It was a warm, sunny Spring day – and as far as Cooper was concerned, that suited him just fine.
Winter had been rough, after all – lasting all the way until April, with the occasional snow flurry or downpour-for-days still happening even now! It was well into the time warm weather would’ve been preferable, and, as he stood a little straighter, adjusting the towel over his right shoulder and listening to the birdsong, he’d made his mind up right then and there.
Today was a pool day.
Luckily, with the advent of the warmer season (and spring break!), the local pools had opened their doors for the first time since last fall, all manner of critters looking to beat the heat splashing about in the cerulean depths of the pool.
Eagerly, the ferret hurried up his steps, unlatching the pool gate and stepping inside. A familiar sound-and-smellscape struck him immediately; laughing, splashing, the scent of sunscreen and chlorinated pool water… the smells of summer, washing over him with such intensity that if he closed his eyes he’d have assumed it was August. Still, a nice day was a nice day – and he certainly wasn’t going to squander it by standing around thinking about the pool. He was getting in!
Letting the gate shut behind him, Cooper wandered along the empty chairs and picked a particularly sunny spot to lay out, umbrella casting just enough shade to cool it off. He laid out his towel, tugged off his shirt, and had just started to lay down when something poked into the small of his back.
A… bottle?
A squeeze tube, of some kind? The ferret blinked, shifting a little and reaching underneath with a paw. Sure enough, a little toothpaste-reminiscent tube of something was laying on top of the chair, freshly retrieved. Some sort of sunscreen for fur?
Barely used…?
Cooper glanced around, wondering if he’d laid down in a chair already claimed. No towel, no bag, no goggles or anything indicating someone was coming back for their errant ointment… huh. Probably fine?
With a mental shrug, he popped the cap free, squirting a little into an open paw. When in Rome, right?
The scent that hit his nose was completely unexpected, as if concentrated pool water had suddenly washed by. An odd mix of chlorinated water, and a strangely plastic smell?
Bleh. Probably why they left this stuff behind. Still, free sunscreen was still sunscreen…
Well. Generally.
Cooper squeezed a little more, rubbing it on his nose and his tummy, trying his best to cover the parts he knew he’d burned on the last time he’d laid out by a pool for a while. It felt nice and cool, almost like aloe, oddly enough. Maybe it had something to do with…
His line of thought, naturally, was interrupted as his paw brushed back over a spot he’d already rubbed the sunscreen into. It was smooth, his pads gliding over it as if he’d run his hand over plastic… and when he looked, he had.
Already, spreading slowly out from the patches he’d applied, his fur had begun to mat down and smooth over, carefully decaling itself into simplified versions of the patterns it was replacing. A chunky seam had begun to work its way up his tummy, the barest first hints of a cute little “do not overinflate” labeled valve beginning to poke out of where his belly button had been just a few minutes earlier.
Cooper, for his part, was beyond bemused. He was looking for a nice day at the pool, and… well, floating in it all day wasn’t a bad way to spend it, he supposed.
Figuring the change might finish a little faster if he rubbed a little more in, Cooper started to squeeze a little more out of the little tube… only for his paws, before his very eyes, to begin to swell, doubling in size as they softened.
Well. He supposed that was just as well.
With a loud sqrk the ferret’s tail began to inflate, swelling from base to tip like an inflating balloon – and as it did so, Cooper realized just how light he was getting. The pressure from the tail literally lifted him slightly from the chair, and, as he wobbled for a moment in place, he tipped forward!
His paws flew up to catch him, tumbling towards the concrete sides of the pool deck… but he merely lightly bumped against the ground, tight trunks around inflated thighs groaning a little in protest.
His cheeks and face began to swell, softening as their shapes began to simplify from those of a real ferret to a toy one. For a moment, his vision went blurry – but, as it finally corrected a few moments later, Cooper realized the changes had… stopped?
The ferret stood there for a moment, looking himself over – the sunscreen… sure had turned him into an inflatable. Something seemed a little cliche about that.
Oh, well. No better way to spend the day at the pool, right?