Saffron sat around in her saferoom, not really feeling much like doing anything. The golden furred filly always like this ever since her mummah had gotten forever-sleepies. They both had gotten the Fluffy Flu at the same time and while Saffron had pulled through, her mother had not. One day she was coughing and curled up in her cushion bed and the next she didn’t wake up again.
Their owner loved them both very much and took the loss of Paprika, Saffron’s mummah, especially hard. She wanted to help the foal more to get through the grieving process but was constantly at work. Instead she tried to make do by buying things. The saferoom was absolutely filled with junk she’d gotten from Fluffmart to try and fill the void that was in the filly’s heart. There was a special nursing miwkie station that sang the mummah song and had a preheated formula mixture at the ready, all plush and comfortable to snug against. It wasn’t mummah though. That wasn’t her voice or her miwkies. Saffron was still relatively a babbeh but even she knew that.
The little filly roamed around the room and examined all the new stuff. There were lots of stuffy-toys. New blocks and educational games such as ones where you could put a shape through it’s appropriately sized hole and get a treat. That was too hard for her to do though. Lifting a hoof she knocked a little red ball across the soft carpeting. Paprika wasn’t there though so instead of anyone stopping it, it simply bounced against the bottom of the wall. Mummah would have praised her for being so good at playing ball. There was nothing but the drone of FluffTV in the background though.
Pinning her ears down sadly, Saffron trotted over to a bulky pink plastic phone. It was the Fluffy Fun Phone which was always being advertised on teebee. Before mummah had went away, she kept begging and begging her owner for it. Now it didn’t even feel that fun. There lots of different buttons with stickers of who the fluffy could ‘call’ plastered over it. Different fluffies, a big mummah, a big daddeh, a sketti one. Pressing her hoof down on the skettis, she listened to the prerecorded message:
‘Skettis! Wub skettis! IT AM SKETTI DAY! Time ‘fo dancies!’
The fluffies on the commercial all started dancing around like crazy little maniacs when that jingle played. Saffron didn’t. She pressed another button, one of a yellow filly like herself.
‘Hewwo nyu fwend! Yew am bestest fwend! Am see yew soon!’
No matter how many times she pressed it, she would never get to see the fluffy on the other end of the line. She’d already tried several times, not understanding that they weren’t really talking but cottoning on eventually that they would not in fact be here soon. Nobody ever came around during bright times.
Without even thinking about it, she pressed another button. One with a question mark on it. Normally this would play one of the other recordings shuffled around but this time…
“Hewwo babbeh Saffwon! Mummah am hewe on fun tawky-fing! YAY BABBEH!”
That was…HER mummah. There was no doubt about it. For the first time in a long while Saffron stood up straight and waggled her tail around happily, eyes growing wide.
“Mummah!? Dat am yew mummah!? Saffwon nee’ mummah! Nee’ huggies an…an wubs!”
There was a short pause before the voice continued again. The filly was so close to the phone by now that the sudden noise almost shocked her.
“Yis babbeh. Mummah wan gib bestest huggies an wubs. Buh…mummah in dawkie pwace. Dewe nu am babbeh. Babbeh nee’ come tu mummah.”
Mummah was in a dawkie place? She needed her then! All good foals helped their mummahs and daddehs. That’s what FluffTV said and she was a good foal, that was for sure.
“Otay mummah. Babbeh ‘fin yew. Buh how?” She asked curiously. There were a few dawkie places she could think of, like in the closet. She’d gotten stuck in there once and gotten so scared she’d made scaredy peepees.
“Babbeh nee’ fowebbah sweepies wike mummah. Otay?” Her mummah asked. The filly stepped back from the phone. Fowebbah sweepies? That was bad! It made big mummah cry. It made her cry, too. when Paprika had gone away.
“Babbeh am come back afteh fowebbah sweepies?” She asked hopefully. Not wanting big mummah to be saddies. The voice on the other end of the play phone giggled.
“Yis! Mummah pwomise. Naow babbeh nee’ pway in wawa. Mummah wub babbeh!” The call disconnected. The filly furiously pressed her hoof down on the question mark button multiple times, though it only went through the assortment of prerecorded messages programmed into it.
“Huu…mummah…” Saffron sniffled and wandered over to the water dish. She never drank out of it, of course. Mostly because she still got miwkies. Big mummah had said she was going to remove it for awhile but she was always too sad to do much in here. Saffron got up to the dish, peered inside. The wawas always scared her. Mummah always said to keep away from there. On the fun phone she said to play in it, though. The filly puffed out her cheeks with confidence.
