Lovesick - part 1
In front of Sammy laid a pink fluffy with a powder blue mane. His name, Tucker, and his owner, well, Sammy didn’t usually bother getting to know the owners. Tucker would’ve been a beautiful mare with those colors, but for a stallion, Sammy just couldn’t appreciate it. “So, what happened?”
“Well,” Tucker’s owner began, and it had the usual drawn out “well” of someone concocting their lie on the spot. “This little guy was running around and tripped falling down the stairs. Can you believe it?”
She couldn’t. “So, what is wrong with you, little guy?” She paused. “…Well,” she watched him wince as her hands neared his right two legs. “Looks like his right side has fractured legs, some abdominal bruising, and…” Her hand touched his tail eliciting a yell, “and his tail has a compound fracture.” She looked at the chart, last visit was six months ago with potentially fractured ribs and his ears covered in lacerations.
“Yeah, that car did a number on him.”
“Car?”
“Oh, uhh… I mean the fall. Down the stairs.”
Tucker chimed in, “Tucka nu gud fwuffy. If Tucka gud fwuffy den nu hab owies.” Blinks and stammers, “fwuffy mean dat fwuffy wan intu doow, fwuffy am su cwumsy…” Sammy frowned, but she knew when to pick and choose her battles.
“Well,” Sammy caresses Tucker’s mane, it was the small signs of affection that helped keep fluffies calm during stressful vet visits, “his front right leg and rear right leg are both broken. His tail has a compound fracture. Without doing x-rays, I don’t know if anything else is broken.” Tucker didn’t seem too bad off, he was talking and could see fine with the eye that wasn’t swollen shut. His head pushed into her hand as she pet him. Sammy mulled over the situation, because when it came to fluffies, sometimes, well, majority of the time, it was cheaper and easier to just let them go and start over with a new one. Planned obsolescence or maybe a byproduct of the capitalistic nature of encouraging the consumer to buy more made these things cheaper to replace than fix.
It was that reality that caused the most conflict and heartache at Happy Paws. Half of the people that brought in their fluffies couldn’t or wouldn’t pay to properly take care of them. It was this issue that caused them to charge for the consultation before the fluffy would be seen. As much as it hurt Sammy’s heart, she understood why these decisions were made, but it didn’t make it any easier.
“If you’re interested, we can sedate Tucker, do some X-rays, and then from there determine if surgery is needed or if we can just put him into a cast.” She only paused briefly, she could almost hear the gears turning in Joel’s brain. “That would be the most expensive. From a brief exam, there is no compound fracture except the tail. We could put a cast on his two fractured legs and could dock his tail.” As he started to raise an objection Sammy interrupted him, “half of the exam fee will be credited to the cost of those services. And you can give him baby aspirin. We would like to see him back in a month, and of course, that isn’t required.”
“Those are the only options?” He glared at the pink fluffy.
She shrugged, “that’s about it for services we can provide. I guess the other option is to take him home and do it yourself.” She scratched behind Tucker’s ragged ears, “I get it. It’s a lot of money, but at this point, do you want to do that yourself? I mean, we can get this done quick by skipping the x-rays, in fact,” Sammy looked at her wrist, checking an invisible watch, “I can have you two out of here in a half hour.”
He sighed, “fine. Cast up his legs and dock his tail.”
“And I have to ask, for $15 we can use some local numbing agents, this will also keep him docile for the ride home, do you want to approve that?”
He grumbled, “you’re gonna nickel and dime me to death… Nah, that fucker can feel the whole thing.”
“Owies! Pwease nu huwt Tucka!” He complained loudly as Sammy lifted him off the table and his fractured limbs moved without warning. “Wat am docking?”
“Give me twenty minutes and he’ll be fixed up.” On her way to the fluffy operating room she stuck her head into Cheryl’s office and gave her a rundown on the procedure. It was standard practice to confirm with the head veterinarian on duty, but most work needed for a fluffy could be done by a technician. As she was carrying tucker to the operating room she ignored his questions, at least until the door closed. “Tucker, you sweet little guy.” She scratched under his chin, “your tail is broken really bad. And your widdle weggies have owies too. I need you to be a brave little boy, I’m going to try to fix you up. Can you be brave for me?” Sammy gave him the sweetest smile she could.
