First, there is . The protagonist discovers the creature in an improbable location: a discarded refrigerator, a crate washed ashore, a magician’s abandoned hat. The animal is helpless, and the protagonist is purposeless. The act of feeding, warming, and hiding the creature mimics the earliest stages of romantic infatuation—the total focus on the other’s needs, the secret world the pair constructs away from society’s judgment. The portable zoo animal asks for nothing but warmth and fish; it is the perfect first love, uncomplicated by mortgage payments or in-law visits.