[i]Five oh-five... another Friday night...[/i]

A calm Friday afternoon. After several days of rainy weather, the sun had finally gained enough strength to change the spring over into the first promises of summer. And with all work for the week done and no ground-shaking new orders having come in at the last moment to be shipped first thing Monday morning, it promised to become a very pleasant weekend indeed for a certain green mouse and the pink-haired beige and white kitten she was the weekend foster home for.

Five minutes past five in the afternoon. As the workers ended their day and started leaving the office building, Minty closed up the last matters on her computer, checked both her online schedule and the old-fashioned paper one on her desk and smiled at seeing the open space stretching across the weekend and well into the coming Monday afternoon. While shutting down her computer, the green mouse buzzed her intercom.
   "Phoebe?"
   "Yes, boss?"
   "Is there anything on the agenda I might have missed, apart from that Bayer order that's due Monday at three?"
There was a small pause before the voice of Minty's blue squirrel assistant returned.
   "Nope, except for that Bayer order, we're all clear, boss. There is a new order though, class B42-d, by Argos, but that one is not due until Wednesday."
   "Excellent." Minty grinned a little to herself as she decided to tease her shy squirrel assistant a bit through the intercom. "Looks like we'll have the whole weekend to ourselves then. Wanna come to the nude beach with me tomorrow?"
The squirrel's blush was almost audible through the intercom.
   "Ah... uhm... I... I d-don't know, b-boss... I, uhm... I... I k-kinda promised Lily we might go visit the SixFlags in Salem."
   "Ah, no problem, dearie, that sounds like fun," Minty smiled at her intercom. "I hope you two will have a wonderful time there together."
   "Yeah... th-thank you, boss. And... a-and... s-sorry I c-can't, uh... come with you."
   "No need to worry about that, dearie," Minty smiled directly at the blue squirrel behind the desk just outside her office door as she stepped through it with her briefcase. "After all, you shouldn't go back on such a fun promise you made to your daughter." She sent Phoebe a merry wink. "Ready to go? You should be picking up Lily around now, right?"
   "Yeah," Phoebe nodded, also shutting off her computer. "She'll be waiting for me."
   "We'd better get going then," Minty giggled.

They calmly talked about what kind of plans they had for the weekend while walking out of the building and across the employee parking lot. Since Minty had to drive over to Willamina to pick up Sophia at Dusty's place, they wished each other a nice weekend before each going their separate ways. And of course, with the weather now being as nice as it was, Minty first put down the soft-top of her old convertible before hitting the road.

Humming along cheerily with the radio, and every now and then even singing full out, the green mouse calmly drove around the outskirts of Amity and took a back road towards Willamina so she wouldn't get caught up in any commuting traffic along the way. Not that it would have mattered very much; the drive was delightful either way in this sunny weather. As a matter of fact, Minty wouldn't be surprised if she would be greeted by two very naked vixens and a naked kitten when arriving at Dusty's place. It was just the perfect kind of weather to enjoy doing that, and Minty knew Dusty had made sure a long time ago to have high enough hedges along the perimeter of her back garden for all of them to be able to enjoy their nudism undisturbed.

Sure enough, as Minty parked her car along the curbside by Dusty's driveway, crossed the driveway and rang the doorbell, the door was answered after a minute or two by a very enthused and very naked eight year old vixen.
   "Mintyyyyy! Hiyeeeee!" Fifi squealed a happy greeting. "We were waiting for you! And we're all nakie, yay!"
   "Of course you are," Minty giggled while following Fifi into the house. "In fact, I would have been shocked if you hadn't been nakie. With this weather?"
   "Yeah!!" Fifi giggled happily. "C'mon, we're in the backyard! Mom! Sophie! Minty's here!"
   "So we gathered," Dusty chuckled. "We could kinda hear that when ya opened the door." She gave Minty a hug. "Heya luv, how was work?"
   "It was okay," Minty giggled. "We got everything done in time, and no sudden last-minute orders came in for first thing Monday morning, so we get to have a nice calm weekend to ourselves."
   "Great, great," Dusty nodded. "I'm sure the two o' ya will 'ave a ball, luv." She winked. "Surely ya'll 'ave a drink 'fore ya go?"
   "But of course," Minty giggled. "Heck, I'll even dress for the occasion."