“Am see mummah! Gud babbeh am pway in wawas!” Huffing, puffing, she climbed up past the rim of the bowl and went sliding down into it. The coldness struck her and immediately made her teeth start chattering. It also made fear stab across her heart. She didn’t want fowebbah sweepies. No! NO NO NO! Hooves scrabbling at the rim of the bowl, her legs caught against the sides and she’d keep herself pinned up.
“Hewp! BIG MUMMAH HEWP! BABBEH IN WAWA! NU WAN SWEEPIES!” Big mummah wasn’t around though. Not yet. Saffron would have to hold out long enough, though luckily the water wasn’t TOO deep. Not that it had stopped any fluffy from meeting their demise before though.
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Lauren had just gotten off of work, walking in through the front door with a look of exhaustion. She had long hours, not much pay, and a crappy boss. At least getting to see her fluffy would take her mind off of it. Maybe they’d watch some TV and she’d have a silly little chat with her. The first thing she heard after walking in sent her into full on panic.
“Hewp…mummah…babbeh in wawa…” Came a pitifully weak, croaking voice. Lauren dropped her keys on the floor and rushed to the saferoom to find Saffron just barely clinging to the edge of the water bowl. The bowl she should have removed after Paprika had passed. Lifting the sodden and desperately tired fluffy from the water, she lifted the dish up with the other hand. The woman hugged her little pal to her chest.
“Oh I’m so sorry baby. I’m such a fucking idiot. I should have removed that stupid bowl! You could have….” Lauren teared up. Not wanting to think about the fluffy going away just like Paprika had. All because of her own carelessness and not wanting to have to deal with removing things that reminded her of the mare. Bringing Saffron to the kitchen and dumping the bowl of water into the sink, the woman wrapped the little filly up in a towel. Scrubbed gently at her wispy fur.
“…Saffwon tawk tu mummah.” The filly told her. Lauren glanced down to her, too tired to even ask how that was even possible. Maybe it was like a little kid. Little kids were always imagining things.
“Did you call her on your Fluffy Fun Phone?” She asked, trying to lighten up the mood. It was hard to constantly be in a state of constant stress as she had been lately.
“Yis.” Saffron nodded, and Lauren giggled. The little filly had begged and pleaded for that hunk of plastic for so long. It was good to hear at least one thing seemed to be bringing her joy. She’d been moping around so much, understandably at least. Money well spent then.
“Don’t ever play in water again. OK? You need to be careful. Bad things happen to little fluffies who aren’t careful.” And to fluffies who had owners that didn’t pick up water bowls, but that had already been addressed. The filly nodded.
“Wub yew. Hab bed naow? Su sweepies.” After fighting against the water bowl all day, she just wanted to close her eyes and go to bed. Lauren nodded. Her plans had changed but oh well. At least Saffron was OK. After getting her all dried off, she brought the foal to the saferoom and tucked her down onto the little cushion bed. Draped a fuzzy pink blanket over her.
“I love you too, sweetheart. You’re such a good girl.” The foal giggled as big mummah pressed a kiss to her head and get all snugged in and cozy. Her eyes fluttered closed and before she knew it, they were open again and sunlight was beaming through the window.
Saffron got up out of bed and went over to the little nursing station, suckling greedily from the warm miwkies it dispensed. It played the mummah song as she did, and she’d nuzzle up against the heat radiating up from the plush surface of the station.
After getting her belly absolutely crammed with miwkies, the foal trotted on over to the litterbox to make good poopies. As she was finishing up, a sudden sound made her squeak with surprise.
It was the Fluffy Fun Phone. On occasion it would ring and give a special message when answered. Random and quite fun for a fluffy. Getting up to the phone, Saffron peered down at it. Pressed a hoof down on the big button which would cause the message to play.
“Yew am BAD BABBEH!” It was her mummah. Mummah was calling her bad! But why? She’d just made good poopies! Good poopies meant she was good!
“Mummah…nuu…Saffwon am gud babbeh.” The foal shivered a bit, not wanting to be scolded.
“Yew nu am hab fowebbah sweepies! Mummah say hab fowebbah sweepies an’ BAD BABBEH nu am hab!” Saffron had only ever heard her mummah speak to her like this once when she was still around. When she had made a poopie on the floor after supposedly having been littertrained.
