Little Fuzzy

On the planet Zarathustra, a sunstone prospector named Jack Holloway receives a strange guest at his door one night - a mysterious, small, fuzzy alien - which promptly makes itself at home. Before long, "Little Fuzzy's" whole family joins him. Hardened Jack is transformed into their "pappy" and chief protector, and his life is forever changed. The creatures, however, turn out to be quite intelligent. Sapient life on Zarathustra, however, would be disastrous; this leads Jack and his friends on a quest to discover the answer. The quest becomes a matter of urgency when the company that has been growing rich from mining the planet decides to exterminate the Fuzzies to protect their contract. What follows is murder, deceit, kidnapping and intrigue at its best.

Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.