III
Dinner of Welcoming
About 30 minutes after he left to take Mrs. Khomyak home, Dr. Leo returned and he, Dr. Tigresa,
and Michael went clothes shopping. Michael had never been much of a clothes horse so he
wasn’t too terribly interested in shopping. However, as Dr. Tigresa said, he didn’t have any
clothes to wear and needed some so, like most human males, Michael accepted the necessity of
the shopping trip but was only interested in taking just enough time to get it done and over with.
As they shopped, Michael noticed that either the humanimals hadn’t discovered jeans or Drs.
Leo and Tigresa didn’t care for the material. Whatever the reason, they bought Michael eight
pairs of pants, eight shirts, eight sets of underwear, socks, and two pairs of shoes, one dress pair
and one casual pair. Michael was embarrassed in the extreme to know that they spent that much
money on him but, he also understood that he needed the clothing.
Michael promised to repay them but, Dr. Leo said, “Michael, would you ask your child to repay
you for purchasing them something they needed?”
“No, sir. But, I’m not your child.”
“In a manner of speaking, Michael, you are. You see, as your caretakers, we are as legally
responsible for you as we are for our birthed cubs. Besides, on Monday morning, Tigresa and I
are going to the courthouse and start the adoption proceedings. Since there’s no reason to deny
us, in a few weeks, you’ll be our newest son. While it might be nice if you decided to accept
Panthera as your new family name, we wouldn’t be upset in the least if you decided to keep your
current family name.”
“Well, thank you, Dr. Leo. That should ease the pain of knowing that my family has been dead
for over 20,000 years. I think that I’ll keep my current family name just so I don’t forget to
introduce myself correctly, though.”