The green mouse was met by giggles and cheers from Fifi and Sophia as she started taking off her clothes. Teasing a bit, Minty hummed a cheesy tone, rolling her hips and swaying her tail to it, making her generic undressing into a veritable striptease, stretching and striking up a cheerful pose when she was fully naked. Right afterwards, she was hugged from two sides by Fifi and Sophia, who both squeezed the green mouse close and cuddled up.
   "Right, well, make yerself comfy, luv, or at least as comfy as ya can get like that," Dusty chuckled with a wink. "I'll go an' get y'all a drink. The regular I take it?"
   "If you please," Minty giggled, more or less crab-walking to one of the garden chairs with Fifi clinging to her left side and Sophia clinging to her right side.
   "Rightyo, one SevenUp, comin' right up," Dusty chuckled, turning to walk back into the house and brushing Minty's butt with her bushy tail in the process.
Minty giggled, managing somehow to sit down in the garden chair and immediately finding herself with a lapful of little vixen and small cat who happily cuddled up against the green mousette's tummy and chest.
   "My my, am I being popular today," she giggled. "And I didn't even come bearing gifts or candies."
   "But you did," Sophia giggled. "Right here!"
She illustrated her words with giving a little lick across Minty's petite turquoise right nipple.
   "Yeah!" Fifi chimed in, giving Minty's left nipple a playful slurp. "These are like the yummiest candies ever! They're like jubjubs!"
She meant jujubes of course.
   "Hee! So I guess you really like jujubes then, don't you?" Minty giggled, poking out her tongue at the two girls in her lap.
   "Yeah!" Fifi giggled again, giving Minty's little turquoise nipple another slurp. "Especially these! They're like my super favorite candies ever! Well, like, and gummi bears! Gummi bears are totally yum! Yeah!"
Minty poked out her tongue again.
   "Hee, well, remind me sometime to stick gummi bears on there for you," she chittered, looking around with her ears giving a sudden twitch at a tickle that turned out to come from Dusty's bushy tail brushing against them. Chittering another cheery giggle, the green mouse accepted the can of 7Up Dusty was holding out to her. "Ah, thank you, Dusty. That'll go down nicely in this weather."
   "Minty's gonna put gummi bears on her nipples for me, mom!" Fifi announced happily.
   "Really now," Dusty chuckled, sending the green mouse a wink. "Sounds like sticky business to me."
   "Most likely," Minty nodded, giggling. "I reckon it'll still be fun though." She sipped her soda and winked at Sophia. "Any candies you would like to see on any specific parts of me too, dearie?"
The pink-haired kitten thought about it for a moment or two, giggling softly to herself.
   "Uhmmm... uh... milk duds! On your pussy!"
   "That ain't really a surprise," Dusty chuckled, playfully ruffling Sophia's hair with a paw.
   "Good choice though," Minty grinned over the edge of her can. "I'm sure we could arrange that sometime."
   "Yeah, ya might wanna stop by a supermarket or candy store on yer way home," Dusty winked while sitting down in her own garden chair. "So, got any hot plans fer the weekend?"
   "Actually, yes, more or less," Minty nodded. "Angie will be at her house in Amity this weekend, setting up her breeding tanks and such, and I arranged with her to inform and help me with setting up an aquarium in my place as well. So we'll be visiting her, probably helping her a bit as well with her work."
   "Sounds fun," Dusty smiled. "So yer gonna be gettin' fishies, huh?"
   "Yep, gotta cater to the likes and tastes of my new kitten daughter after all," Minty giggled, ruffling Sophia's hair with her free paw as well. Sophia giggled as well, batting a paw at Minty's paw. "So are you and Feef gonna do anything exciting this weekend?"
   "We're gonna go swimming!" Fifi announced with cheery nods of her head.
   "Oh! That sounds like fun," Minty smiled. "Are you going to go to Beaver Beach?"
   "Nah, the water's still too cold there, this early in the season," Dusty said. "We're jus' gonna go to the swimmin' pool 'ere in Willamina."
   "Well, that'll be fun too," Minty giggled, playfully tickling one of Sophia's ears with a finger. "I guess you don't really mind I'm taking you away from that, dearie, do you? What with that whole thing about cats and water and all?"
Sophia batted at Minty's paws again, poking out her tongue with a giggle.
   "Well, yeah, I don't really like going to swim," she nodded, poking out her tongue again. "Specially not if we have to wear bathing suits, I don't like those at all."
   "Of course, being all naked is much, much nicer after all," Minty winked with a chitter. "And even moreso when there's a very good chance of there being touching and stuff involved before too long."
   "Totally!" Sophia nodded with a big, cheery grin.
   "An' I reckon there'll be plenty o' touchin' an' stuff involved when yer visitin' Angie, huh?" Dusty sniggered.
   "You reckoned quite right," Minty chortled. "I mean, heck, you've seen how enthused she can get with the girls at our Christmas party, didn't you?"
   "That I did, an' them stories she been tellin' about them li'l native inlander kits at the islands an' stuff she goes to fer her divin' an' all di'n't exactly leave very much to the imagination either," Dusty grinned.
   "True, true," Minty giggled. "I have to say, flying her to such remote locations always made for deliciously wonderful vacations for me as well."
   "Hell yea, I b'lieve that!" Dusty nodded with a laugh. She gestured at the empty 7Up can Minty had put down on the garden table. "Nother one o' them, luv?"
   "Hmm... no, much as I hate it, but I think it's time we put our clothes back on and go home," Minty chortled. "It is quite a bit of a drive, after all, and we also still have to have dinner."
   "Right, so should we, come to that," Dusty nodded, winking at Sophia. "Go on, run inside an' get yer clothes, luv, an' anything else ya need to bring with ya. Got yer homework done fer Monday?"
   "Yeah, I got that all done," Sophia nodded, sliding out of Minty's lap.
   "Good gal yerself," Dusty chuckled. "Jus' go an' get yer clothes on, then."

Sophia nodded again, playfully fondling Minty's small breasts for a moment before disappearing through the back door with a cheery giggle. The green mouse grinned, being just a bit too late to smack Sophia's bum in retaliation and therefore just resigning to lifting Fifi from her lap and putting the little vixen in Dusty's lap before grabbing her clothes from the back of the chair and putting them back on. A mere couple of moments later Sophia also reappeared, now dressed in airy shorts and a Rainbow Dash T-shirt that said "20% Cooler" and carrying a small bag with her.

