"You know what would really tie this place together?"

Delphine looked over at Cosima as she spoke, watching her fiancé undress, preparing herself to crawl into bed with her. Delphine shrugged beneath the covers, smiling at her.

"What, ma cherie?"

"A pet."

"A pet?"

"Yeah like a cat or an iguana or-"

"I am not letting a lizard into my new home."

Cosima gave a short, breathy laugh before flipping the covers on her side of the bed over to crawl into bed near Delphine, nuzzling her nose into the other woman's neck.

"Or a dog."

"A dog?"

"Yeah, a fluffy little puppy we can raise into a watch dog so that if and when we have kids he can be all protective of them and stuff."

Delphine kissed her nose and nodded. "Let's go to the pet store tomorrow."

-0-

"That one's all small and weird looking."

"This one is a little bit too hyper…"

"Hey, hey what breed is this one?"

"Uh, that would be an Alaskan Malamute, ma'am."

"Can I…?"

"Yeah, sure."

The assistant pulled the puppy out by the scruff of his neck and handed him to Cosima. She expertly took him in her hands and smiled at him.

"Hey there, little guy," she crooned as the puppy wagged his tail, tongue lolling out of his mouth. She turned to Delphine and grinned. "What do you think?"

"He's adorable…and very fluffy!" Delphine grinned back, patting him softly as he continued to pant happily at Cosima.

"Gives your hair a run for its money?" Cosima laughed, turning to the shop clerk. "We'll take him."

-0-

"Pavlov?"

Delphine nodded at the puppy as he wrestled with her for the piece of knotted rope she was holding tightly in her hand, laughing as he sank his teeth further in and refused to let go.

"Yes, Pavlov."

"I like it," Cosima smiled behind her magazine, nodding once. "Good name for a dog."

-0-

"Cosima?"

"Hmm?"

Delphine glared at the dog – who had grown rapidly and was now lying on the sofa between her and her fiancé, refusing to budge. "We have a problem."

"Oh?"

"Pavlov is…overly attached to you."

Cosima shrugged as she continued to stare at the TV screen, engrossed in the documentary on the Ancient Egyptians and their dogs. "He just loves me, that's all."

As if knowing that they were talking about him, the dog started to pound his tail up and down, staring willfully up at Cosima as she patted him on the head. Delphine huffed and looked at the screen herself.

"He won't even let me get close to you."

"Relax, he's just protective, that's all."

Huffing again, Delphine crossed her arms and came to a solution.

-0-

"You brought a what into the house?!"

Delphine didn't answer her, just held up the kitten she had picked up from the pet shop. "I got a cat!"

"Delphine, why would you do that?"

"Because clearly Pavlov loves you more than me, so I need a pet of my own. And that's what Tesla is!"

"Tesla?" Cosima laughed, holding Pavlov back by the collar as he tried to sniff at the cat. "You named the cat after Nikola Tesla?"

"Well…yes. It is said that Tesla found out about static electricity by observing the fur on his cat rise on edge," she looked down at the white cat in her arms, that meowed up at her and pawed gently at her face.

"See? He already likes me."

-0-

A year passed in their household. Delphine and Cosima got married and their pets stayed by their side. Cosima and Pavlov would constantly go out for jogs together, and Delphine and Tesla were almost always reading on the sofa together, with Tesla resting on Delphine's shoulders as she flipped through her novel of the week.

Cosima never really got used to how big and how quick Pavlov was, and was constantly reminded every day when he barreled at her as she walked through the door after a day at work.

Delphine never really got over how loving Tesla was, despite his stuck up feline pretence.

But, there was always room for one more.

-0-

One spring day, Alan, one of Delphine's co-lecturers at the university, arrived at their door with a small box. Without saying a word, he gave the box to Cosima and left her with a chirping baby duck in her hands.

-0-

"What are we supposed to do with it?" Delphine asked as she stared at the duckling having the time of its life in their kitchen sink, bobbing its head in and out of the water. Cosima was staring at it too, frowning slightly.

"I don't know. We have to let it imprint on one of us and then it'll do whatever we tell it to do. Sort of."

"What shall we name it?"

Without missing a beat, Cosima answered. "Wright. After the Wright brothers. Inventors of the plane? Coz one day we'll teach him to fly."

"Cosima, we can't teach a duck how to fly."

"We sure as hell will try, Delphine," she grinned, turning to her wife. "We're scientists. We can do anything!"

And that is the story of how Cosima and Delphine, though postponing having children for a very long time, had a dog, a cat, and a baby duck.