The fluffy had seen the man walking by her alleyway every day, twice a day, for the last week. He’d never stopped before; she didn’t know if he’d even noticed her.
Plenty of other people noticed her, though. All of them were mean to her, shouting that she was ugly and worthless and that they hoped she’d die. She knew that most humans didn’t like her brown-colored fluff or her light green mane. They said she had ugly colors. Only her old daddy had loved her colors. Her old daddy, who had given her a warm housie and nummies and all kinds of toysies to play with while he was gone all day! He’d even given her sketties EVERY DAY! She had been so, so spoiled, and she knew it. She had her daddy wrapped around her little hoofsie. She always got anything she wanted. Anything except babies.
But oh, she wanted babies! She NEEDED babies! Daddy didn’t care, though. He told her no, no no no NO! Over and over again! Always NO! She begged and pleaded and cried and stamped her little hoofsies on the ground, but still he said no. She gave him the worstest sorry poopies, but that just made him SO MAD that he didn’t give her any sketties for SO MANY forevers! Eventually he gave her sketties again and told her that he’d forgiven her. She waited a little while and then asked for babies again. Daddy said no. She pitched the biggest fit she’d ever pitched before and told him what a dummy daddy he was! Only dummy daddies didn’t let their fluffy girls have the bestest babies! Daddy got mad again and told her that she wouldn’t have babies while she lived under HIS roof!
So one day when daddy left the front door open she decided she WOULDN’T live under his roof anymore. She’d run away and find a nice special friend to put babies in her tummy! Then they’d have sketties EVERY DAY and have the bestest babies who would grow up big and strong. They’d be a happy family and her dummy daddy would be sad without her there. She bet he’d cry every day and wish he hadn’t been so mean to her! When her babies were grown she’d take them back to his housie and show him what he’d given up by being such a big dummy. She’d laugh while she watched him cry!
Of course she managed to get lost in less than an hour, and there was no way she’d ever find her way back to her daddy’s housie. It didn’t matter! She’d be fine! But she wasn’t fine. A stallion put babies in her a couple of bright-times later, brought her to this alleyway, and set her up in a shabby old cardboard box. Then he said he’d be back later with some nummies. But the stallion never came back. She’d foraged around in the alleyway and had found some trashie nummies, but they didn’t taste very pretty and she knew they weren’t best for her tummy babies. She needed good nummies. Sketties! And a nice, warm housie, just like daddy’s old housie. But better!
She’d been begging humans for food for a few bright-times now, but all she’d received from the humans walking by had been loud, angry words and a few kicks. The kicks were the worst for her tummy babies, so to keep them safe she’d been keeping her distance, calling out to the humans and letting them come to her only if they wanted to. None of them had wanted to. Not until today. Not until this human.
“Pwease, nice mistuh,” she called out, her voice filled with fear and sadness. “Pwease hewp poow fwuffy? Am soon-mummah.”
He turned to look at her! And he didn’t look mad like all the other humans did! Oh, he’d never looked at her. Maybe she could guilt him into being her new daddy! Maybe she could get all the things she wanted again! Everything could be okay! Maybe EVEN BETTER than before!
“Oh, you poor little thing,” he said, walking into the alley and crouching beside her box. “What are you doing out here? It’s starting to get cold outside!”
She lied. “Fwuffy daddeh nu wuv fwuffy nu mowe, teww fwuffy am ugwy poopie fwuffy an nu wan in housie nu mowe! Daddeh make fwuffy an speshuw fwiend weave wawm housie! Speshuw fwiend take fowevah-sweepies fwom kitteh munstah, nao fwuffy am soon-mummah an am aww awone. Huu huu huuuuuu!”
The tears came easy. Her story was a lie, but she’d told it so many times now that she almost believed it was true. She knew it would make the right human feel so bad for her that he’d HAVE to take her away to live a happy life. Maybe it would be this human. He had a nice voice and a friendly face. He didn’t seem mean at all.
“Well that’s not true at all. You’re not ugly. You’re a beautiful little fluffy, with your chocolate-colored fluff and that adorable green mane.”
“Fank yu-huu-huuuu, nice mistuh,” she sobbed, enjoying the compliment but not wanting to break out of the lie yet. “Nice mistuh nu fink fwuffy am poopie fwuffy?”
“Of course not. It sounds like your daddy was really, really mean.”