All ready to go, the two of them said goodbye to Dusty and Fifi with hugs, kisses and a couple of teasing, intimate gropes, and of course plenty of giggles. Walking out to Minty's car, Sophia happily hopped into the passenger's seat while Minty got behind the wheel herself, pulling away from the curbside calmly and honking the horn while Sophia turned in her seat and waved at Dusty and Fifi. On the way back to Amity, they calmly talked a bit with each other, mostly about how Sophia's week at school had been. Minty was happy to hear the kitten was making some friends now, which was probably helped along a great deal by Minty, Dusty, Fifi and even Angie having taken away pretty much all of Sophia's insecurity about her body and her looks. The small feline even asked Minty if it would be possible sometime to bring a friend from school along with her for a weekend sleepover.

Before they knew it, they were back in Amity, and Minty drove right on to a small drive-thru in downtown for a quick and easy dinner. And of course, about the moment Minty had closed the front door behind them when they arrived home, the clothes immediately came off again. They also remained off all the way till the next morning and all through breakfast, although they did both put on some simple, easy to remove clothes in preparation of going to visit Angie. Even though the tigress' Amity house was only about a block away, it would still be a little too much of a risk to drive through two residential streets - and walk up Angie's driveway - without any clothes on. Not that Minty would mind trying, but she'd rather do it on a Sunday morning, when most people would be either still asleep, or at church. Saturday morning was ju-u-ust a bit too risky.

Having had their breakfast, Minty put in a call to Angie, just to let the tigress know they were coming over. Rather surprisingly, the other end of the line rang for quite a long while before it was finally answered by Angie's voice. Minty giggled a bit about it.
   "Heya Angie, it's me, Minty. Did I wake you up or something?"
   "Ah, hiya darling. Nah, I been awake for quite a while already, but I had my head down one of my tanks, and it's kinda hard to hear the phone ring underwater, ya know."
   "I can imagine that," Minty giggled. "Well, I just called you to let you know me and Sophia are coming over, so we'll be there in a couple of minutes."
   "That's fine, darling. I gave you a key, right?"
   "Yes, you gave me one right after you got all the keys and copies to the house from the broker's office."
   "Good. Use it, because chances are I'll have my head down in one of my tanks again, so I won't hear the doorbell. Just let yourself in when you get here, and you can find me in that addition next to the living room. I'm setting up raising tanks for small fry, so I'll be in the room at the back, that's into the corridor and through the door on the left. You know where to find it."
   "I do indeed. See you in a few minutes, Angie." Ringing off, Minty wiped her phone on the short sleeve of her shirt before flipping it shut and putting it back in her pocket, looking at Sophia with a smile. "All ready to go, dearie?"
   "Yeah, I'm all ready," Sophia nodded.
   "Alright, let's go then."
Sophia took one of Minty's paws and followed the green mouse out of the house, looking up at Minty.
   "Is it very far to where she lives?" the beige and white kitten asked as they stepped through the front door.
   "No, it's just down the block," Minty smiled. "In fact, it's such nice weather, we'll walk there. No sense in taking the car just to drive down the street."
   "Heh, I guess not," Sophia said with a light chuckle, grinning a bit and sticking out her tongue. "And it's not like I mind walking, I got a lotta experience with that."
   "Indeed!" Minty giggled. "And from my place to Angie's is not even a fraction of the length of walking from Salem to Silverton."

Sophia giggled and nodded, still holding Minty's paw as they calmly walked through Stanley Street and down through West 2nd Street, making their way over to the middle of Enos Street. Minty couldn't help giggling a bit as well at the car that was parked tailfirst on Angie's driveway; not Angie's rusty little blue 1980 Fiat Ritmo, but a just as old and just as rusty Chevrolet Astro van, painted in bright colors and with the name and logo of Angie's aquarium store plastered over the sides and rear doors, surrounded by cartoon-ish fish with cheery smiley faces.
   "Hee, I like that van," Sophia giggled as they stepped past the vehicle. "Those fish are funny."
   "They are at that," Minty agreed with a giggle. "I wouldn't be surprised if Angie drew them herself. That'd just be her thing to do." She stopped at the front door and winked. "Let's see if she's having her head underwater again," she giggled, ringing the doorbell.

They waited. And waited. And waited a bit more. After about five minutes, Minty shook her head with a giggle and reached into her pocket.
   "Looks like she indeed has her head down in a tank alright. So chances are we'll be finding a wet tiger in this house somewhere."

Sophia giggled and nodded, looking at Minty unlocking and opening the front door with the key Angie had given her and following the green mouse inside. It was quite apparent Angie had decorated the house with items she had brought along from her travels all over the world; in the small hall just behind the front door already, some kind of artifacts looking like a low table and two low sort of chairs were grouped together. Minty remembered Angie had shown her those before in Portland once and had mentioned she had brought those from Ghana. The light blue cabinet with a shelf and two doors with several small glass panes in it standing against the left wall seemed rather out of place next to the Ghanan artifacts, though, but it made up for that fact with the small sculptures and decorative plates and such that were inside it.

Opening the door which also had several small square glass panes in it, Minty led the way through the corridor and into the living room through the door on the right, going straight for the door in the opposite wall of the living room that led into the addition built onto the side of the house. Sophia looked around her a bit while she followed Minty through the living room, stepping up her pace a bit to catch up with the green mouse walking into the addition.

