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[Jenny’s Fluffy]
The morning was warm and perfect for outside activities. Lemonade had recovered from his surgery, so Parker decided it was time to start a walking schedule for him. They knelt by the front door as they put Lemonade in his harness.
“Wemonabe wub wawkies, Daddeh!” he said excitedly, not having been on a walk in his life.
Parker smiled at that. “We’ll see about that.” They clipped the leash onto the top of the fastened harness, then picked Lemonade up. “Ready to go?”
“Yus! Su 'cited!” Lemonade wagged his tail and the moving hairs tickled at Parker’s elbow.
With the door locked and Lemonade safely on the ground away from the front steps, they began their walk down the street. The blue sky held some light, puffy clouds, and the breeze was gentle against the skin. Some children were playing basketball in their driveway a few houses down.
Lemonade walked right beside Parker, sometimes going on the grass of people’s lawns. He liked the softness on his hooves instead of the hard concrete. “Wub wawkies! Whewe goin’, Daddeh?”
“We’ll just walk around the neighbourhood and get familiar with it, okay?”
“Otay, Daddeh. Wub neh-bur-hoob.”
As the two crossed the street, Lemonade looked down at the white lines on the road. “Wha’ dese whitey fings, Daddeh?”
Parker looked down to see what Lemonade was talking about. “Oh, that’s the crosswalk. People are only supposed to cross the street at these places.” They made it to the other side, and Parker stopped for a moment on the sidewalk so Lemonade could get a better look at the lines.
“Otay. Wemonabe unnastan’,” he said, and both of them carried on their walk.
A woman was working on her front garden of perennials a few houses down. She knelt in the dirt as she planted the flowers. When Parker saw her, they stopped in front of the lawn to say hello. “Hi Jenny. How are you?”
The woman – Jenny – looked up from her garden work. She smiled when she saw it was Parker and stood, attempting to dust some of the dirt off her pastel blue shorts, but she only managed to smudge more on them from what she had on her gardening gloves. She even had some dirt smudged on her cheeks. “Hi Parker! It’s been ages!”
Jenny, a slim woman with her long brown hair tied up in a high ponytail, maneuvered carefully over her garden to speak with Parker at a more reasonable distance. However, Lemonade didn’t realize Parker had stopped to catch up with a friend. He continued walking and turned left down a side walkway, spotting the nice flowers planted on the right.
“Su pwetty,” he said to no one in particular, then felt the gentle pull of his leash as he went to sniff a purple flower. He was at the end of the leash’s length. “Wai stoppies, Daddeh? Wan smeww da pwetty fwow-“ Lemonade looked up where he suspected Parker would be, but didn’t see them. His head whipped from side-to-side, looking for Parker. “Daddeh? W-Whewe Daddeh?”
Lemonade felt his chest tighten and his legs shake. Panic was setting in, and the only thing he could think to do was to scream. “Daddeh!” He screeched the way only a fluffy could. “Am wost!”
Both Parker and Jenny jumped at the sheer volume and shrillness of the shriek, and both looked to where it had come from. Parker could see Lemonade shaking and whimpering from over the short chain-link fence separating the back walkway from Jenny’s front yard. The leash was near-taut around the first fence pole.
“Lemonade, I’m around the corner,” Paker said.
Lemonade only whimpered and cried more and tapped his front hooves nervously. “Huu huu huu!”
“I’m holding your leash!” Parker said louder and gave the leash a couple of gentle tugs. Lemonade still didn’t respond, too caught up in his fear and panic.
Parker sighed and took the few steps to pick Lemonade off the ground, which pulled the distraught fluffy from his woeful trance. He gasped loudly. “Daddeh! Yu fin’ Wemonabe! Huu huu, su happies!” He cried some more in relief.
Parker set Lemonade down beside them once they took the few steps back to Jenny’s front yard, and Lemonade sat on his rump, hugging Parker’s right leg. “Wemonabe fink am wost foweba!” He nuzzled his cheek into Parker’s leg.
“Sorry about that,” Parker said, some embarrassment coming through their expression and voice as they addressed Jenny, who had been stunned to silence through the whole short ordeal. “He can be pretty dramatic…"
“That’s fine…” Jenny said as she stared down at Lemonade. “I didn’t know you had a fluffy.”