“Tucka…” he sniffled, knowing something bad was going to happen, “tucka bwave fwuffy…” He squeezed his eyes shut. Then the yelping started. First his front leg, three layers of gause, then the cast material which quickly hardened. She tugged on his rear leg, eliciting a chirp, as she wrapped that one into a cast as well.
Tucker laid on his side, panting and gasping. He didn’t even give the usual crying about his fluff as she shaved bare his tail near his rump. With his eyes squeezed shut he didn’t see Sammy grab the “Fluffy Chopper ™” which was just a 5lb meat cleaver with a smiling fluffy engraved on the blade. She hated using this thing, but, it was the quickest way.
-THUNK- “SCREEEEEEEEE!”
Sammy quickly sprayed antiseptic on the bloody stump and wrapped it tightly, his tail with the pretty fluffy was no more, just a 3 inch stump wrapped tightly with gause.
“Wai yu gif Tucka bigges’ taiw owies?” Tears formed in his eyes, the look of absolute betrayal was unmistakable to Sammy. He trusted her, and she took away his tail.
“I’m sorry, buddy… How about a sketti treat?”
“Nu, wan tai-!” She shoved the treat into his mouth and held his muzzle shut. This was the part she hated the most, having the fluffy asks her why she hurt them or took something of them away. They didn’t always understand why, and trying to explain the reasoning of their human owner was futile.
Sammy successfully met the time estimate, not that she was proud of that. Tucker yelled at her as she placed him gently back into the crate, “yu mean wady! Gif Tucka taiw back!” She couldn’t give him his tail back, all she could give him was a sad smile.
“Mummah am here!” Mocha shouted when she heard the front door close. She scrambled up and ran as fast as she could to Sammy, Jimi just a few steps behind. Both fluffies threw themselves against her legs and hugged as best they could. Both babbled about how much they missed and loved her.
This, this is what she needed. She pressed her back to the door and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. Mocha and Jimi climbed up onto her, she hugged them tight.
“Sumtin’ wong, mummah?” Jimi, always the most observant, asked.
“Mummah wasn’t able to fix a fluffy today and he had a lot of owies. He was mad at me and… And it made me sad.” It was the best she could manage, she didn’t want to explain just what she had to do.
Jimi nodded, “weww, mummah du hew bes. And mummah ficks Jimi an Mocha’s owies. Nu be sad, mummah, dat fwuffy nu unnastan.”
“Jimi, you’re too sweet.”
“Mocha wan cheew up mummah!” Mocha climbed off Sammy and did her best to dance. She wasn’t a foal anymore, nor was her balance back to normal. It was an attempt at dancing but looked like a drunk that couldn’t stand up on their own power.
Sammy giggled, these two knew how to heal her heart. “You two hungry?”
“Yus!” Mocha enthusiastically responded, she was like a bottomless pit when it came to her stomach.
Sammy removed the half empty kibble bowls from the safe room and got out their special bowls. She had two sets of bowls to keep track of which had which kibble, brown for when she wasn’t home and pink for when she was. She rummaged around in the closet, filling bowls and topping with supplements and flavor enhancers from pump bottles.
Both fluffies ran to the bowls, even Jimi was excited. She never let the food bowls or water go empty in their room. Mocha, bits of half chewed kibble spraying from her mouth, “mummah! Kibbwe awways tase wike bes nummies when mummah around!”
Jimi chewed and swallowed before agreeing, “mummah hab bes kibbwe. Evvyting tase bettah when mummah hewe.” His face quickly back into the kibble.
Sammy sat at the table watching the two of them eat, a contented smile on her face. “Sounds like you really need your mummah around to be happy, huh?”
Mocha, always louder than Jimi, “das wite!” And promptly shoved her face back into the bowl of kibble.
The beginning
We Know Not What We Do - Epilogue // Lovesick - Prologue
Lovesick Part 2