Waiting by the door on the left side of the addition's short corridor, which was standing slightly ajar, Minty looked around and held out a paw for Sophia to take, rapping the knuckles of her other paw against the door frame.
   "Angie? We're here, darling," she called through the doorway.

No answer. They waited for a few moments, and Minty even knocked again, but there was still no answer from inside the room. Eventually, the green mouse shrugged with a soft giggle.
   "Well, she said she'd be in this room, so I guess we'd better step inside and see if she has her head underwater."

Sophia nodded with a giggle as well, eagerly trotting into the room behind Minty. A step or two inside, they stopped short and gazed ahead of them, surprised at first, but then looking at each other and grinning. It was a quite unusual, rather funny, and also quite delectable sight that was greeting their eyes.

There were very large tanks set up alongside each of the walls of the room, all of them about eight feet high, with a couple of quite low ones in between at the spots where the windows were in the walls. All of the tanks were filled with water as well, and had lighting, heating and filtering already set up, but apart from that most tanks were still devoid of any rocks or plants or fish.

At one tank, near the right rear corner of the room, was a sort of low, single-platform scaffolding, upon which the tigress with both stripes and leopard-esque rosettes was standing. Or rather, she was leaning on it with just one foot, her other leg lifted up and stretched out to the side where it was resting on a wide plank clipped to the top edge of the tank, and her tail slowly swaying back and forth. She was bent at the hips, her upper torso leaning over quite deeply into the large tank, a snorkel and mask on her face so she could breathe under the water while she used both arms and paws to hold herself up and put into position a large number of rocks and plants which were randomly heaped on the right side of the tank while gradually being shifted and arranged into appealing clusters and bushes from the left side of the tank towards the right. And since the tigress was also totally naked while doing all that, the position sure provided a more than appetizing view for the green mouse and the beige and white kitten in the doorway.

For several moments, they stood enjoying the sight as Angie continued with her work, oblivious to her audience as she was having her back turned to where Minty and Sophia were standing. Only after quite a long while, Minty sent Sophia a wink and walked up to the tank Angie was leaning into, leaning over deeply and tapping the glass with a finger to attract the feline's attention. Angie looked around and waved, pushing herself upwards against the inside of the glass and taking off her mask and snorkel once she was standing upright on the platform in front of the tank.
   "Well, I see you got here," she chuckled, shaking some water out of her ears and grabbing a towel hanging from the upturned cover of the tank to dry off her face, hair and upper body a bit, grinning. "So how long have you been standing behind me?"
   "Plenty long enough," Minty chittered.
   "Yeah, long enough to get hot!" Sophia added with a giggle.
   "Oh really?" Angie grinned, hopping off the scaffold and stepping up to Sophia. "Well, maybe I should toss you into this tank to cool you back off again, mm?"
   "Eeeee! No!" Sophia squealed, giggling and hiding behind Minty's back. "Save me, Minty!"
The green mouse laughed heartily, grabbing the towel draped over Angie's arm and tossing it over the feline's head and face.
   "Will you leave my little girl alone, you big mean wet kitty you!"
Giggling, Angie flailed her arms a bit and stepped around in random directions.
   "Hey! Who turned off the lights? It's dark in here!"
   "If you promise to behave, I'll turn them back on," Minty chittered.
   "Okay okay, I promise, I'll be a good kitty," Angie chortled.
   "Good girl," Minty giggled, stepping up to Angie and pulling the towel off the feline's head again. "How's that?"
   "Ah, much better, thank you," Angie winked, taking back the towel and wrapping it around her damp hair. "So! I guess we might as well get down to business now you're here, don't we?"
   "That would be good, yes," Minty nodded.
   "Right then, let's adjourn ourselves to the living room and get more comfortable, maybe get a drink, and talk business," the tigress winked, motioning with an arm. "If the ladies would care to follow me?"
   "With pleasure," Minty chittered.

The three of them calmly walked back to the living room, Minty and Sophia finding themselves a seat on the couch while Angie stepped through the archway into the open kitchen to get all of them some drinks. She left the towel behind in the kitchen as she returned with the requested drinks, sitting down in a chair herself and leaning back comfortably, without crossing her legs so there still was a plenty nice view provided for Minty and Sophia sitting on the couch opposite the easy chair Angie had parked her naked butt in.

