Pets: Bach's Story

Bach never gave much thought to owning a pet until he lost his wife and children. He goes to Exotics, Inc., and buys a human, the latest fad in the pet-trade. Pani is everything he ever hoped for: smart, mischievous, both looking and acting so much like a real child that Bach can almost forget she's only a pet. At least until her actions begin to go beyond the limits of the subspecies' intelligence scientifically accredited to the human animal. She speaks, she writes. When she draws a picture of Earth's solar system, Bach must face the realization that perhaps humans are more than just small, adorable, child-like animals. They might actually be a race of people in their own right.