Awareness

Jasper awoke to an obnoxious buzzing and his first instinct was to reach for his alarm.  It didn’t help, the buzzing continued.  As the kangaroo returned to consciousness, he focused on the buzz and realized it was coming from somewhere out in the hall.

He groaned, for his clock still told him he had ten minutes to go before he was to be awake.  He tried burying his head beneath his pillow, although he knew that never worked for him.  Not when he was trying to shut out the alarm and not now when he was trying to shut out the buzz.  So he sighed and crawled out of bed with a yawn.

It was a constant buzz, only varying slightly in tone and pitch as it hummed and it reminded Jasper of the horror movie he’d watched the night before.  As he made his way out of his bedroom and down the hall, he tracked the buzzing to the upstairs bathroom he shared with his housemates.  With Ch’Tah not due home from his night job for another hour or two and Angie - their only female housemate - already off to work, that left Angie’s boyfriend the only possible culprit.

“Rhys, whatever you’re doing in there, I don’t appreciate waking up to a re-enactment of The Day of the Apidae,” Jasper shouted as he pounded on the door.  “Get your bunny ass out of there and explain to me what you’re doing that couldn’t wait another ten minutes.”

The buzzing stopped and then Rhys opened the door a little and peered out.  His normally chocolatey fur was gone from his head and part of his left ear.  “It’s March,” he said simply and then closed the door again.

“Couldn’t wait for shedding season?” Jasper yelled when the buzzing started again.

The buzzing continued as the door opened again and this time Jasper could see the electric razor held in Rhys’ paw.  He didn’t even know they owned one.  “March is Mange Awareness Month,” he responded.  “Did you know that we, the population of this great planet, have the ability to provide relief to every dog that suffers from mange, but there are countries that don’t have the medical facilities to do so?”

Jasper sighed again and rolled his eyes.  “How is shaving yourself going to help?”

“For those of us who can’t afford to support the countless mange charities out there,” Rhys said, “We can be walking reminders that the problem of mange is still very real in today’s world.”

Jasper hadn’t noticed Ch’Tah return home early.  The tiger spoke to them as he walked by.  “That razor was $20 at the mall.  If the three hundred million people in this country each donated twenty dollars to mange relief funds, that would be six billion dollars, which I’m sure would help a lot.  Oh, and I hope you have something warm to wear today.”  Then the tiger disappeared into his room.

“Yeah, what he said,” Jasper said as he turned his attention back to the rabbit with the razor.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Rhys said as he brandished the still buzzing razor in Jasper’s direction.  Jasper was certain that before the morning was out, the bathroom would be covered with rabbit fur.  “I work indoors and the weather’s due to warm up soon.  If there was even a remote chance I would freeze myself, I wouldn’t do this.”

* * *

The shivering popsicle that was called Rhys Bertram sipped hot coffee while wrapped in a blanket and held by his field mouse girlfriend.  He was completely void of fur from the top of his ears to the tips of his toes.  He glanced at Jasper, sitting beside him on the couch, who had an “I told you so” expression on his muzzle.

Ch’Tah sat in his favourite chair with a cup of tea on the table beside him.  He noticed the look that his housemates shared and spoke.  “To be fair, I don’t think any of us anticipated that the heating system at your workplace would be getting pulled out and replaced today, Rhys.”  But that was cold comfort and he knew it.