Exotiques Pet Store

Owner: Jaime Gutierrez

Employees: Nanette Bonimais

The store interior lacks the usual bustle of dog yips and cat mewls, instead the tweets and caws of odd birds fill the store, in fact there’s not a single fluffy fuzzy to be found. Slithery, slinky snakes and frogs more reminiscent of something from a  Lovecraft book than an actual animal occupy most of the glass tanks lining the walls. A rooster’s crow keens from the backend, half-cut doorway exposing a backyard that has been repurposed into chicken pen, complete with a coop. The odd golden pheasant here and there bustle about with small white hens.

Near the register sits a black cockatoo, red tails feathers fanned out as it takes a keen observation of your presence. Though it has full flight feathers and nothing restraining it from taking off, the bird contents itself with alternating between preening and croaking out repeated words. A curly haired woman leans over the counter, tapping a pencil and writing down errant words in a notebook.