When the Aldebaranian ambassador arrives on Earth to negotiate a crucial treaty, he brings something unexpected: a pet. But on Aldebaran VII, the word means something far different than it does on Earth, and what the ambassador considers a harmless companion could spell disaster for the entire negotiation. Captain Johnny Martin, assigned to facilitate the diplomatic visit, finds himself caught between interplanetary protocol and a creature that defies every earthly category of animal, vegetable, or mineral. Randall Garrett's 1950s novella plays delightful havoc with the assumptions underlying first contact, asking what happens when 'treating with respect' meets a life form no one on Earth has ever encountered. The comedy emerges from the gap between what humans think they're dealing with and what actually confronts them, while the underlying tension tests whether two species can ever truly understand each other across the vast gulfs of evolution and culture. Sharp, compact, and genuinely funny without sacrificing its sense of stakes.
