Randall Garrett

“ Slowly the lock of the other ship slid back and two space-suited figures appeared—the Ambassador, Quelf Tharkol, and his pet. The Ambassador was invisible within his spacesuit but he stood upright and looked to be about the size of a man. I was happy about that; it's always a lot easier to negotiate with a humanoids-type alien than with something totally bizarre.
I chuckled when I saw the space-suited cat—for so I thought of it. It was cat-size, in a little form-fitting spacesuit, and it scampered after its master on four legs, space-suited tail wagging behind. ”

“ We're here to pick up an ambassador from Aldebaran to Earth, along with his pet."
I heard some hasty conferring going on and then someone said, "Hold on, Terran ship. We'll check with the home planet."
Five tense minutes passed—minutes in which I half expected to be blown out of the sky by a sudden attack. You never can tell with aliens. They're likely to do almost anything; their psychologies are unpredictable in Terran terms—as, I guess, ours are in theirs. ”

“ Smart psychology for the aliens to bring a "human" as a pet, putting our diplomats on the defensive right from the start. The Ambassador must have known what I was thinking for the sneer grew on his face. ”