It may be a tiny pink one your mother "lost" from her cashmere sweater as she descended to last night's party. Or perhaps it's a still-active button lingering on a single thread, glinting and glassy as the last of a late winter sun squints into your bedroom window.  Either way, any button this little lady deems a perfect addition to her collection will be gone before the moment is.  Nothing can disguise the gleam in her eye when she spots that button.  For Picky 'Paca Rat, however svelte and pale and dressed to the nines is still a rat.

This may be the only thing she and Alpaca Rat, "The Button King" have in common, but Al hates to leave it at that.  Mystified by the pearl button in her ear, a nice little accent to the distinctive string of light-colored buttons lacing her delicate neck, he makes wide circles around her, now and then offering something from his own richly varied collection.  More often than not he is flatly refused; Picky 'Paca Rat, as close to femininity as a rodent can get, defines the word fickle.  Not that it isn't becoming...

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