Cat and iguana

Curly saw her chance and seized it. Her family had left the back door cracked just enough so that she could get out. More importantly, it was large enough for her to lure Moe out of the house. Curly used to be the family's only pet and she had enjoyed her reign. She was a beautiful cat, in her opinion, and she enjoyed having undivided attention that she could enjoy at her leisure.

But then, one day, her family brought home an iguana named Moe. Curly didn't think it would change much, after all, she was still the family's queen, right? But she noticed that now her family's attention was sometimes directed at Moe. Moe even had his own little habitat and his own spotlight. Curly had never gotten a spotlight. It wasn't fair.

So now, Curly had decided it was time for Moe to go. The cracked door provided the opportunity. It was very goofy of her family to leave the door cracked when Moe was out of his habitat, but maybe her family wanted him gone too. That would make sense, thought Curly. Her family was nice so they probably would feel bad getting rid of Moe on their own. Curly was happy to help.

"Hey, Moe, let's go explore," whispered Curly.

Luckily, all animals spoke the same language, so Moe looked up at her happily and replied, "Sounds good, Curly."

Curly sneakily led Moe outside into the backyard and then out to the front of the house. "Come on, Moe, we've seen the backyard before."

Moe followed, at a pace that was slower than Curly would've liked, but she hoped that perhaps his sluggish movements wouldn't attract the attention of their family. When they reached the road, Moe stopped.

"What are you doing?" demanded Curly.

"The road is just so nice and warm, I wanted to help get my body temperature back to where it should be. The grass was cold you know."

"What?"

"Oh, I thought you knew, I need light and heat to keep myself at a safe temperature," Moe said, looking at Curly, "That's why I have the light."

"Oh," said Curly, feeling a little dumb. "I thought it was because you wanted attention..."

Moe paused, "No, I mean I like when our family gives me attention, but I don't need a lot of it. I'd rather they paid more attention to you."

"Really?" asked Curly, preening.

"Yeah, I mean I want some attention, I do love our family, but they seem to require a lot of time."

Curly laughed, that was really true. "You know, Moe, I think we could be good friends."

"I'd like that," smiled Moe.

"I say we work out a system so that we each get all the attention we want, but can signal the other to get the family to leave us alone when we want."

"Deal," replied Moe.

Curly then led Moe back to the house, "Come on, they're going to start to worry."

"Well, well, it looks like you two had an adventure!" said their family when they crawled back through the door together.

Things finally settled into an equilibrium at the house. Curly and Moe figured out how to share the attention so that Curly got all the attention she wanted, but only when she wanted it and Moe would distract the family when Curly wanted to be left alone. A few weeks later, the family came home and called out to Curly. Curly ran into the room they were in, which was the room with Moe's habitat. Moe looked at her and it was clear he didn't know what was going on either.

The family revealed a small cage covered in a towel.

Curly and Moe exchanged alarmed looks.

Their family removed the towel and opened the cage, removing a large, beautiful, and attention grabbing cockatoo.

"Curly, Moe, meet Larry!"

(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)