"Should I have expected this? I feel like I should've expected this."

Yorkies danced around, yipping incessantly. Akitas barked, Frenchies sniffed each other's butts, and a particularly enterprising group of Bassets appeared to be trying to dig their way through the floor. The floor being made of concrete did not appear to be deterring them.

And standing proudly in the middle of all the chaos…

"Krypto, I understand. I've even heard stories of there being a Super-cat, and there being some other dog honestly doesn't surprise me. And the bird… ok that's obviously not a normal bird, it almost looks like it's wearing an outfit.

But why the HECK is there a COW here?!"

"BAT-COW!"

Ladybug reassessed. While she'd been going on her rant, Chat had apparently flung himself into the middle of the thrall of animals, happily petting and cooing over the apparent Super-team of animals that'd popped up seemingly out of nowhere. The Chat-proclaimed Bat-cow seemed to be taking a special liking to him, happily mooing and licking and nuzzling him, though both the dogs were putting up some good competition on that front, shoving their snouts at him and whining for attention.

And then the Super-cat decided that she couldn't stand other creatures getting attention from a catboy and not being included, and promptly flew onto Chat's head and plopped herself down there.

"Ha ha ha HA HA! Guys, stop it, I'm ticklish MMM MMM. YUCK!"

She giggled as Krypto took Chat's talking as an opportunity to lick inside his mouth.

Wait. What was that thing moving on Bat-cow's back?

Narrowing her eyes, she walked over… and was promptly bowled over by the two dogs, who'd decided that Chat was getting quite enough attention from Bat-cow and the Super-cat, and couldn't leave her to her sad, animal-less existence a second longer.

By the time she finally got up (Ok, so she may have stayed petting and cooing and cuddling over them for a few minutes longer than she'd intended. So sue her, they were cute.) the thing had moved from Bat-cow's back, to her head.

"Hamtaro?!"

Hers and Chat's pet hamster squeaked back happily, standing up on his hind legs and waving his little paws at them, as if to say 'Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Look what I did!'.

But the orange outfit, complete with small cloth tail, looked awfully familiar…

She held out her hand. Hamtaro crawled onto it, giving another happy little squeak.

Holding him up to her face, and examining him carefully…

Yep. There it was. A tiny little collar with a miniscule fox-tail charm.

"Hey, Chat?" she called over to him. "I think I just solved the mystery of the missing Miraculous."

"Ha ha ha WHAT DID YOU SAY?" he called over to her, flat on his back being licked to death by Bat-cow and Super-cat, along with a few of the regular dogs that'd noticed his presence.

She just shook her head, smiling. He'd had a rough few months, she wasn't gonna take him away from this until she had to.

Turning her attention to Hamtaro, she gave him a slight frown. "We were really worried you'd been nabbed with the rest of the petnapped pets," she scolded him. "And with Fu reporting a missing Miraculous… we assumed the worst." Though maybe they shouldn't have. It HAD seemed strange that Plagg had been laughing his furry little butt off while she, Adrien, and Fu had been freaking out over there possibly being a new evil Miraculous holder – one who knew the identity of the Guardian.

Hamtaro gave a sad, almost ashamed squeak. Then shot across her arm and onto her shoulder, where he nuzzled into her neck.

"HEE HEE HEE Stop it! You know I'm ticklish there!"

He gave out some happy, defiant squeaks, and nuzzled her even harder, his whiskers brushing against her neck sending her into hysterics.

After a minute or two of trying to catch her breath, she was finally able to reach around and grab Hamtaro.

"I can't stay mad at that cute little face," she said, trying not to giggle. "But seriously. Let us know if you're gonna be leaving, please. And you might need to pick a different Miraculous. I was thinking of giving Alya the Fox permanently, if Fu and Trixx are ok with that.

He gave her a nod and one last squeak, then took a flying leap from her hand back onto Bat-cow's back. He promptly curled up into a fluffy ball and fell asleep.

Smiling at the sight, she turned to look back at the chaotic scene in front of her.

Oh hell. Getting all these pets back home and explaining what'd happened was gonna be a NIGHTMARE.

Sighing, she dialed the special number the police department had given her and Chat. "Hi, police? We've found the missing pets…"