collaborative_daredevil | Slavery RP Post XVIII

"The cheese paratha are great served hot, with a nice sharp chutney, and I like carrot and onion paratha hot and cold as a snack."

"You should make those, I bet they're really good. And you can look for chutneys tomorrow, right?"

"Almost certainly--anything preserved or canned is a big hit in the winter market," Jamie said.

"We can work out a good time to have paratha then." And he smiled brightly at Jamie.

Barba waited until the moment gently passed on its own, and then spoke. "Toffee, my sweet boy, we need to get dressed for your PT, and I want you to put out your pajamas and sweater to wear after PT and a shower. Those lovely cute ones with all the praises will be excellent, I think."

"I will, thank you." And he stood up carefully.

Barba followed his Toffee upstairs, and got himself dressed in a suitable suit for work. He watched as Toffee chose some of the exercise clothes carefully, and nodded his approval when looked at--it was true he preferred his pets not look sloppy or ill-taken-care-of or unwanted, but none of Toffee's clothes were torn, stained, or obviously poorly fitted. And it was PT--practical clothing was called for.

He set the pajama set with all the praise words out including the cute little ankle socks, and hesitated before deciding to wear the jumper he'd knitted to go with his pet business suit.

"Good boy," Barba said, and kissed his ear. "Now let's get going--I like to be early, and I plan to make sure that they know the changes we're making to help you be healthy again. Have they been worried?"

"Yes, they said that some setbacks were to be expected with a change in situation, and last week could have been an anomaly, but..." He trailed off, not sure what else to say.

"Good, that means they were paying attention," Barba said, and opened his arm, letting Toffee cuddle into his side for a moment. "I'm not angry at you, but I do care and want this to be better," he said softly. "I want you to be able to be happy and whole. And I know you're willing to work for that too."

"I am. I told them I had a couple of ideas for how to make it better." Trying to reschedule the way he'd discussed with Instructor Marnie, and then asking her for help reducing his class load.

Barba nodded, and they said their goodbyes to the others with a little edge of nervousness--though he suspected that was his own feelings, not necessarily the mood of the whole house. A part of him always wanted to close ranks and regroup after any kind of scare; but he knew they had to resume normal life, and beyond that, Toffee did need to keep some routine and structure into his life. The ride was quiet to PT, though he kept one arm around Toffee's waist and pressed kisses to his hair, and of course wore the cowl he'd been gifted. It was quite useful, and warm beyond.

"Hello Toffee, DA Barba." He smiled at them both. "Your physiotherapist will be available in ten minutes."

"Thank you," he said, and walked with Toffee to sit down in waiting, and it felt like an eternity.

This time he'd brought his travel project with him, and he worked on that as they waited to be called - not too long.

Barba stood as Toffee's name was called, and went with him into the back offices and rooms.

"Hello Toffee. Did you sleep well last night?" He was looking a lot more rested than he had the week before.

"Yes, I got an early night all curled up with the whole household."

"That's good. Do you want to get straight into your warm up, or did you want to talk first?" Since his master was here. And Toffee looked to his master for an answer.

"We can talk while he stretches and warms up," Barba said carefully. "We've made some changes in what Toffee's doing and what he's allowed to do for now."

"Oh?" She carefully kept her voice neutral as she began guiding Toffee through his warm up. DA Barba had a reputation for caring about pets, so he wasn't likely to have decided to discontinue physiotherapy.

"Yes. We were very much overextending Toffee, he was simply stretched too thin in all these areas, so he's taken a withdrawal from all his classes save one, and I also found out he was being taken far too often to parks and just being overworked, so now I've put a limit on once a week for now for those. He needs to have energy for this, his class, and on rebuilding skills, and he was really being run ragged."

"Ah, yes that makes sense." And explained last week nicely.

"I need to know how the extra stress and lack of sleep have been affecting Toffee, if you know anything else," he said quietly. "I'm very concerned with making sure we didn't do any permanent damage--he says he just hasn't been able to walk as well, and I've been noticing balance problems getting worse."

"I see. Until last week his issues weren't any worse than to be expected with the move to a new situation and he was improving again." A bit more slowly than she'd have preferred, but if he was stressed and getting overtired that would explain that - and she certainly wasn't going to mention it where Toffee could hear. "Toffee, can you try for thirty seconds on the balance board today?"

"Yes, I'll try." He made it almost through the full thirty seconds.

Barba watched and smiled, remembering how upset Toffee had been the last time Barba had been there, how impossible he'd have found this. Perhaps they really didn't irretrievably fuck Toffee all up.

He smiled proudly at Toffee, and nodded approvingly, but tried not to interfere.

"On to the weights now?" He asked hopefully.

"To start, yes." And his physiotherapist looked as approving as Master Erik did.

"Our policy with pets is to contact the owner if there are two bad weeks in a row. But I can tell that you caught the problem in time yourselves."

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