Parker also looked down at Lemonade, who was resting his cheek against their leg. “I didn’t until a few weeks ago. I found him wandering around the neighbourhood as a stray and he looked so pathetic I couldn’t bring myself to call fluffy control.” Parker smiled at Lemonade when he looked up at them with big dewy blue eyes.
Jenny laughed. “I can see why. Those are some powerful puppy eyes!” She bent over with her gloved hands sandwiched between her dirt-covered knees to address him. “Hi Lemonade, you’re so cute!”
“Say hi to Jenny, Lemonade. She’s our friend.”
Lemonade wiped the remaining tears from his eyes with his leg fluff, then looked up at Jenny with the same big eyes he gave Parker. “Hewwow nice wady Jen-nee, am Wemonabe…” He extended his front legs in the classic ‘upsies’ pose. “Huggies…?”
“Can I pick him up?” Jenny asked Parker, who nodded.
“Sure, go for it.”
Jenny smiled brightly and took off her dirty gardening gloves, gently tossing them on her lawn by some neatly trimmed bushes before she picked Lemonade up and cradled him in her arms like a baby. “Hello Lemonade, aren’t you so cute~” she cooed at him and rubbed his belly under the harness.
Lemonade leaned into Jenny’s body, using one leg to give her a sort-of hug from his position. “Wub huggies! Wub Jen-nee!”
“He’s so soft,“ Jenny said, talking to Parker. “I mean I knew they were, I’ve just never felt one before.”
“Oh yeah, they were designed for cuddling,” said Parker, sinking their hands into the pockets of their shorts. “It really helps suck you in, huh?”
“Yeah…” Jenny gives Lemonade some head scratches, sharing a moment with him and staring into his eyes. “You know, I was thinking about getting a fluffy myself, but I’m still kind of on the fence about it.”
Parker nods in understanding. “I honestly didn’t think I’d ever have one either. They’re basically four-legged toddlers, and you know how much I hate dealing with kids. But it’s been surprisingly…fun? I mean yeah, he’s a brat sometimes and he’s loud, but overall, he’s been pretty good.”
“Oh, I have plenty of experience dealing with toddlers,” Jenny rolls her eyes, referencing her previous customer service job.
Parker and Jenny both laughed.
“Well there you go. You’re basically halfway prepared already. It might even be good for you to help de-stress. How’s your new job going, by the way?”
Jenny smiles a bit. “It’s been okay. I’m still settling in, but I can already see who I’m going to be having problems with. I swear to god, there are whiny babies everywhere you go.”
“I feel like offices are bad for that in general. Probably why it’s a good idea to get a fluffy~” Parker said, nudging the conversation back to fluffies. “I think I heard the fluffy shelter on Cucumber Street got some new rescues in the other day. You might be able to find one you like from there.”
“I’ll think about it. Thanks, Parker.” Jenny set Lemonade back down on the sidewalk, which resulted in him huu-huuing a little bit. “But I’ll let you get back to your walk before it gets too hot out. See you later.”
“See you, and have fun with your flowers.” Parker looked down at Lemonade. “Say goodbye to Jenny, Lemonade. We gotta finish our walk.”
Lemonade looked up at Jenny, still feeling some sadness. “Huu, buh-bye nice wady Jen-nee. Gib bestest huggies fo’ heawt saddies.”
Jenny smiles and waves to Lemonade. “Aww, thank you~! See you soon!” She grabbed her gloves by the bush and went back to where she was planting in her garden.
Parker continued straight down the sidewalk with Lemonade, and they looked down at him. “Did you hear that, Lemonade? You might have a new fluffy friend to play with soon.”
“Weawwy?” Lemonade gasped in excitement, his sadness quickly melting away. “Wub nyu fwens! Wub pway! Wemonabe su’ ‘cited!” He continued the rest of his walk with a chipper, bouncy step in his waddle, forgetting all about getting ‘lost’.
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[Jenny’s Fluffy]
Author's Note
Thanks for all the love on my last post! I’ll be working on the fates of Titless Mare’s babbehs next, I just wanted to finish working on this first. I start my last semester on Wednesday so it’ll be a bit slower, but all three will get done!
Wanna give him scratchies too~