“Nu! Saffwon gud! PWEASE!” She begged her mummah. Fowebbah sweepies were scary. Even scarier was disappointing mummah.
“…Babbeh weab safewoom ‘n num weafy-fing.” Mummah told her. Saffron stared at the phone. She knew what the weafy-fing was. It was a plant with leaves that trailed down to the ground.
“Babbeh nu weab safewoom.” Saffron said smartly, knowing that it was locked up. At the moment though, the door opened slightly with an ominous creak. The filly looked to the entrance with a look of dumbfounded shock. That had never happened.
“Bad babbeh num weafy-fing ‘n be gud babbeh. Be wif mummah in dawky-pwace. Wub yew babbeh.”
The phone called disconnected with a small chirp. Saffron looked over to the open door leading out from the saferoom. She didn’t want to go out there. That’s what bad fluffies would do. Instead she would go over to her toy pile. Try to watch FluffTV. This was a good way to pass the time, having small amounts of time until she eventually got sleepies and collapsed in a pile of stuffy-friends.
Some time later she was awakened by the sounds of the Fluffy Fun Phone ringing and ringing. It jolted her out of sleep and made her look around in confusion. Even if she was a babbeh, she knew that it wasn’t going to be fun to answer the toy. It had to be mummah. Mummah was going to call her bad because she wasn’t listening. Instead of answering, she got up and wandered over to the door. Looking past it. The phone continued to ring and ring until she tentatively stepped forward. Being bad. Going out of the saferoom.
The phone only stopped ringing once she was out of the saferoom. It felt like a new and alien world though she’d been out here with big mummah. Looking over to the weafy-fing, she’d walk over to one of the vines that trailed the floor. This was a philodendron, one of the most common household plants found in pet poisoning accidents. Not that most people who bought them knew that. Lauren certainly didn’t. Saffron took one of the leaves in her mouth, tugged it off the vine. She didn’t have much in the way of teeth yet so it was difficult to chew on hard on her gums. At most she had to swallow as much as she could down without grinding it up. After getting some down into her tummy, she laid down on the floor.
“Babbeh am be gud babbeh ‘an see mummah.” The foal said, thinking that simply closing her eyes would do the trick now. It didn’t work so she just continued laying there. It felt like a long time but now she began to feel sickies. Her throat and lips had both swollen up and started burning. It was hard to breath. With roiling pains, her stomach began churning.
“Nuuu…huuu…OWWIES!” She screeched out, the poison causing her to completely lose control of her bowels and flood the area behind her with a painful flood of diarrhea. The foal scrabbled her little hooves against the floor, beginning to feel the pains of poisoning overcome her.
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Lauren had just gotten off of work and had something special for Saffron. A brand new collar! She was going to start taking the foal out so they could have adventures outside. Maybe if they started getting out and enjoying the area outside, they would both greatly benefit. The first thing she saw after opening the door was the curled up, weeping fluffy. Covered in diarrhea, small watery pools of vomit next to her.
“Oh my God!” Rushing forward, she lifted up the filly and got a good look at her. Since they were close to the houseplant, she put two and two together. Part of one life had very obviously been chewed on, Saffron was sick. It wasn’t hard to figure out.
Calling the poison control center and describing the plant, she was given advice to flush Saffron’s mouth out with cool water. Lauren did so, scrubbing at her little filly’s mouth to remove the burning crystals of the plant from it. It was about all she could do and thank god, it seemed as if the foal had vomited most of it up. If she hadn’t? Well…it was best not to think of it.
After having her mouth swabbed and flushed out, Saffron felt slightly better. Her stomach was still in burning knots but it wouldn’t kill her.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. The person on the phone said that’s about all I could do. You’ll be OK.” Instead of her bed, Saffron was placed in the littertray after being cleaned up. It was for her own benefit. The filly would feel horrible for making bad poopies: Lauren knew that even if she said it was fine, she’d feel bad.
“Mummah. Fwuffy Fun Phone. Huuuu….” She was trying to explain the situation. That the phone was bad. It hurt to speak though. Her lips and throat were swollen, felt as if they were on fire. Lauren looked down to her little friend. There wasn’t much she could do. The woman thought, naturally, Saffron wanted the phone. In Lauren’s mind, she had been playing with it all day every day. Going over to pick up the phone, she brought it over to the littertray and notched it in front of the fluffy so she could play with it. Saffron gave a small, choked ‘huu’.