They just sat calmly for a little while, enjoying their drinks - and the view - and just talking about some generic things, like how their respective weeks had been and things like that. The talk gradually shifted towards aquaria, the maintenance, the do's and don'ts about them and such, which pretty much was what Minty needed to know.
   "Now then, mousie," Angie winked, grabbing the notepad and pen from by the telephone, "tell me, what kind of aquarium were you thinking about getting?"
   "Well, I was thinking tropical at least," Minty said. "I know I can get much nicer plants and definitely much nicer and more colorful fish in that."
   "Mm-hm," Angie nodded, making a note. "Tropical what, though? Freshwater or saltwater?"
   "Well... I know I could get things like awesome corals and special fish and such in a tropical sea water aquarium, but I also know those need way more huge and intricate, sophisticated filtering systems," Minty said slowly. "And they need way more maintenance and care than I think I could provide. So I think the best option for me would be a tropical freshwater aquarium that needs much less of all that to thrive and will be easier to maintain."
   "So that'd be a moderately low-maintenance tropical freshwater deal, then." Angie made more notes. "What kind of size were you thinking about?"
Minty giggled softly.
   "Big. Most probably bigger that anything that would generally be available at any aquarium store, even yours."
   "Right, so give me a ballpark figure?"
   "Well, what I had in mind... you know the layout of my living room, right?"
   "Yeah, more or less," Angie nodded.
   "Right, well, what I was thinking of is something custom-built, in kind of an L-shape." Minty gestured a bit with her paws. "Covering the wall next to that large breakfront, up to the space between the living room and the dining area, and then running forwards from the wall so it more or less divides the living room and the dining area, you know?"
   "Mmm." Angie leaned back her head with her eyes closed and ran a paw over her whiskers. "Yes, I think I know what you mean. So that would place one side of it against the wall, providing a closed background, while the other part between the two rooms would be visible from both sides, yes?"
   "Pretty much, yes," Minty nodded.
   "Mmm, right, okay. I would have to come over to your place to take some measurements, and it would indeed have to be custom-built, but I reckon we can swing that easily," Angie nodded, scribbling things down on the notepad. "Must say I like the idea though, you don't see too many tanks like that, and it'll give us some interesting options to play with. We can run cabling and tubing along the side by the breakfront to keep them out of sight, build up a background of rocks and high, bushy plants along the backside that's against the wall and phase it downwards to the part protruding into the room, placing plants and smaller rocks in the middle of that part rather than along the sides, and leave a larger open space."
   "Yes, I was thinking something like that," Minty nodded with a smile. "So what would I need for all that?"
Angie started compiling a list on her notepad.
   "Let's see. You'll need a good sturdy base to put it on, with storage space for the filter and pumps and food and such in there. It'll have to be bricked though, or better yet, made of cast concrete in sections to create storage compartments."
   "Really?" Minty said with some surprise. "You couldn't just make like a custom cabinet or something?"
   "Hell no, honey," Angie chuckled. "A simple wood cabinet would collapse from even thinking about the weight of the tank before you even put water in there. The glass alone, that will need to be six millimeter thick at least, and preferably twelve mil so that'll be what I'll be going for, and that'll be several hundreds of pounds in itself already. Then calculate in about a hundred-fifty to two hundred pounds of substrate, that's the underwater soil for the plants to grow in, a hundred-fifty to two hundred pounds worth of rocks, and on top of all that there's the water. Let's say the tank would take five hundred gallons of water, that'd be a weight of..." She grabbed a calculator. "Let's see, eight point thirty-three pounds for a gallon of water, times five hundred, that makes... four thousand, one hundred and sixty-five pounds. And then I'm not even counting the top with all the light fixtures in it; for a tank this size that would be between fifty and a hundred pounds as well, so, yeah, just a regular wood cabinet won't do at all, honey, you need something much sturdier than that."
   "Wow, yeah, I can imagine!" Minty squeaked. "Wow, I never really thought of all that before."
   "That's what you have the professionals like me for, honey," Angie grinned. "Right, so, where were we. The list. So that's a cast concrete base with storage compartments, covered in wood paneling for aesthetics, with access doors. What kind of wood would you like to be used for that? I'd recommend something light, like maple or ash."
   "Well, I was kinda thinking something dark might be nice, so it'll fit in with the rest of my antique furniture. Would walnut be an option? The breakfront and the desk are walnut."
   "Sure, you could do that," Angie nodded. "But it'll be bloody expensive, though."
   "Cost won't be an issue, I'm only doing this once and I want it to be done properly right from the start," Minty smiled, sending Angie a cheery wink. "Besides, I'm sure you'd give me a nice bit of a discount, seeing as how we're old friends and all, right?"
   "Clever, miss mousie, very clever," Angie chuckled. "Truth be told though, I can give you discounts on the rocks and plants and fish and the apparel such as pumps and filters and lights, but for a custom-built aquarium, I can't guarantee anything on possible discounts for the wood, since I have to contract the building of a thing like that out, you know."
   "That makes sense I guess," Minty nodded with a chitter. "But even so, cost won't be an issue because I want to make sure it all gets done perfect right from the very start so I won't be getting any unforeseen and unpleasant surprises lateron."
   "Good, I'm glad to hear that," Angie smiled. "So walnut it is then, for the paneling of the base and the aquarium lid. Next on the list we'll have... a pretty damn large filter, circulation style with built-in pump; two, maybe three air pumps - I'll put three just to be on the safe side. Light armatures for fluorescent tubes, on the back and front along the entire width with a row of UV tubes in between. Number of them... will depend on the size of the tank, I'll need the measurements to calculate that. Then we'll get to decoration and furnishing. I'd be going for rocks stacked all the way to the surface along the back wall, lowering to ground level in about the middle of the tank, that'll give a good filled, natural backdrop and will provide plenty of hiding spaces for the fish."
