Snowball walked gracefully along the roof. As always, Her paws were meticulously placed, one in front of the other as the occasional car roared by on the damp pavement below. A warm breeze tussled through her perfectly kept fur as she reached the edge of the roof. Looking down below, she spotted a cozy orange light coming from the open window of a long abandoned factory. Snowball jumped down to the fire escape below with expertise before making her way down.

Warm laughter and soft jazz filled her ears as she pushed back the velvet blanket that acted as a door to the main room. The space was compact, glowing string lights littered the walls and at the center of the room, lay the top half of on old barrel currently being used as a table. Around it, a variety of animals sat on variously colored blankets and pillows. “Ah, Snowball!” A farmiliar raspy voice called out to her, followed by other greetings. Hank, a scruffy old wiener-dog, smiled at her “You just missed it! Arlo here was telling us how his human-“ He devolved into laugher before he could finish, “his human he- ah you gotta tell her Ar!” Hank finished as he continued his laughter, next to him, sheldon the turtle was also snickering. Snowball rolled her eyes fondly.

“Lovely to see you boys too,” she commented before looking pointedly at a younger golden retriever as she took a seat on her favorite dark green blanket. “Seems I missed your story Arlo” Arlo, their newest member, looked at her bashfully. “Aw it wasn’t that funny Ms.Snowball, Hanks just overstat’n it” Arlo said pawing at the ground nervously, but still chucking at his own story. Next to him, a brightly colored green and yellow parrot spoke up, “Nah he’s lying Snowy! it’s halarious, go on, tell her Arlo!” He then looked up at her a little to excitedly, “Ok, I-I mean i’ll still tell ya if ya want” Snowball fluffed her blanket calmly before looking at Arlo, “I’d love to hear your story Arlo” she said with a friendly nod. Arlo perked back up, and began to recount the entire tale of how his human sliped down the stairs three separate times that morning in a rush. “An then once he finally got out the door, I was watchin’ out the window right? And I saw him slip again gettin’ on down the front steps!” Arlo finished with a bark and a laugh “I couldn’ even stand right I was laughin’ so hard” Snowball herself was also laughing, though, not nearly as much as hank, despite this being the second time he had heard this story.

The rest of night flew by with anecdotes of the odd, annoying, and funny things their humans were up too. It wasn’t until the sound of bustling cars picked up that one by one, the pets started excusing themselves to leave.

The last two out were Snowball and Hank. With a flick of her paw, Snowball shut off the fairy lights that shrouded their hangout, before turning towards the exit. In his teeth, Hank was holding the blanket that covered the door to the side for her, Snowball thanked him with an elegant nod as she exited, hearding Hank follow behind. Stepping into the dim early morning light, Snowball spoke, “that was very enjoyable Hank, as always.” she said with a nod “Get home safe” Hank gave a warm smile before speaking “Of course Snowball, you take care now- and hey we’ll see you tomorrow right?” Snowball gave him a friendly smile “Of course Hank, I wouldn’t miss it.” With that, snowball jumped back up into the fire escape, ready to head home.