"Walking a Pet" idea development

Hey guys. Just figured I'd post my brainstorming on the "walking a pet" idea. I would love it if you guys chimed in and told me what you thought. Even better yet, if you could bounce some ideas back that would be extremely helpful.


Concept Overview

A bunch of people are in a park walking their pets - they don't need to be real world animals, in fact I think it would be cooler if we designed our own animals. A child is in a house/apartment overlooking the park, watching from a window as all the people walk their respective pets. He/she has a pet, but it is not the type that you can take for walks.

I believe the above is the initial setup of this story. From here, there are many variables and plot points that need to be worked out and resolved. Among them, I believe the following are the most important:

-Why is the child's pet unable to go for walks? (this, I feel, is the initial conflict in the story to motivate the character)

-What solution(s) does the child come up with to try and solve the above problem?

-What other problems arise from the child putting in action the above solution(s)?

-How is the conflict resolved? Does the child succeed or fail? Does he/she learn anything?


Answering the above questions should give us a rough story arc. That being said, here are some ideas I've generated:


Why is the child's pet unable to go for walks?

The pet...

-is too large/bulky for the child to handle
-is too small to cope with being outside
-is too slow to keep up with the child's walking pace (*)
-has no legs, and therefore can't walk (*)
-is made of some sticky substance that makes it hard to move
-is not a real animal (inanimate object, like a doll, stuffed animal or toy) (*)
-is no longer living (a dead animal that has been stuffed and mounted)
-needs certain environmental conditions to survive (such as a fish that needs to stay in water) (*)

Out of the above list, I've starred (*) the ones I think are the most interesting. Using these scenarios, here are some ideas I've come with for the answer the next question:


What solution(s) does the child come up with to try and solve the above problem?

(for the scenarios "slow pet", "pet with no legs", and "not real")

The child...

-attaches rockets (or some other propulsion device) to the pet
-drags the pet along the ground, disregarding its slow pace
-puts the pet on a wagon/trolly of some sort and pulls it along
-ties rollerskates to the pet's limbs
-tries to give the pet some sort of stimulant, like coffee, to make it move faster

(for the scenario "pet needs certain environment")

The child...

-carries along a squirt bottle/container that holds the thing the pet needs to stay alive, occasionally spraying the pet with it
-tries to bring the pet's cage/home with him/her
-tries to create his/her own cage/holding device, filled with the pet's environment, to carry the pet in
-tries to make the park more like the pet's environment so the pet will survive


This is all I've got so far. I'll update when I have thought up some more ideas.

I still like this overall concept, and I think we could work a story into it without hitting the pitfalls we did in the dual world scenario when the story began to revolve around explaining the concept.

Agreed about the appearances of the characters. They could be very simple and effective. We also would have more room to play with shapes/colors if they were fantasy creatures.

additional ideas for the pet:

1. he's insanely cute but happens to be poisonous to the touch, and the child has to stop everyone from trying to pet him.

2. he's invisible. if he's small, perhaps he gets away and gets into things he's not supposed to, like a small, ill-mannered monkey. if he's big like an elephant, maybe the problem is just keeping something that large and invisible from crushing things.