Reese hadn’t meant to be a bad Fluffy, he just got lost.
He had lived a happy, sheltered life with his daddeh, he was warm, he was well-fed, he had more toys than he could count. It was a good life, albeit a lonely one as once Reese’s hormones kicked in, his desire for gud-feels and a family became hard for either himself or his daddeh to bear.
Eventually his daddeh promised him to find him a special-friend, but they weren’t allowed babies which meant that Reese’s future mate had to ‘special-ordered’, whatever that meant, and would take some time to arrive.
Reese waited and waited for two bright-times before he made a decision, if he could find his own special-friend and promise his daddeh they wouldn’t have babies, then everything would work out ok. So one day while his daddeh was at work, Reese left through the doggy-door to the back garden, then climb through the fence in search of a mare to love and have special huggies with.
Briefly he wondered how babbehs were actually made, but figured it wouldn’t be too hard to avoid it.
Reese didn’t find a special-friend, in fact instead of love he found a vast amount of hatred, every Fluffy he met in the city, be they stallion or mare, called him a ‘Poopie Fluffy’. Reese didn’t even know what that meant but it hurt his feelings everytime.
Once Reese asked a bucking stallion why he was calling him a ‘poopie’, to which the stallion snorted.
“Yu hab ugwy Fwuff, poopie Fwuff make yu Poopie Fwuffy.”
His Fluff? Reese was a bright orange with yellow stripes and a brown mane, he had never considered himself ugly before, his daddy never called him ugly, the little he remembered of his mother never brought up memories of being abused of insulted like this. Why would these Fluffies who he never met, judge him solely on what he looked like when it had never been an issue before?
Suffice to say, Reese spent the first few nights crying himself to sleep, hoping that one day he’d remembered which way was the direction home.
He spent all that time mostly hungry as well, making do on scraps and rotted trash but never fully sating his tummeh-hurties. That is until he passed by one alley-way and something caught his nose, the smell of…
“Skettis?”
Curious, Reese slowly moved down the alley-way, thankful that there wasn’t any other Fluffy in the area to beat him, until he saw it, right out on the open was a bowl of steaming hot skettis. Reese couldn’t believe his luck, not only there finally food but it was the best food in the WHOLE world. He racecd forward and dove headfirst into the bowl, scoffing each and every noodle strand with gusto, the sweetness of the tomato sauce, the slight tang of garlic, the…
The sudden wooziness that fell over him, Reese didn’t know why but he was hit with a sudden sleepiness that was quickly taking him over. He stumbled back and forth before he collapsed to the ground, his eyes closing just as he saw a pair of human legs step out in front of him and a distorted voice chuckle at him.
“Goddamn are you idiots easy to trick.”
Then he heard nothing as sleep took him over.
When Reese woke he was in a room he’d never seen before, it was darker than he would’ve liked with no windows and the only light source being a small bulb in the ceiling, but he could mostly see around him. To his right was a small bed, smaller than he was used to but looked comfortable, in front of him there was a bowl of kibble and water as well as a giant mirror on the wall.
But most importantly, to his left was a human.
It was a strange looking human, his limbs and body seemed too long and think, and he was impossibly still, but he had a smile on his never-moving face and his arms were reaching up towards Reese to pick him up.
Reese happily plonked himself down in front of the human and raised his front legs up towards him.
“Upsies?”
The human didn’t move, his arms stayed outreached towards Reese, but they never moved either towards him, or away from him. Reese shuffled awkwardly on his butt as he leaned in closer, his arms still raised.
“Upsies nyu daddeh?”
The human didn’t move.
“Uh, nyu daddeh, Weese’s weggies am huwting nyo, can hab upsies pwease?”
Nothing.
It didn’t take long before Reese starting crying, he desperately wanted to put his arms down but he couldn’t, he was so scared about what he’d done to upset his new daddeh that he feared if he put his legs down that he would be punished for being a bad Fluffy.
Though he wasn’t sure what he’d done to be bad.
“Huu, pwease nyu daddeh, gib Weese upsies. Nu wan huggies ow wub ow skettis, jus wan upsies wiv nyu daddeh. Weggies hab wowstesh huwties, nu can put dem down tiww hav upsies.”
Hours passed, and still nothing, Reese was already starving when he arrived at his new daddy’s house – even with the spaghetti bowl he wasn’t full – and now all of his energy was being put towards keeping his hoofs raised and stopping his body from falling over. In the corner of his eye he could see the kibble bowl, the soft brown pellets were looking of so delicious and Reese could swear he could smell them, but he couldn’t move towards them.
He literally couldn’t, every programming in his brain was prioritising his new daddy, over his own comfort, over his own food intake, nothing else matter except for pleasing his new owner. His new owner who’s caring smile just brought Reese pain and misery.
“PWEASE, HUU HUU! Nyu daddeh pwease gib Weese upsies, Weese nu can put weggies down, nu can hab nummies, hab wowstesh weggie an tummeh huwties. Wai nyu daddeh nu gib upsies?”
Again, the human said nothing.
From the other side of the two-way mirror, Dr Josef Mongola checked the timer.
“Four hours and no change, I might have to call this one Crimson.”
“Hmm, wha? Sowwy, Cwimson nu hewe daddeh coz Cwimson was fukin sweeping.”
“Watch it, I had a theory I wanted to test and technically I was right, a Fluffy will choose ambiguous human interaction over real concerns like comfort or food. I just didn’t consider how passive it would be watching a Fluffy starve to death.”
“Dummeh weawwy fink dat dummeh am weaw hoomin?”
Josef looked at the wooden mannequin he’d set up, to him and Crimson it was obviously a shaped piece of wood with a printed picture of a random guy’s face poorly glued to the head. But in the low light and desperate eyes of a Fluffy, it was a real daddeh.
“You can’t judge him too harshly Crimson, he fell for the sketti trap so he’s likely a runaway, never had time to think for himself.”
“Stiww a fukin dummeh.”
“Maybe, maybe… Alright fuck this, you wanna go back upstairs and grab some lunch?”
“Wha du bout dis pwick?”
“Leave him, the camera will record anything that changed, but I imagine he’ll stay like that until he starves.”
Leaving their experiment behind, Josef and Crimson headed for the stairs back up to the main floor of the house.
“Hey, how come you never got into the whole ‘Upsie’ thing?”
“Cwimson nu knyo whewe daddeh been, nu wan dem hands touchin him.”
“How about if I wash them beforehand?”
Crimson smirked. “Daddeh nu knyo whewe Cwimson been, nu wan touch him.”
“Touché.”
The pair reached the top of the stairs and left the basement, leaving Reese to wail alone for the final, painful hours of his short, lonely life.