Unexpectedly Strange Love

A paw-pack? Really? I mean, there's nothing wrong with calling a group of animals that, but it just seems... So fucking strange. I'm the only human in this family, and while they're all nice enough people, they all have their quirks. To be honest, I'm pretty sure I fell in love with Chase solely because his entire existence is based around food. The guy loves food on a level that I can relate to. And he's also an excellent cook, which is just a plus.

I know Rex has farted at me as some kind of "flirting" technique. He's just a big goofball, but he means well. And then there's Sweetie... I don't know where she came from or how she ended up in our pack, but she's definitely one of my favorite people around here. She loves to bake for everyone - even me - and is always so sweet and cheerful when we're together. I don't think any of these people were particularly close before I moved in with them. But now they are.

I think back to what brought me here in the first place. Well, being chased by a crazy man with a gun doesn't really leave you much choice when it comes to running to the cops for help. This was mostly due to the fact that the cops were chasing me too after the fact that I shot said crazy man with my own gun*. That was definitely something that would've landed me in jail if not for the fact that A) he had been trying to kill me and B) I was a small town cop myself who had never killed anyone before**. So when this man shows up - Chase - and offers to let me stay here until things blow over, I honestly didn't have much to say about it other than "okay".

He walked me through his house (well, mansion), which honestly felt more like a museum than a home on account of all the oddities he had collected over the years. Asked me if I wanted anything to drink (I asked him for water). Then pulled out some newspapers from behind his bar and handed them over to me. They were several years old, detailing what happened with him and Marshall (who was apparently named after Chase's father) after Marshall shot someone in cold blood out of rage after finding out his wife cheated on him***. It was interesting reading about Chase's past exploits as a bounty hunter, but it was hardly relevant now considering basically everything from those days is gone thanks to Marshall burning down their shed and accidentally blowing himself up during a test run on one of his inventions*****.

Chase explained that he gave up bounty hunting because he realized it wasn't exactly helping people so much as hounding them for money for doing something bad or stupid most of the time anyway. So what did he do instead? Well, turns out that living off the land tends to force you into making some cash off strangers once in a while since you need money to buy supplies with every so often. And while they weren't exactly taking down criminals anymore, Chase let Marshall get involved with helping him set up what essentially amounted to casinos (which were technically legal in their state). And soon enough they started hiring friends and neighbors and giving them jobs as well - which led to them creating what could essentially be called their own business dynasty*****

The rest of us followed suit as well once we settled down with them. Arrby got his nickname from saying arby sauce instead of etcetera all the time (he still does it sometimes), Sweetie worked her way into helping Chase out at his casinos by making cakes for all the staff whenever someone had a birthday or whatever for an extra bit of cash in her pocket******, Marshall helped fix cars for people who couldn't afford new ones (at least until he decided that working on cars wasn't fun anymore so he stole half a car frame from one person who owed him money and decided he'd rather build his own car from scratch*******), and Rex... Well Rex still tries using farts as some kind of form of flirtation when women are around (*cough* Or men... *cough*).

Yeah... We're definitely one weird family *****. But we love each other like crazy. And we don't care if anyone else thinks we're strange because there are plenty of other strange families around here anyway ******. As long as we've got each other's back none of it matters anyway *******.