The past year had been rough on Dale, multiple factors playing into stress and sadness the boy felt. The loss of his mother, and the fact that his dad had lost his job were the 2 biggest factors that were on his mind at the moment. But he also had to face his 4th year. Dale had been wanting a pet for years, he’s seen the owls and the cats of other people and wanted something like that. But he’s been putting it off, mostly because, the prospect of more… gross things put him off. But now Dale needed something to keep his mind off all of the things going on around him, and his Dad saw that he had given Dale some money, which Dale had converted to Galleons, to get a pet with, He said as long as it made him happy anything would go. Dale was a bit skeptical of the idea at first, getting a pet was one of the last things on his mind at the moment, but he wasn’t against the idea.

As Dale opened the doors of the Magical Menagerie, he was greeted with the familiar sights he had seen 2 times already. A shop full of all types of small animals and populated scaracly with a few shoppers. The past few times he had been here had been for just window shopping, looking at the cages for the animals rather than the animals themselves. This time however Dale headed immediately for the owls, He knew there were pretty smart creatures, and he knew a few people with owls of their own, looked relatively easy to take care of. There were a few types, Dale even noticed one that reminded him of Eiryk, Annie’s Owl, and while Dale was very interested in the owls, the owls didn’t seem to even notice he was there. Dale supposed that maybe an Owl just wasn't the right one for him. He walked his way over to the cats, cats also didn’t seem like they would be hard to take care of, and Dale knew that they could be pretty affectionate if they wanted to be. But again, most of the cats ignored him, not even giving him a small glance, he supposed that was just a cat thing instead of letting it hurt his ego and moved on. He stopped for a moment to take a glance at the Spider and the Pygmy Puffs. It took only a moment to decide that neither was the one for him.

His search around the store led him over to the rats, he knew he would probably be getting a rat. He knew that rats were very intelligent and social creatures, they bonded to humans very well and made very good pets. But still most of the people he saw with rats around Hogwarts got them as not their first choice, either because they couldn't afford Owls or their parents wouldn't allow them.

Dale looked over all of them, there weren't many, most of them running around playing with other rats or with the objects in the cage. There were all kinds of colors and different sizes. While he was looking at the rats he left a large hand on his shoulder, he looked to see who the hand belonged to and was greeted by one of the owners of the shop, a tall man with wire-framed glasses and white hair. Dale had seen this man before, but had never really spoken to him before, “I see you have taken a liking to the rat young man.” the older man seemed rather happy that Dale was looking at them. “Yeah, I uhh, the owls and cats didn’t really seem like they were for me, but uhh, the rats seem… umm nice?” Dale wasn’t exactly sure why he was so interested in rats, but they just seemed like the perfect object. “Well How about I open the cage for you and let you pick them up and see if they like you.” The older man asked, Dale simply nodded to the suggestion and said a quick “Sure” The older man unlocked the cage and opened it up, most of the rats continued to play, not caring about anything else, but one of them stopped and looked up to them. “Well be sure to close the cage when you’re finished and pay on your way out.”

The older man left Dale alone and went to help other customers. Dale looked immediately to the rat that was looking at him , it was a white one, medium in size, about the size of his palm. He reached into the cage but he didn't pick it up, he just put it in front of the rat, the rat seemed a little confused about what was going on, sniffing his hand and checking it out, but it eventually crawled onto his palm. Dale was a little surprised that the rat got onto his hand without any kind of suggestion, but he raised his hand and brought his palm to his face to get a better look at the rat. The rat didn’t seem to mind too much as it continued to just groom itself, it was very good at doing that as his pure white fur was very well groomed. Dale was just observing the rat as it groomed itself, but eventually the rat stopped grooming himself and looked at Dale, and then, surprising Dale a lot, jumped onto his shoulder. Dale was nervous as the rat was just running around his shoulders, sniffing him and even climbing up onto his head, looking around and then heading back down. Eventually the rat stopped running his shoulders and ran down his side and settled itself into his jacket pocket, and went back to grooming itself. Dale let it be for a bit longer before carefully picking it up and let it sit on his palm while he thought of a name for it. He thought for a bit before saying “Hmm how about.. Winter?” The rat just kept staring at him ”I will take that as a Yes” as soon as he finished, the rat jumped back onto his shoulders and settled itself down in his pocket again. Dale made his way over to the register and paid for Winter, a cage, and some food, and a few toys for it. When he finished paying for his things the elderly store owner said “I’m glad you found the pet for you, you take care of them now.” Dale agreed and said his goodbyes to the store owner before making is way out, slightly less sad then when he entered, and with a new friend sitting comfortably in the pocket of his jacket.

WC: 1,124

What animal do you wish to purchase? Common Rat
What do you want to name it? Winter
Is this a boy or a girl? Boy
What is your pet's date of birth? May 1st of 2021