“Daddeh am suuuuu meanies. Fwuffy miss huggies an wuv. Miss wawm housie. Am gettin su cowdies, an nu am gud fo babbehs dat am in tummeh.” Tears streamed from her eyes, and she looked up at the human with as much pain and sadness as she could muster.
“Oh, no, that’s not good! Your babies would die out here, it’s going to be SO cold soon! I’ll tell you what, little fluffy. I’ll take you home and take care of you and your babies if you promise to be a good fluffy, and if you’ll teach your babies to be good fluffies, too. You’ll have to promise to follow my rules.”
“Nice mistuh…gif wawm housie? An toysies? An sketties an Fwuff Teebee an huggies an wuv?”
“Of course, girl. Will you promise to be a good fluffy?”
She smiled, a genuine smile. She figured that the smile looked, to the human, like she was thankful for all of his promised kindness. In reality she was smiling because she knew she’d found a total sucker. She was thinking of all the ways she was going to take advantage of his good nature and his kindness.
"Fwuffy wiww be bestest fwuffy EVAH! Wiww du whatevah nice mistah say du! Fwuffy wiww fowwow AWW da wuwes!
“But you haven’t even asked what the rules are, little fluffy.”
“Nu mattah, nice mistuh. Fwuffy du wha nice mistah say du.” The rules didn’t matter because she had no intention of following them, not for any real length of time.
“But you need to know the rules.”
“Otay, nice mistuh! Teww fwuffy da wuwes su can gu tu nice wawm housie an haf bestest sketties fo make miwkies fo bestest tummeh babbehs!”
“First, you ALWAYS have to make good poopies and peepees in the litterbox. ONLY in the litterbox. Anywhere else and you get the sorry stick.”
The fluffy trembled. She HATED the sorry stick! “Nu, nice mistah, nu gif fwuffy da sowwy stick! Am wowstest huwties!”
“If you use the litterbox you’ll be fine. My only other rule is that if I tell you to do something, you do it. If I tell you no, that means no. Don’t beg or yell or keep asking.”
“Fwuffy unnastan wha nu mean,” she said. Of course she knew what “no” meant. Her old daddy had tried to say it ALL THE TIME! But she’d managed to wear him down to the point that he’d stopped saying no except when it came to babies. She’d just wear this dummy mister down, too. It wouldn’t take long.
“Well then, you can follow me to my car! It’s not very far from here, and…”
“Soon-mummah nu can wawkies vewy gud, nice mistuh. Nu am gud fo tummeh babbehs. Nice mistuh gif upsies an cawwy fwuffy?” Another absolute lie. She wasn’t so pregnant that walking was difficult; that wouldn’t come for another couple of weeks. But she wanted to test this human and see whether he’d give in to her whims if she made him feel guilty.
“You don’t look that far along, but…well, it’s only a short walk to the car. Sure, girl. I’ll carry you!”
She smiled. “Fank yu, nice mistuh!” She raised her front legs in an “upsies” pose and let the human lift her up, cradling her against his chest. He’d fallen for it! Oh, she was so happy. She was going to be the happiest, most spoiled fluffy EVER!
===
“Dis am nice housie,” the fluffy said as the nice human let her wander through the front door and into the living room. “Am vewy big an vewy nice. Su wawm. Nice mistuh haf woom fo fwuffy?”
“I sure do,” he said, smiling. “Follow me!”
She followed him past more doorways and into…the biggest, bestest safe room she could ever imagine! It was HUGE! There was SO much room to run around! And it had everything a fluffy could ever want. There was a big, soft-looking bed that took up a large part of one corner; next to it stood a big water bottle and a large food dish. There was a big litterbox in another corner, which didn’t really impress her. But the TOYSIES! There were SO MANY blockies, and there were balls, and a few stuffy friends, and some other things she’d never even seen before! Plus there was a HUGE picture box in there. The human had said she could have FluffTV and wow, it would look so big on that big picture box!
“Nice mistuh!” she said softly, taking in the amazing scene. “Dis am bestest woom fo fwuffy evah! Fank yu, fank yu su much!” She meant it, too. She was thankful that she was going to have such a wonderful place to live.
“You’re welcome. My old fluffy, Cecil, passed away a couple of months ago. All of this was for him. I haven’t had the heart to throw any of it away. It’s all yours now.”
