Claire brought the fluffies home from Alice’s party and ran straight to the bathroom. Jelly was screaming and crying in a horrifically stinky cardboard box. Her hulu girl outfit was ruined, and her red fur was matted with spaghetti sauce and her own poop. Snowflake was sitting in the fluffy carrier that Claire had used to take them to the party, and was totally silent.
Opening up the poop filled cardboard box, Claire grabbed Jelly by the scruff of her neck and threw her into the bathtub.
“OWWIE!!! BAD UPSIES! JEWWY NU WANT! MUMMAH WET JEWWY GO AN’ GIV TWEATY!”
“Shut up you stupid fluffy! You ruined Alice’s party!” yelled Claire, turning on the faucet full blast.
“ARGRGRGHFH!!! SCAWY WAWA! FWUFFY NO WIKE! HEWP! HEWP! SNOWFWAKE! SAVE JEWWY FROM MUMMAH!”
Claire was not impressed, and grabbed Jelly again, this time by her hind legs, as the fat red fluffy desperately tried and failed to scramble out of the bathtub. Incredibly, the damned creature actually managed to piss itself with fear. Claire dragged Jelly under the faucet, which was a raging waterfall of icy cold water.
“AAAIIIIIEEEEEE!!!” Jelly screamed, “HEWPPFFFFF” she yelled, spitting water out of her mouth, “HEWP! SNOWFWAKE! CWAIRE AM MUNSTAH MUMMAH!”
“SHUT. UP. YOU. BITCH!” Claire screamed back at the monstrous fluffy, feeling such intense rage that she swung the fluffy by its back legs, beating its nose against the bottom of the bathtub, once, twice, then again and again.
“AIIIEIEE!” the fluffy screamed, but quickly stopped struggling and started to cry instead. In the bathtub, blood flowed down the drain, along with spaghetti sauce, piss and excrement.
“Huu huu huuuuuu… Mummah am meanie! Mummah nu wuv Jewwy… Huuu huuu huuuuuuu!”
“You’re a BAD fluffy,” Claire told her, “very very bad.”
Jelly just continued to cry.
Once she had got most of the crap off of the fat red beast, Claire put the plug in the plughole and let the bathtub fill up with water. She added some fluffy shampoo, but decided not to add any hot water, as she normally would for “Baffy tiem”. No, Jelly would have a freezing cold bath, as part of her punishment.
Now that the fight seemed to have gone out of Jelly, the anger flowed out of Claire as well, washing away like all the other mess. In its place was Claire’s shame at having her pet fluffy ruin her little cousin’s birthday party, by pooing all over the food and table, as well as several fluffies and children. In addition, Jelly had bitten Claire, another little girl, and two adults before she was finally thrown into a cardboard box. Claire had been surprised at how hard it could bite.
Feeling awful, Claire left the bathtub filling up with cold water, as there was no way that Jelly could escape, and she finally seemed to be empty of piss and shit. That didn’t stop Jelly from trying though, and she scrabbled her little hooves against the steep sides of the porcelain bathtub, trying to escape, although she didn’t make another sound. Claire rinsed her hands in the sink and went back into her room. She slumped down on the bed and started to cry. A few feet away in the fluffy carrier, Snowflake just stared at her cluelessly.
Claire cried for a moment or two, before her dad heard her and knocked on her bedroom door.
“Claire? honey? Can I come in?”
“Mmmph… OK dad… but I’m really upset…”
Claire’s dad walked over to his crying daughter, with concern and sympathy written all over his face. He sat down next to her, and gave her a big hug. Claire hung on to him and cried for a while.
“It’s OK honey,” he said, “I talked to your aunt, its not your fault.”
“It is my fault!” Claire cried back, “Jelly is my fluffy and its my fault if she’s bad.”
“No one is blaming you honey. Fluffies are really hard to look after, and… to be honest, having that many fluffies in one room with all that spaghetti was a recipe for disaster…”
“Sketties?” Snowflake chirped.
“…after you went, some of the other fluffies were fighting too. We gotta be careful introducing them to each other.”
“Really?” said Claire, seeming to perk up a little “they were fighting?”
“Yeah, two of the older ones I think. Fluffies are very territorial, and all want to be the “bestest” or the “smarty” I’ve been reading about it on the internet.”
Claire looked down at her feet “But did they poop everywhere? Like Jelly did?”
“Err some of them did poop a bit… fluffies do that a lot when they’re afraid, and it was a stampede of fluffies, parents and kids, from how my sister tells it,” her dad replied.
“I just can’t work out why Jelly is so bad dad,” Claire said, getting up and carrying Snowflake’s box over to the pen, and gently lifting her out of it. “Snowflake is so good, always uses the litterbox and never bites anyone. I don’t know what’s gone wrong with Jelly.”
Claires dad paused for a while, looking at the photo of Abbie the golden retriever, that Claire still kept on her bedside table. Her beloved dead dog.
“You know, back when Abbie was a puppy, she used to poop everywhere at first.”
“Really? But she was always so good?”
“This was before you were born Claire. She had to live in the kitchen at first, with sheets of newspaper all over the floor. She’d poop everywhere to start with. We gradually started to reduce the amount of paper on the floor, moving it closer and closer to the door to the back yard, until there was just one piece on the floor, next to the doggy door.”
