One day, Ricky went on a picnic with his family. They went to the park and had baloney sandwiches and pickle slices and chocolate pieces. Then a squirrel came out of the woods and up to them. He looked sick. He had bald patches and he was shaking. He said "I haven't always been this way". But when Ricky asked him his name, the squirrel got angry and said "I want to put my hurt inside you" and all of a sudden, Ricky felt very hot and confused. He got very tired and must have fallen asleep. By the time Ricky's dad was able to wake him, the squirrel was gone. The grass around their picnic blanket was brown.

Ricky tried to ask his parents what had happened, but they didn't like to talk about it. They started to treat Ricky strangely. Sometimes he would come into a room to find the rest of his family talking and when they saw him, they stopped talking and wouldn't tell him what they were talking about. So Ricky became increasingly solitary. He would go for walks around the neighbourhood alone, collecting interesting things he found on the ground. He built up quite a collection; he kept the things in a box under his bed. Eventually he filled up a second box and then another. He worried that his mom would find the boxes, but she never came into his room anymore, not even to get his laundry.

Then Ricky hit puberty and hair grew on his body. He began to have back problems. He read on the internet that maybe it was growth spurts, but if anything he felt like he was shrinking. His body hair kept spreading. It grew and grew on his arms legs and back, and then onto his face. He was never popular at school, but now it was even worse. After some kids attacked him he went to the hospital and then to a special home where the scientists studied Ricky. He was definitely shrinking now, and long whiskers grew from his face. Plus he was growing a tail.