   "I like that," Minty nodded. "Could I use rocks from the garden? There's plenty to be found between the trees by the creek, in the creek itself and in the fields."
   "You could do that, yes," Angie agreed. "But you'll need to clean them real thoroughly beforehand. And I don't mean just scrubbing them off in the sink, I'm talking about boiling them in a big pan full of water for at least five to ten minutes."
   "So, rather, sterilize them more than cleaning them," Minty chittered softly.
   "Pretty much, yeah," Angie nodded. "It might seem a bit over the top, but you want to be absolutely certain you have them cleaned of any last traces of contaminants and bacteria before you use them in an aquarium. Nothing sucks more than having your expensive plants and expensive fish get sick or die just because you used free rocks from the garden that weren't well-cleaned."
   "Yeah, I can see that," Minty nodded. "But well, I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a chore to do that. And it will definitely look very natural, because I plucked them right out of nature itself," she added with a giggle.
   "True that," Angie chuckled. "Heck, I do it myself as well from time to time. Just make sure you don't use the pan you cook your Sunday soup in, but use an old pan you can throw out afterwards or use for a planter or something."
   "Well, duhhh!" Minty giggled. "That is so darn obvious!"
   "Yet you'd be surprised at how many people don’t think about that, though," Angie chuckled. "Anyway! Rocks, either from the store or from your garden, so that just leaves plants and fish. And actually, I could best advice you on types of plants to use once I know what kind of fish you'll be wanting."
   "Yes, I guess I'd be choosing them at the store, so I can actually see what they look like and go; I like that one and that one and those over there," Minty said with a soft chitter. "Because really, I would have to choose fish by sight since I have no clues about names."
   "That's how most people do it, yeah," Angie nodded. "I can help you with a catalog, though, and for a tank like the one you're thinking about I would definitely recommend at least a couple of schools of small fish like cardinal tetras, zebra and/or panther danios and possibly harlequin rasboras."
   "Yes, I'll be wanting a bunch of cardinal tetras at least," Minty nodded with a giggle. "And at least one of those algae eating fish that suck themselves up against the glass. Although I think with how big my aquarium would be, I might even need more."
   "Yeah, I'd start out with two albino ancistrus at least, I personally like those better than the plecostomus because they're almost pure white and they don’t get too big, and you could get one or two more lateron if they can't cope," Angie agreed. "Anything else you can think of right off the top of your head?"
   "Well..." Minty mused, running a paw over her muzzle. "There's these fish, they're all jet black with bright red or orange fins, I really like those, and I heard they came in a rainbow variety as well."
   "Ah right, the Redtail Botia loach and Rainbow loach, yes. They actually come in several more varieties, I'm sure you would love the Kuhli and Gold Dojo loach, they're like little eels, and the Yoyo or Pakistan loach, they're a lovely tiger-ish pattern of black and white, and there's the tiger loach, the yellow finned hillstream loach, the zebra loach, the albino Myer's loach and the weather loach which are also like little eels, the skunk botia loach, the most well-known clown loach and for instance the tiger hillstream loach which is also an algae eater. I'll show you pictures in a catalog so you can decide which you like best," Angie nodded, making more notes. "They're all very good choices, as they're mostly ground-dwellers so they'll vacuum any uneaten food off the bottom of the tank for you. And the danios are more surface dwellers, so they'll mostly swim near the very top of the tank, meaning that with those two species, we have the basics  for the top and bottom part of the tank covered. Anything else?"
   "Well, I actually really kind of like those round ones with the long pointy top and bottom fins. What are they called again... angelfish?" Minty said slowly. "Especially those ones that aren't grey and black striped but more white with little black splotches."
   "Those are angelfish, yes," Angie confirmed. "They're predatory fish though, they eat small fish like cardinal tetras." She ran a paw over her whiskers slowly, thinking a bit. "Still, in a tank the size you're thinking of, especially if you'd get them when they're still very small, and also make sure you have live food like bloodworms available for those kinda fish to eat, there should hardly be any troubles. Would you want a lot of them in the tank?"
   "No, just like two, a pair or something, or maybe three, but no more than that."
   "Good, that'll work, because in a tank that size they will grow to about half the size of your fist or even a bit more, and they'll need plenty of territory space for each of them individually." Looking past Minty for a moment, Angie grinned and winked at Sophia who was sitting next to Minty on the couch, quietly swinging her feet back and forth. "We're not making you fall asleep from boredom with all this talking, honey, are we?"
   "Nah, I'm having fun watching your boobs jiggle when you talk and move and stuff," Sophia giggled.
   "Haha! Alright then, honey, glad you're enjoying yourself," Angie laughed, playfully poking out her tongue at the kitten. "I'm sorry to say I'll have to draw them from sight for a bit in a moment, though. There's not very much I can plan out with Minty now so we'll have to get over to your place for me to take measurements for the place where she wants the tank built. And I'll probably have to put some clothes on, if only for the little trip between here and your place."
   "Yeah, because we walked here, so you couldn't even duck down on the backseat of my car to hide your naked self from sight," Minty chittered.
   "Right, yeah, then I'll have to put on some clothes alright," Angie chuckled. "I'll still take them off as soon as we're at your place though."
   "So will we," Minty giggled, waving a paw. "So shall we? I reckon we might as well do it right away."
   "Yeah, let's do this thing," Angie said with another chuckle. "Gimme a sec to throw on some clothes and get a few things together, and I'll be right with you."