“I can’t imagine Abbie making a mess inside.”
“Well, she did,” her dad explained, stroking Claire’s hand. “We’d reward her when she pooped on the paper, but if she went on the floor, we’d bop her on the nose.”
“You hit Abbie!” Claire exclaimed in surprise.
“Not hard, and only with a rolled up bit of newspaper. It was just enough punishment that she got the idea, and eventually she learned to poop in the back yard, and after that, we never needed to punish her again.”
Claire didn’t know what to think. She was starting to realise that Jelly’s behaviour was partly her fault.
“I just… I didn’t want to punish her… the man in the fluffy store used to beat her and was really cruel. He made the fluffies fight each other.”
“Yeah you told me, hey, did you see on the news? That store got raided by those crazy PETA people. They set all the fluffies free and burned it to the ground!”
“What?” said Claire, in utter disbelief “Why would they do that?”
“Maybe someone told them about the fluffy fighting that was going on in the basement. I read about that on the internet too, some journalist has written a story about fluffy fighting and illegal gambling. That fluffy store owner was up to no good. Jelly and Snowflake are lucky you saw them when you did.”
“I guess so,” Claire replied, “But what will happen to the other fluffies? The ones they set free?”
“Huh, well, thats the crazy thing. If PETA really loved animals, they’d find homes for them, or at least take them to a shelter. Store raised fluffies won’t last long in the wild, let alone in downtown Vancouver.”
Claire felt guilty, but didn’t say a word.
“Anyway, you need to train Jelly, just like we did with Abbie. A little bit of discipline will be good for her. At the moment, she’s learned she can get away with things if she cries. But you have to be cruel to be kind sometimes Claire.”
“OK daddy, I promise I’ll take care of things.”
“I’ll help you Claire. Why don’t you move them into the kitchen? They’re too big for the playpen now, and it’ll be easier to clean the floor in there. We can put down paper like we did with Abbie, and if they’re good, they can sleep in here with you as a treat.”
Just then, they were interrupted by a squeal from the bathroom.
“HEWP! Mummah! Nu wan dwown! Save Jewwy from cowd wawa!”
Claire sprang off of the bed and rushed into the bathroom. Jelly was nearly up to her nose in icy cold water. She had long since given up trying to escape, and no merely sat there, shivering violently. Claire quickly turned the faucet off.
“Jelly, are you going to be a good fluffy now?”
“Ess… ess jewwwy-y wwwiiww beee guuud-d-d-d… pw-wease mum-mah… wawa sooo cowd.”
“Do you want me to make the cold water go away?”
“Y-es mummmahh… Jewwwy sooo soww-wee.”
“Do you promise to be good?”
“Yes-s-s… jewwy pwom-iss…”
Claire reached into the water, wincing at how icy it was. She pulled out the plug and the water started to drain. Then, she reached for the electric shower head, and turned it on. Carefully checking the temperature on her hand, she made sure it was neither too hot, nor too cold. Jelly’s nose had stopped bleeding, and she looked terribly sorry. Soaking wet, her fluff was clinging to her, and she even looked less fat. Claire reached for the fluffy shampoo and gradually started to massage it into Jelly’s fluff, gently rising her with the warm water from the showerhead.
“Jewwy am sowwee mummah.” the fluffy said pitifully.
Claire remained silent.
“Pwease don’t huwt jewwy again. Jewwy nose hav wowstest owwies,” she said, licking her snout.
“I won’t hurt you… if you are good.”
“Jewwy wiw be gud! wiw be bestest guf fwuffy!” Jelly said enthusiastically.
“You don’t have to be the bestest, just be good. That means pooping in the litterbox, not on the floor.”
“Jewwy wiw poop in wittabox.”
“And no biting, and no stealing food from other fluffies”
“Yes, Jewwy wiw be gud.”
“Otherwise, you’ll get the sorry stick.”
“Nu! Nu sowwee stick! Mummah pwomised!”
“I promise you won’t get it if you are good.”
“Jewwy be gud! Jewwy pwomise!”
“OK then, now, its time to get warm and dry, then its time for bed.”
Claire wrapped up Jelly in a warm, clean towel, and carried her back into the bedroom. Now that Jelly was no longer afraid of the hairdryer, Claire could use it to gently dry the fluffies, and could brush them to keep their fluff clean and free of tangles. Jelly sat there silently, just happy that Claire wasn’t hurting her anymore.
After Jelly was clean and dry, she put her back in the playpen with Snowflake. They had both grown so much in the last few weeks that it could barely hold them, their bed and litterbox. For this reason, Claire used to let them run around in her bedroom while she was at school, leaving a ramp next to the pen so they could get in and out and use the litterbox. Now that they were both young fillies, she needed to get them a new place to sleep.
When Claire put Jelly down in the pen, Snowflake waddled up to her and licked her face.
“Snowfwake wuv Jewwy. Jewwy be gud fwuffy now. Snowfwake hewp Jewwy.”
Jelly and Snowflake made a two fluffy fluffpile, and curled up, falling fast asleep.