The fluffy waddled over and flounced into the bed-nest, marveling at how soft it was. The bed was huge and full of blankets that she could burrow under. She sniffed; it DID smell like another fluffy. Maybe more than one other fluffy? It was hard to tell. It had definitely been used, and not washed. She didn’t mind the smell of another fluffy, but it annoyed her that she was getting leftover stuff from another fluffy. Everything should be NEW for HER, because SHE was the BESTEST FLUFFY EVER. Still, it was much nicer than living in a cardboard box in a dirty alley, and she didn’t want to complain to the human just yet. She had to make him love her first. THEN she could start making demands.
“Dis am su softie an wawm. Gud fo tummeh babbehs. Fank yu.”
“I’m glad you like it. You know, I bet you’re hungry. Would you like some sketties?”
She perked up and rolled out of the nest, scrambling to her feet. “Fwuffy wan sketties! Fwuffy wan sketties nao!”
“Do you say please?”
Ugh, fine. “Yus, nice mistuh. Pwease am fwuffy haf sketties nao?”
“Yes, sweetie. Good manners are important. You should always say please when you’re asking your new daddy for something.”
“Nyu…nyu daddeh? Nice mistuh am be nyu daddeh fo fwuffy?”
“Of course! I mean, if you want me to be.”
“Yus! Fwuffy wan nyu daddeh! Nice mistuh am gud daddeh!”
“Why, thank you. You seem like a very good fluffy, and good fluffies deserve names. How do you like the name…Louisa?”
“Fwuffy am Wouisa? Fwuffy wuv nyu namesie! Bestest namesie fwom bestest daddeh fo bestest fwuffy!” She giggled. Humans loved being flattered, being told that they were the best and the smartest. Her old daddy loved it more than anything, and she knew that it kept her from being more harshly punished when she did bad things. The giggling and cooing, those were extras. Humans thought the sounds were really cute.
“I’m glad you think I’m going to be such a good daddy, Louisa. Now let’s get you those sketties. Follow me!”
Louisa followed her new daddy out of the safe room, through the house, and into the kitchen. There was a mat set out near the table, and her daddy picked an empty bowl off of the mat and carried it to the counter. He reached up, opened one of the doors, and pulled out a can.
“I hope you like Skettiland sketties,” he said. “They were Cecil’s favorite, and…well, I have plenty left over.”
She was speechless. Her mouth was hanging open. There were SO MANY cans of sketties in there. SO MANY! enough for her to have sketties every day, for every meal, for…for forever! And EVERYONE knew that Skettiland sketties were the BESTEST sketties ever. They were on the FluffTV all the time, and all the fluffies talked about how great they were. Her old daddy said they “cost” too much “munies,” whatever that meant, so he never let her have them. But she was going to have them now and always and forever thanks to her nice new daddy!
“Wouisa WUV Skettiwand skettis, daddeh! Am bestest sketties! FANK YU, DADDEH!”
“You’re very welcome. I want to make you happy, so I’m glad they make you happy.” He emptied the can into the bowl and walked back over to the mat, setting the bowl down. “Normally I’d warm them up, but I figure you’re too hungry to wait. Go ahead, dig in.”
She lunged at the bowl and shoved her snout deep into the sketties, greedily scarfing them down without caring how messy she was being. Sauce covered the fluff on her snout and dripped off on to the mat, but she didn’t slow down until the bowl was empty. Then she licked the bowl clean, sat on her haunches, and sighed contentedly while looking up at her new daddy.
“You’re a mess!” he laughed. “I guess you WERE starving.”
“Wouisa haf wowstest tummeh owwies, buh nu haf nu mowe. Bestest sketties su gud, nao Wouisa nu am hungee nu mowe.” She licked as much of the sauce from her snout as she could, but there was plenty left behind.
“Well, you were already dirty from living in that filthy alley. You needed a bath before. I guess you just need one a little more badly now, is all.”
“Daddeh gif baff tu Wouisa?”
“Yes, sweetie. Did your old daddy give you baths?”
“Yus, daddeh. Wawm baffies wif bubbwes dat smeww pwetty.”
“Good, so you’re not scared of them.”
“Nu, daddeh. Wouisa wuv baffs.”
“Good. I’ve got some fluffy shampoo left over from Cecil. It makes LOTS of bubbles. So let’s get you all cleaned up!”
