From that point on, Claire took extra special care of Jelly and Snowflake. Realising that they had been abused, she gave them extra treats and cuddles, and even got her mom to cook them sketties once a week.
“Yay! Sketties!” the fluffies would cry out with happiness, “Jewwy wuv mummah!”
“Snowfwake wuv mummah too! Mummah am de bestest mummah!”
Claire couldn’t stop thinking about the fluffy store owner though. Eventually, she looked online, and found PETA’s anonymous contact email. She wrote them a long message, explaining what the fluffies had told her, and hit submit. Somehow, this helped Claire to feel better. Still trusting that there was some justice in the world, and that adults would make everything better, she managed to stop thinking about everything her new “babbehs” had told her. Besides, there were many more fun things to think about.
It turned out that Claire’s little cousin Alice also kept fluffies. Alice was only seven, and Claire adored her. Alice also had some new baby fluffies, and when Claire found out, she arranged to go and visit. Alice’s parents decided that Claire was old enough to babysit if they went out for a few hours, so they would leave the girls and fluffies alone to play in the house. Alice had a dolls house with clothes and furniture big enough for the fluffies to wear and sit in, and the girls spent hours playing with them, whilst the fluffies explored the house.
A few weeks past, and Jelly and Snowflake grew quickly. They were greedy little beasts that loved all kinds of treats, be they fruit or “hooman nummies”. They especially liked Spaghetti and meatballs with a tomato sauce, which Claire’s mom started to cook once a week. Snowflake was starting to become a fine young filly. Her mane and tail were now a bright sapphire blue, and her fluff was pearly white, as was her Unicorn horn. Jelly on the other hand, was a big fat ball of red fluff, constantly demanding “tweaties”
It could be annoying, but Claire knew that Jelly was traumatised from her time at the store, so she gave Jelly everything she asked for. Jelly began by being grateful, but soon started to feel entitled, expecting treats even if she hadn’t been good. If Claire refused, Jelly would start to cry, and Claire would feel so bad that she’d end up treating Jelly anyway. In this way, Jelly learned that crying meant she got her own way, and that being bad didn’t matter, because she could always cry and get away with it.
“Um, Cwaire, Jewwy has made poopies on cawpet. Can hav tweaty?”
“What?” said Claire, looking up from her phone, “why have you made poopies on the carpet?”
“Can hav tweaties?”
“No you can’t have treaties for pooping on the carpet! Ugh gross! Why did you poop there? Your litterbox is only over there…”
“Dun wike wittabox, it stinky… Mummah, can jewwy hav tweaty?”
“No you can’t!” Yelled Claire, grabbing Jelly by the scruff of her neck and dumping her in the litterbox.
“Owwwie! Bad uppsies!” screeched the fat little fluffy, “No wike wittabox, hav poop on weggies… nu smeww gud… hu hu am dummeh poopie fwuffy… hu hu huuuu…”
“Oh stop crying you stupid thing,” Claire scolded the fluffy, rapidly losing her patience as she scrubbed the carpet once again. “I’m fed up with your accidents.”
“Huu huuuuu… Jewwy am nu stoopid ting… jewwy no mean make poopies… it was a haxidunt…”
Claire just ignored her whilst she scrubbed the carpet. Why was Jelly so bad and Snowflake so good? Snowflake always used the litterbox, and Jelly was perfectly capable of doing so. For some reason though, Jelly had become worse, pooping almost anywhere, as if she didn’t care, then throwing tantrums if Claire told her off. Even more strangely was that she had started asking for treats when it happened, as though she had been good. Claire tried ignoring her, but this typically made things worse.
“HU HU HU!!! Mummah nu wuv Jewwy! Mummah fink Jewwy am dummeh stoopid poopie babbeh! Put babbeh in wittabox in poopies… HU HU HU!!!”
“Jelly, you KNOW to poop in the litterbox. I never punish you for having accidents, and I’ll give you treaties if you poop in there… please don’t poop on my carpet, its getting ruined and its getting stinky too”
“Jewwy wiw twy… poop in wittabox…” Jelly’s voice was strained, as she struggled to poop in the litterbox, even though she had just gone all along the side of Claire’s bed. Eventually she managed to poop a little more.
“Jewwy am gud babbeh! Hav poopie in wittabox! Can hav tweaty?”
Claire looked at the little beast, who was screaming and crying just a few seconds ago, who was now beaming and asking for another treat. Claire felt a hot feeling building up inside her, then she gritted her teeth. The only way to train fluffies is to reward them for being good she thought, so reluctantly, she gave Jelly another peanut M&M.
“Yay! Wuw tweaties! Jewwy am gud fwuffy fow get tweaties.”
During this whole episode, Snowflake sat silently in the corner, nibbling on a carrot.