The tigress winked as she playfully rose up from her chair and rolled her hips while walking past the couch, making sure to jiggle her breasts a bit extra for Sophia. The beige and white kitten giggled cheerily, clapping her paws and batting one at Angie's tail as the tigress passed the couch. It only took Angie a very little while to reappear as well, now dressed in a simple short skirt and long T-shirt, and she didn't take more than three moments longer either to collect a large tape measure, a notepad and a couple of leaflets and catalogs into a tote bag, along with her keys and purse.
   "Right, shall we?"
   "We shall," Minty giggled.

Rising up from the couch along with Sophia, the green mouse followed Angie out of the living room and out through the front door. A calm walk of several minutes with Sophia in between the both of them, holding Minty's left paw with her right paw and Angie's right paw with her left paw, found the three of them back at Minty's house, with the green mouse this time leading the way through the front door and into the living room. Another two moments later, all three of them were stark naked again as well.
   "So," Angie said, turning with her paws on her hips after she had shaken out and smoothened her fur a bit and looking at the space between the antique breakfront and the dining area. "That's the place then?"
   "Yes," Minty confirmed, stepping over to the space and illustrating her words with motions of her paws. "I was thinking to have it run from here, about half a foot away from the side of the breakfront, to over here, and then go straight ahead here to divide the living room and dining area, running up to about here. That way it'll be directly in line with this part of the breakfast bar as well; gives a bit of symmetry to the whole thing."
Angie nodded, looking this way and that, even standing with her back against the wall and squatting down a bit while looking at the breakfast bar.
   "Mmm, right, that is a good idea," she said slowly. "How wide do you want it to be? From back to front for this part, and from side to side for that part, that is."
   "Hmm." Minty tilted her head a bit, looking at the wall and then back at the breakfast bar. "About as wide as that bar? Would that be good? It would keep up even better with the symmetry, I'd say."
   "I agree," Angie nodded. "Alright, so..." She rummaged around in her tote bag she had put on the breakfast bar and pulled out a piece of chalk, "...let's get down some basics here." She marked out a few small lines on the floor. "From here to... here, and from here to... here. And it would be..." She measured the width of the breakfast bar, then drew a few more marks on the floor, "...this wide from here to here, and this wide from here to here. Which gives me total measurements of... Sophie, honey, could you do me a favor? Hold this end of the tape measure at that mark, okay? Yeah, that's it, all the way down on the floor. Alright, that's... seven and almost a half feet. Now hold it at this mark? Right, thanks. That makes... five feet and a little bit, so we'll say seven feet even and five feet even to make it easier. With a width of... oh, you can let go now, honey, thanks," Angie winked at Sophia, rising up and laying her notepad on the breakfast bar. "Right, where was I? Oh yeah, a width of two feet, that makes seven feet this way, five that way, two this way, three that way, five again that way and another two that way. Minty, how high do you want the thing to be, luv?"
   "Uhm..." Minty stepped up to one of the chalk marks and held a paw by her nose. "About this high, I guess."
Angie tilted her head.
   "Mmm, I'm eyeballing a good five feet, so let's say five feet for easy calculating. Let's see..." She took one of the catalogs from her tote bag and leafed through it a bit. "A tank that size would need the WHL1000 filter at least, which is about two feet high, so the cabinet will have to be two and a half feet high for a bit of leeway for the tubing. Meaning the glass can be two and a half feet high as well, giving two feet of viewing surface as the lid will come down six inches over the top of the glass. Right! Sounds like good measurements to me, what do you think, honey?"
   "If it sounds good to you, it sounds good to me," Minty giggled.
   "Right," Angie chuckled. "Well, here's another idea that sounds good to me. Try this one on for size; what if you close up this part all the way up to the ceiling to make it a full dividing wall? With like an open bookcase kind of deal that starts some way above this part of the tank, so you can put knickknacks and little statuettes or whatever crap you'd want in there?"
   "Huh. You know, I hadn't even thought of that, but that actually does sound like a very good idea," Minty nodded slowly. "Yeah, I like that, I like that a lot. Especially if it'll be made of the same wood, that would make a real great result."
   "That's what I was thinking, yes," Angie said. "You could even get some kind of pattern worked into the paneling of the cabinet and the tank lid, and have the same pattern returning in the side of the bookcase; you know, make it look like one whole."
   "Yes, I really really like that," Minty smiled. "That was indeed a very good idea, Angie."
   "I know, right?" the tigress grinned. "And I even have another really good idea." She playfully ruffled Sophia's pink hair. "Howzabout we hop into that over there hot tub of yours and help this poor kitten who got all hot from watching me work to get cooled off again the proper way?"
   "Wheee! Yay! Yeah! Let's do that!" Sophia squealed happily, almost hopping up and down in place.
Minty giggled cheerfully.
   "Now how could I ever turn down a wonderful idea like that, especially since it got such an enthused reception?"
   "You can't, so don't even try," Angie grinned, scooping Sophia up in her arms and draping the beige and white kitten over her left shoulder in a fireman's grip.

