Balto circled around his little enclosure as he did many times throughout the day. The thin bed that the shelter afforded him was positioned just right, nudged carefully into place. It never felt right for long. No matter how often he made sure it was perfectly symmetrical with the window pane facing out to the shelter floor it would soon start to irritate him. In fact, the worry over it made him neglect to even use it most of the time.
There was the issue of the kibble dish too. This was a very nice place, at least in terms of what care a fluffy could receive. Always giving enough food.
This was something else that the blue and white stallion constantly worried over. The kibble bowl needed to either be completely full, half full, or empty. Even if he wasnât particularly hungry heâd gorge himself on the dry food to make the levels even.
Upon seeing a staff member walk by his containment area, Balto began rapping his hooves up against the plasti-glass. Thump thump thump!
âPwease hewp nice wady! Pwease! Dewe am poopies!â Another problem. If there was any waste in his litterbox, he would fret. Agonize. Simply using the potty was something that he hated to do. Heâd hold off on it until his nu-nus burned or it felt like his poopie pwace would explode. It felt unnatural and made him feel dirty.
The ânice ladyâ, a young woman who was volunteering named Jules, sighed a bit. Even though this was a nice shelter where they tried their best, Balto was an exceptionally high level of care.
âOK, Balto.â Wheeling up a trashcan, she scooped out the single pile of feces in the litterbox. The stallion couldnât watch her do it. Instead he faced the wall and pressed his face against it. Gave several small âhuusâ as she cleaned the minor mess.
Setting the tray back down, Jules told him: âAll done!â. Watched with some fascination as he did as he always had when the process was completed. Running over to the tray, Balto leaned over the edge and began smoothing out the litter with one hoof. It seemed perfectly flat to her but it wasnât to him. Not yet.
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Balto had been in and out of this fluffy shelter plenty of times. It was difficult to tell who his original owner had been and, perhaps, the stallion could barely remember himself.
âBalto is a loving fluffy with lots to offer. He loves to play and cuddle, is smart, and incredibly considerate. Even so, he has an incredibly high level of needs because of his OCD. Please heavily consider whether or not you can provide what he needs before adopting him. He needs routine and being adopted out and returned breaks his heart. Please ask our staff for more informationâ.
Thatâs what the sign outside of his enclosure said. Many people thought they had what it takes to deal with his problems though in the end they balked.
Beyond the obsession with order in his exhibit was a need for routine. Total order. It was actually quite amazing: This stallion had an internal clock that was perfectly on time. Not often an issue until around 10:15 in the morning.
âMoobie! Moobie! Bawto neeâ moobie! Neeâ moobie! Moobie! Eeee! EEEEEE!â Thumping and rattling up against the cage panel, he kept calling out and causing trouble until a volunteer came by to collect him, taking him out of the cage and bringing him into the community room where fluffies were alloted time to be out and associate with one another.
Balto didnât dislike the other fluffies. Not in a traditional sense. They just represented disorder. Chaos. It was with that they allowed him his own private time in the room.
Disregarding the toy chests and fun activity boards, he flit up to the DVD player hooked up on one of the wheeled AV carts youâd often see in school. âHisâ DVD was already in the player as the other fluffies didnât watch much more than FluffTV. One of the staff members had tried to put on Shrek for them once but it had thrown them into a fury of bad behavior.
Jules helped him turn on the television and watched him go through his usual routine.
TRACTORS
TRAINS
AND MONSTER TRUCKS!
The DVD menu exclaimed over an assortment of footage featuring various farm machinery and big âol trucks. Sitting there with a remote at his side, Balto carefully hit the âhomeâ button so the DVD menu never got past a certain point. This process was repeated several times over before he finally selected the âPlayâ buttonâ.
This was more of the same. âTwactohsâŚTwainâŚmunstah twuckâŚâ He repeated to himself like a mantra as the film played out to an exact point before he restarted it.
âHave fun, buddy.â Jules told him in a soothing voice, scritching one of his ears. Left him alone to enjoy his TV time, as sad as it was.
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Sitting once more in his enclosure after his TV time was done, Balto looked to one corner of the space. There on the glass. A tiny smudge. Pushing up, he tried to wipe it away with his fluff.
That smudge was on the outside. Just a small fingerprint. Most anyone, even humans, wouldnât have ever realized it.
âGu way.â He told the smudge, trying to scrub it away again. Didnât work. Even more frantic now.
âPwease.â The stallion felt something like a deep pressure deep in his think-pwace. Dread settling over him. This was not supposed to be here. It wasnât order. Not clean.
Closing his eyes, he turned away from the viewing panel and sank down to the floor beside his allotted cushion. The one, of course, he wasnât allowing himself to use. Taking a few deep breaths heâd close his eyes.
Trying to imagine anything else other than the insignificant smudge, Balto began to shake. âNu think-pwace, dun, pwease dun, weab fwuffy awone. Dun wan.â
Both of his hooves were absolutely worn down and smoothed over from suckling on them. It was a stop-gap measure to try and deal with obsessive behaviors. Poking one into his mouth he rocked in place. Curled up, tucking his tail in between his legs.
Nu thinkies nu thinkies nu thinkies
It kept appearing through the darkness of his brain though.
Standing up, Balto began crashing against the viewing panel. Frantic. âHewp fwuffy! Dun wike! DUN WIKE!â He cried out, face beginning to hurt. Maybe if he kept battering himself against that bad smudge, itâd go away.
âHewp! HEWP!â He bawled out, beginning to weep helplessly. Would carry on loudly, whipping all the other fluffies up to howling and chattering along with him. That swirl of sound and activity caused him to fall even deeper into despair.
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This is an introduction to Balto. What would you like to happen to him?
- A loving home to care for his needs
- The opposite of that