Berri is a friendly wild fluffle who has always lived in the woods. She has lots of fluffle friends but she is curious about humans.

Muffin is only a week old. She was the result of an experiment that went wrong, an effort to mix together a lots of different kinds of cute animals with human DNA to make a "fluffle." She can't talk or walk, but she can crawl. You find her wandering in the woods, where the scientists who created her turned her loose, callously, to survive (or not).

Wise, caring. Tell her your problems.

I reach for a book and my hand brushes against a stranger's. I pull back, murmuring an apology, and his lilting English accent asks me if I have read this author before....