Sophia squealed again and giggled loudly, kicking her feet and swishing her fluffy pink tail about. Giggling softly and shaking her head, Minty unlocked and opened the glass sliding doors and led the way across the back porch and patio to the deck with the hot tub. While the green mouse was keying in the settings for the tub and removing the cover, and even through the six or so minutes it took the tub to get ready, Angie just stood there with Sophia draped across her left shoulder, holding her paw on the small feline's bum so she could continually give soft rubs and squeezes to Sophia's little butt, eliciting more feet-kicking, tail-swishing and paroxysms of crooned and squealed giggles from the happily squirming kitten. When the hot tub finally was ready, Angie calmly stepped into it together with Minty and let Sophia slide off her shoulder and into her lap, sending a wink at Minty.
   "I guess it's as much your fault as mine that she got all hot since you brought her into my house in the first place, so what say we work together to get her cooled off again? You up here while I apply my special touch down there?"
   "I'd say that sounds like another fantastic idea," Minty chittered, poking out her tongue with a giggle. "Jut don't tease her, okay?"
   "Oh, I won't tease... too much," Angie chuckled, looking down at Sophia. "Well then, honey, why don't you get nice and comfy in my lap here, with your back against my tummy? And you can rest your head against my boobs, too."
   "Yeah! Yay!" Sophia giggled, squirming around in Angie's lap until she was leaning with her back against Angie's tummy and chest.

She happily nuzzled her head against the larger feline's plush breasts, reaching up with one paw to lightly rub and pet the fuzzy globes while rolling her head to poke her nose or tongue against one of Angie's nipples which perked attentively at the ministrations. The next moment, however, Sophia shuddered and mewled when one of Minty's paws rubbed up her tummy and chest and started playing with one of the kitten's quite protuberant nipples while the green mousette's pointy nose and narrow turquoise tongue began giving the same kind of attention to Sophia's other nipple. Almost at the same moment, one of Angie's paws ran the opposite way, down from Sophia's chest and across the small cat's tummy so her fingers could trace the surface of Sophia's plump white outer netherlips, searching out the thin inner lips which only just peeked out from the kitten's narrow little slit and following the line of the small slit upwards to where Sophia's tiny clit was hiding.

Minty curled her lips into a bit of a grin around one of Sophia's perked, puffy nipples, rolling and flicking the firm little nub around with her tongue while holding her head a bit turned so she could look at what exactly Angie's finger's were doing. And sure enough, from the motions of Angie's fingers, the shivering and squirming she felt Sophia doing with her own paws, and the squeaky gasps and mewls her ears could hear escaping from the kitten's lips, Minty could clearly tell the tigress was applying her teasing stop-and-go touches to Sophia's pudgy, quivering little cunny, bringing the kitten to the brink of climax a couple of times, then letting the waves of tingles and shivers die down again, only to start building them back up the next moment.

Naturally, from the day Sophia had been found by Minty, they had shared a lot of sex with each other as well as with Dusty, Fifi, Angie every now and then, sometimes Kayleigh Anderson, the fluffy white Angora from the foster bureau, and recently even with Phoebe and Lily, so with all that experience and with all the things Minty and Dusty, and in a smaller part Angie and Kayleigh, had taught her, Sophia had built up quite a bit of stamina as well, which now helped her to stand through Angie's teasing quite impressively.

Still, with the simultaneous assault of teasing caresses being administered to both her puffy nipples and her pudgy little pussy, the kitten couldn't hold out as long as she might have wanted, especially when Minty lowered her free paw and lay it over Angie's paw, more or less forcing the tigress' fingers to continue their motions when Sophia was again nearing the orgasm Angie's fingers so far had denied her. With the motions not interrupted by a teasing pause this time, Sophia squealed and grabbed onto Angie's arm with both her colorful little paws, hollowing her back and rocking her hips to rub her spasming little pussy against both Angie's and Minty's fingers, thin little tendrils wavering out into the water slowly as a further proof of the kitten's sparkling orgasm.

For several moments she remained like that; tensed, quivering, rocking and bucking her hips until all of a sudden she collapsed into a quivering heap of soaked, panting little kitten in Angie's lap, her head lolling limply against the larger feline's breasts.
   "Hmmm, you think that cooled her off, luv?" Angie grinned with a soft purr, very lightly and slowly trailing her fingers up and down over Sophia's trembling, slippery little slit.
   "I don't know, I think we actually may have heated her up even further," Minty chittered while giving short, soft little licks to Sophia's plump perky nipples.
   "I reckon you're probably right," Angie winked. "And we made a mess too, guess we better go and clean that up."
   "Mmm, yup, gotta keep my hot tub nice and neat after all," Minty giggled.
   "Very true, very true," Angie nodded with a grin. "So upsy-daisy, honey, you better go and lay right here," she chuckled, lifting Sophia out of her lap and laying the kitten down on the rim of the hot tub with her legs dangling into the water.

Giggling softly again, Minty let herself sink down in her seat and turned to bring her head up between Sophia's dangling legs from below. In the meantime, Angie lifted herself up a bit and leaned over Sophia's tummy from the side. Sending a wink at one another, the mouse and the tigress leaned in their heads, slowly sliding both their tongues across Sophia's little slit, Minty from below at the kitten's tight entrance and Angie from above at the kitten's perked little clit. Again, Sophia started squirming and letting out gasped mewls and purrs under the double onslaught of both wiggling and flicking tongues lapping all over her pudgy little pussy. And of course, the eventual result was not the kitten getting cleaned up, but getting even more slick and slimy, which in turn prompted the mouse and the tigress to increase their oral efforts even more.

All in all, a quite productive day. Minty had laid out the basic plans for the aquarium she wanted to have built in her house and had learned a lot about the care and maintenance for it, and Sophia had gotten a wonderful start to her weekend and had learned a lot about Angie's teasing techniques and how to build up even more stamina. Certainly not a bad start to the weekend.
