Mark nodded. "I fear she and her older brother have gotten their way far too often. And my little one is likely to be the same way." He smiled a little. "But we're getting rid of everything except the pets."

"I'm sorry to hear you're closing the ranch," Hazel replied. Reaching into a hidden pocket of her gown, she pulled out a neatly folded list. "Based on your letter, this is what we think we can take." She handed the list to him. "Brit agreed to take a look at your animals to see which ones would suit the menagerie."

Mark nodded. "Great. Well, feel free to look around as much as you want. I don't mind. And just yell if you need help or have any questions." He smiled at both of them before going to go round up his daughter again.

Brit looked over at Hazel to see what she wanted to do.

Hazel nodded and turned to Brit.

"Take a look around," she said. "Let me know if you find something that will work for the menagerie."

Brit nodded and started exploring. She liked the pygmy sheep, certainly, and they'd work well in the ranch. She found a couple of ceryneians that she could add to the herd, along with a few other animals that would be good to add. She made a list and made her way back to Hazel to report her findings.

Hazel looked over the list when Brit came back.

"These are the ones we can comfortably take on?" she asked.

Brit nodded. We can take those without a problem and still have plenty of space. And most of the animals seem pretty even-tempered, so I don't think we'll have any problems.

"Alright," Hazel replied. She glanced at the list again. "Did you see anything new we could possibly take on, anything you liked?"

Well, the pygmy sheep, Brit wrote, looking back over at said sheep. She could probably even breed more colors into the batch, too. And I saw they have a couple shisas, and two Cerberi. I don't know how comfortable you are with the idea, but shisas are excellent at guarding once they're trained, and cerberi can be, although they can be a little more temperamental. But they'd be interesting to have at the ranch. They're not very common, and you would never find any for free like this.

"Do you think you and the others can handle them?" Hazel asked. She didn't know much about the animals Brit had mentioned, although she made a mental note to look them up.

Brit nodded. Yeah, shisas are easy. They're like bigger versions of dogs. The cerberi will be a little more difficult, but I don't mind taking care of them. It'll be fun. Because clearly her idea of fun was just a little skewed.

"If you feel you can do it, then we can take them," Hazel replied, nodding. "Was that everything?"

Brit nodded after a moment. The rest of this ranch was eclectic, moreso than usual, and she didn't think they had anything else that really caught her eye for the Menagerie.

Unless there was something you wanted to see? I mean, he does have a lot of creatures here.

"If we have what we came for, I think I'm alright," Hazel replied. "Unless you want me to see something in particular?"

Brit shook her head. She'd already picked out all the animals she'd liked. It would expand the Menagerie some, but not enough to get another employee. Plus it gave her a few ideas, now that she had more free reign around the place.

"Alright, then." Hazel grinned. "You can go wander around again if you want. I need to discuss the list with Mark."

Brit nodded and went to go do one last inspection of the animals they were about to take in, and then she went back to observing the sheep, trying to figure out where to put them and if she'd need to have a new place built for them or if she could just modify the unicorn pen.

Hazel went back into the main building with her list, looking around for Mark. She wasn't sure where he would be, and was hesitant in poking around too much. She'd had better manners than that drilled into her.

Mark emerged from a wing of the house where all the bedrooms were, still smiling. He paused when her saw her, quickly trying to be a little more professional and promptly tripping over the nekomata again.

"Blasted cat! Sorry, Miss Hazel. Things aren't normally quite this chaotic... So! Any questions so far?"

Hazel laughed lightly.

"I have a cat at home," she said knowingly. "I think they all believe they own the place." She pulled out the list, smoothing it out a bit. "I think we've figured out exactly what the Menagerie can comfortably take on," she said, handing him the list. "These, alongside the cerberi and the shisas."

"Excellent," Mark said, looking rather relieved. That was that much less he had to worry about selling off and finding other homes for. "I know they'll all be under excellent care. I've heard good things about the Menagerie, you know." He smiled at her. "Well, then. I know some of the animals can go back with you whenever. The cerberi and the shisas will follow behind a carriage or a horse, so I can take them over whenever is convenient for you. I'm afraid I don't have ready transportation for the others, though."

"I'm sure we can arrange something," Hazel replied. She was sure the Menagerie had a transport for larger animals. "For the moment, we will bring back what we can. If it isn't too much trouble, I can return with a few more of my hands and see about the rest?"

"I'd be glad for the assistance." Mark smiled. "It's not that far, and almost all the animals are at least halter-trained. If nothing else, you could always ask a few of your ranch hands to help mine out walking the animals back to your ranch."

"I'm sure we can work something out if it comes to that," Hazel replied. She took a mental head count. "I can spare three of my hands, if I need to. One will have to stay behind to keep an eye on the ranch. Would that be enough?"

"More than enough. Was there anything you'd like to take back with you now?" Mark looked at her, already mentally going through the animals and figuring out which would be the easiest for her to take.