She did love the bath; it was warm and full of bubbles, just as her new daddy had promised. She cooed and giggled to let him know how happy she was, and what a good daddy he was being by making her so happy. She batted at bubbles as they rose into the air and gasped every time one would pop near her face. Her daddy laughed every time, too. It felt good, and she actually felt happy that her new daddy was happy. Yes, she was planning on taking advantage of him to get everything she wanted. It didn’t really matter to her if he was happy or not, not in the long run. But if they could BOTH be happy with what she had planned? Well, that would be perfect!
Daddy dried her off and placed her back in her safe room. “We’ll have plenty of time for huggies and love and snuggles later, Louisa. Daddy’s got to meet some people for dinner. I’ll be back later and we’ll watch some FluffTV on the couch, okay?”
“Otay, daddeh. Wouisa spwouwe nyu woomsie, pway wif toysies!”
“That’s a good girl.” He ruffled her soft mane, making her giggle again. Then he shut the door to the room, and she was finally alone.
Alone to figure out how she was going to handle him.
===
“Louisa! What did daddy tell you about making bad poopies?”
“Gud poopies go in da wittah bawks, daddeh, buh…”
“Then why is there a pile of shit sitting in the middle of the safe room floor?”
“Daddeh,” she said, clearly exasperated that she was even having to explain herself. “Wouisa am SOON-MUMMAH, daddeh. Babbehs makin’ it hawd fo Wouisa tu get in da wittah bawks befowe poopie-pwace wets dem poopies out.”
“Louisa, you’re not THAT pregnant. You’ve been making it to the litterbox just fine for the last couple of days. You walked over to me just fine right now.”
“Buh poopie-pwace, daddeh! Poopie-pwace NU WISTEN tu Wouisa when teww tu not wet dem poopies out. Wouisa du twy, buh dem tummeh babbehs am makin wife hawdew fo Wouisa.”
“So you’re saying the babies moving around, they caused you to take a shit that you couldn’t control?”
“Yus, daddeh. Dat am what Wouisa sayin.”
“Well, okay. I’ll clean it up this time without giving you the sorry stick. But start staying closer to the litterbox, okay? This can’t happen again.”
“Otay, daddeh.” Sure, whatever. Uh-huh.
Daddy cleaned the poopies up, and Louisa sat in her nest and watched him do it with a smug, satisfied grin on her face. He didn’t seem to notice, which made her even happier. One rule broken, no punishment. Poopies on the floor, no sorry stick. If she could get away with it a couple of more times then she knew she’d be able to get away with pretty much anything after that.
She decided to try again the next bright-time. This time daddy got really mad at her. So mad! He went and got a sorry stick and started hitting her with it, right near her poopie place!
“NU DADDEH!” she screamed. “SOWWY STICK GIF WOWSTEST HUWTIES! AM BAD FOR BABBEHS! NU HUWT SPESHUW PWACE DADDEH, NU HUWT BABBEHS! HUU HUU HUUUUUUU, FWUFFY AM SU SOWWY!”
He stopped hitting her with the sorry stick then. “Oh god, I’m sorry, Louisa. Did I hit your special place?”
“Yus, daddeh,” she sobbed. The pain made it easy to cry very convincing tears, because the tears were real. He hadn’t, however, hit her in her special place. Her old daddy had been VERY shy about looking at her special place, so she was hoping that her new daddy wouldn’t want to look there, either. If he did, he’d see that it didn’t have a mark on it.
“I am so, so sorry. Here, let me see…”
“NU DADDEH!” she screamed, backing up into her nest. “DADDEH NU TOUCH SPESHUW PWACE! DAT AM FO BABBEHS AN SPESHUW FWIEND, NU FO DADDEH TU TOUCH!”
“Oh no, sweetie, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt you too badly. I didn’t want to…”
“Nu! Nu touch speshuw pwace! Nu am wight fo daddeh touch, am bad. BAD BAD BAD!”
“Oh god, I didn’t want to TOUCH you there, I just…okay, okay. Are you okay?”
“Wouisa haf wowstest huwties, daddeh,” she cried. “Buh wiww be otay. Babbehs am otay nao.”
“Okay, good. Good. I don’t want to hurt your babies. I’m so sorry. I just got so upset there for a minute and…I didn’t mean to hit you there. Look, please can you just make poopies in the litterbox next time? That’s where they belong.”