Big mummah left the saferoom. Worrying over Saffron wouldn’t do much. She needed rest mostly. That’s what the people on the phone had said. After cleaning her mouth, that’s about all there was to it.
“I’m such a fucking idiot.” She’d forgotten to close the saferoom door. Didn’t research about plants and had nearly killed her fluffy again. After throwing the potted plant into the trash, she went to her bedroom to cry.
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Lauren wanted to stay with Saffron the next morning but she couldn’t. Taking time off was just about impossible and no, telling her boss that her fluffy was sick wasn’t going to cut it. She’d checked on her that morning and she seemed just fine, too.
Well. Saffron was trying to sleep off her traumatic experience. Her mouth place still burned and hurt. The Fluffy Fun Phone started ringing though. Ring-ring-ring! The foal knocked it away from her.
“Gu way, dummeh. Nuuu!” It rang and rang. Eventually, it clicked on.
“BAD BABBEH! BAD BABBEH! SAFFWON AM BAD BABBEH! WEAB MUMMAH AW AWONE IN DAWK PWACE! HAE’CHU BAD BABBEH!” That was her mummah. She was so mad. Didn’t she care about her huwties? The last two days had been so horrible. All she wanted were huggies and nice words.
“Mummah. Babbeh am twy…num weafy-fing…” She began crying. It all felt hopeless. More than anything she wanted mummah here to give her huggies, wicky-cweanies, to cuddle up and nurse from her. Saffron began suckling on her hoof.
“Nu am twy gud! Naow babbeh pway wif noodwy-fings!” The fluffy knew what she was talking about. The window-blind cords. White-capped strands of material which dangled down from the window. Looking to the phone, to the noodly-things, Saffron nodded.
“O-Otay. Saffwon wub pwayin’.” Getting up from the litterbox with weak legs, she didn’t think it would be too bad to play with these. Getting up to the cords, she swatted at them with her hooves. They swung around with pleasing little wooshes. She got one in her mouth and tugged it around, giving little yanks and twisting around. This was actually kind of fun! The filly tumbled and giggled against them for the moment, forgetting all about having huwties. Mummah cheered from the fun phone the entire time.
“Yay! Babbeh su smawties ‘n bestest wif pwayin’! GUD BABBEH!” That made Saffron so excited. No more yelling! No more meanie words! She was playing with mummah just like before. It wasn’t as fun as having her right here catching a ball but it was the most she’d gotten for a long while.
It was all fun and games until the cord got wrapped around her neck. Saffron skittered her hooves back, trying to free herself. The more that the fluffy pulled and struggled, the more it seized against her.
“Hewp! Mummah hewp! Babbeh am twapped! EEEEEEE!” The panic made the cord draw against her throat. Choked her out. She couldn’t beg or plead anymore. Urine ran dog her leg as the noodly-thing knotted up against her throat. Her eyes bulged out, tongue sticking out as air wheezed out.
“Grrkkll! HAFFFF!” Attempting to bolt away from the meanie-thing, it only caused more and more of her precious oxygen to be dragged out. Eventually the struggling stopped. The fluffy lay slack against the floor, tongue sticking out and drool puddling to the floor. With a click, the Fluffy Fun Phone disconnected.
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Some time later, Lauren was out in the backyard digging a hole for Saffron. It was all her fault. What kind of an idiot put corded window blinds into a room basically meant for toddlers? Pets and kids were constantly killing themselves with those things. She was the worst fluffy owner ever.
“I’m so sorry, Saffron. I’m the worst person ever.” The woman was sobbing. Three days, three days she’d gotten into accidents over things which could have been avoided. Should have been avoided. Saffron’s little shoebox casket was placed into the hole, and she’d break down in full-on choked weeping as she shifted dirt on top of it with her hands. Covering her sweet little baby with soil. Never to have huggies or love again. It was all her fault, too.
The woman walked back into the house, head hung liked a criminal condemned to death. Simply standing in the kitchen, staring at the wall. In a daze, a funk, something indescribable. It felt as if she’d been immersed in cold water.
Ringing. Ringing dragged her back to reality. Looking over her shoulder, she wandered over to the saferoom which was now painfully empty and bereft of life.
There was Saffron’s ‘precious’ Fluffy Fun Phone. The woman stepped over to it, glancing down to the toy which buzzed and flashed with whimsical bright lights.
Ring ring ring!
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The plot for this was stolen from a Twilight Zone episode called ‘Long Distance Call’. I’ve always loved it and thought it would be a fun thing to convert to a fluffy story.
