming up with some original designs. Even better, I remember hearing stories of P.S.T. Earth (pre-space-travel, you know) and how people there made their money, so I'm only making so many of a certain design before I say it's discontinued. I mean, granted, the fact that I'm working six hours a day - man, a full-time job, even though Zodie works too! - means that I can afford the house and the utilities and stuff, but the extra cash from the custom stuff is a nice treat for me and Zodie.

He hates when I call him Zodie, and it cracks me up. It's the only way I can get under his skin. I mean, he's a black, you know? Suave and collected, even if he is really a dork sometimes. But even when he's being silly, I get the feeling he's doing it deliberately - like he's purposefully letting himself be a goof, but he still knows how he looks to people, you know? It's weird, I mean, we humans can be really self-conscious sometimes, and we fret about how we look or sound or seem to other humans, but Korats, man, they just know. Well, blacks know. I don't think the other ones care as much. I couldn't imagine living with a red. Maybe a tan... they can be sweethearts. But, nah, Zodie's awesome.

Aw, shit, time for me to get to work. I almost forgot and Zodie just poked his muzzle in to give me That Look that he's so good at. Blasted blue eyes! He sure strikes a pose when he wants to.

Right, enough rambling... signing off for now.

~Saryandra L.