“Wouisa twy, daddeh. Babbehs nu make easy fo Wouisa, buh wiww twy.”
“Alright. I’ll figure something out. We’ll figure something out. This will be okay. We can’t have poopies on the floor, okay? So we’ll figure something out.”
“Otay, daddeh.” Yeah, sure. Good luck with that. One more time and he’d be cleaning her poopies off the floor every single day for the rest of her life. After that she’d start making peepees wherever she wanted, too. She loved watching him cleaning up her poopies; she knew she’d love it even more, watching him wipe up her peepees.
As her daddy left the safe room again to get more paper towels, she giggled to herself. She had the dummiest dummy daddy EVER.
Everything was going to be amazing.
===
Louisa woke up in her comfy nest and yawned a big yawn, stretching out her legs and mumbling to herself sleepily. She nuzzled her stuffy friend, and…
Wait, no. That wasn’t right. There was supposed to be a stuffy friend in her nest. She’d been sleeping with it every night since her daddy brought her home. It was big and fluffy, the best one out of all four stuffy friends that her daddy had put in her safe room. Daddy said it was a “teddy bear,” and she loved it very much. Every night she curled up in her nest, wrapped her legs around her stuffy friend, and drifted off to sleep. She’d done that last night, too.
Now he was gone.
Louisa rolled out of her nest and waddled around the room, looking for her stuffy friend. But he was nowhere to be seen! She looked EVERYWHERE. Nothing! Not only that, but…but she couldn’t find ANY of her stuffy friends! Her blockies and balls and other toysies were all where she’d left them. Everything was the way she’d left it before she went to sleep. Now, though, there wasn’t a stuffy friend to be found.
So she screamed for daddy.
“DADDEH!” she screamed over and over until he opened the safe room door, looking pretty sleepy himself.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” he asked, panic in his voice.
“WHEWE AM STUFFY FWIEND?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“STUFFY FWIEND, STUFFY FWIEND. Wast night Wouisa haf bestest stuffy fwiend in nestie, buh nao stuffy fwiend am gone! Nu can find ANY stuffy fwiend, daddeh! Aww dem am gone!”
“I don’t understand, Louisa. What stuffy friend?”
“DUMMEH DADDEH, DA TEDDY BEAW STUFFY FWIEND DAT WOUISA SWEEP WIF EVEWY DAWK-TIME!”
“Don’t you dare call me a dummy,” he said, anger rising in his voice. “And I don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t have a stuffy friend here. You’ve never had one here. I gave you all of Cecil’s old things, and he never had a stuffy friend.”
“Dat…dat nu am twue. Haf bestest stuffy fwiend.”
“No, Louisa. You don’t. You never have. Not here. Maybe you’re remembering your old home?”
“Buh…buh Wouisa wemembuh, jus’ wast bwight-time Wouisa haf…nuuuuu, daddeh. Dat nu am twue.”
“It’s true, I promise you. You’re imagining things. Are you okay?”
“Wouisa feew otay, buh…daddeh, am daddeh SU suwe dat Wouisa nu haf stuffy fwiend?”
“I’m positive, sweetie. I’ll go buy one for you today if you really want one, though. Okay?”
“Uhhhhh…otay, daddeh.”
“Okay, good. I’m going to go make some breakfast. You know what that means!”
“Yus, daddeh. Sketties.”
“You don’t sound excited about it like you usually do.”
“Sowwy, daddeh. Wouisa happeh, wuv daddeh. Wan sketties. Sketties am su good!”
“That’s a little better. I’ll be back to feed you soon, okay?”
“Otay, daddeh.” She collapsed back in her nest, troubled and annoyed. She KNEW she’d had a stuffy friend. Her teddy bear stuffy friend, he’d been RIGHT HERE before she went to sleep. Now daddy was telling her that she was imagining things, like she was crazy. She wasn’t crazy! Maybe HE was crazy! But that wouldn’t make the stuffy friends just disappear like that. Where did they go? How did they go away? They couldn’t just get up and walk away!
Unless…what if daddy was right? What if she was remembering her old home? NO. Her old daddy NEVER bought her a stuffy friend. She wasn’t thinking about her old housie and her old daddy. This was the ONLY housie where she’d had stuffy friends!
So where were they?
She grumbled, then shoved her face into the blankets and started crying softly to herself, wondering what in the hell was going on.