Cartwheeler One-Shots

"I said, no more pets"

In which Anne is soft and loves animals and Phillip is just trying his best to say no.

Trigger Warnings: Slight animal abuse but it's all good because of happy endings.

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Anne liked to think she appeared tough and untouchable on the outside but that was far from reality. Where she didn't exactly have 100 weaknesses the two she did have were incredibly strong and hard to say no too.

One of them happened to be her boyfriend, Phillip and the other, animals. Anne loved animals it was as simple as that. She loved dogs and cats and bird and was especially fascinated by all the circus animals. This meant it was no surprise when she came home one day, instead of a bag of groceries under her arm lay a dog.

On her behalf, she had TRIED to go to the store but on the way found something else that caught her eye, a lonely abandoned dog. Anne's caring side instantly kicked in, she was taking that dog home and looking after it and no one was going to stop her.

This came much to the surprise of Phillip after he walked through the front door to find Anne and an unknown dog curled on the couch, fast asleep. His curiosity got the best of him which led to him waking Anne up and quizzing her about the pup.

"We can't keep a dog! We are at the circus for most of the day, whos supposed to look after it?" Phillip sighed, he watched his girlfriends face morph into a frown as she protectively started patting the dogs head.

Phillip already knew this was a battle he wasn't going to win. "Max can come with us, we could even teach him tricks, maybe if we get a few other dogs they could put on a whole show! Not to mention he was alone and scared and hungry and I wasn't going to leave him to just die Phillip!" Anne retaliated, she had a fair point, leaving a poor dog to die on the side of the road would probably throw a lot of bad karma into your life.

And that's how Anne and Phillip, as well as the circus, got their first dog, emphasise on the first. Helen and Caroline were overjoyed with Annes new find, they spent hours playing with Max and teaching him new tricks. He became a member of the family and even got along with the elephants.

It wasn't until two months later Anne was babysitting the girls they came across a new rescue. They were in the process of walking home from ballet and came across a man dragging a dog behind him, the dog was howling in protest and pain. Anne watch horrified as the man turned and gave the dog a sharp kick.

Anne lurched forward if there's one thing she wouldn't stand for was any person or animal getting harmed. "Stop your hurting him, please sir, can't you see this dogs in pain?" she asked, tears welling in her eyes as the dog whimpers could be heard.

"Stupid mutt hasn't bought me anything but trouble, it deserves it" The man spat. Anne's fists curled in anger, "Please let me take him then, I'll pay you, anything you want just please stop hurting him" Anne cried, the girls shocked and confused behind her.

The poor dog was still whimpering as Anne knelt down to pick it up, she was getting this dog away from this man right now. "You know what, please take it off my hands, I was just going to let it out onto the street anyway" the man huffed before handing Anne the lead and walking off. She was shocked at how someone could be so cruel to such a beautiful soul.

Was Phillip and Barnum shocked to come home and find Anne and the girls playing with not one but two dogs? No, no they weren't. They named the new dog James, James and Max instantly bonded, Anne wondered how an animal who had no doubt had a life of hell could be so loving straight away.

Their last animal, a cat named Percy was the hardest to get in Anne's opinion. Phillip had given in the first two times but one day as they were walking they crossed paths with a vendor selling animals. Anne instantly fell in love with a grey furry cat with bright green eyes.

Phillip knew the look of determination in her eyes. "Anne darling, I told you, no more pets! We already have the two dogs, we simply can't have a cat, I'm putting my foot down". Well, that was the last time Phillip put his foot down for anything because soon enough they were heading home, one cat tucked in Anne's arms and one very sore Phillip.

Surprisingly Percy got along with the dogs, he kept to himself mostly but would occasionally join Anne as she read and sipped her tea. Anne, Phillip and their three animals formed one big happy family.

It wasn't shocking that one year for Christmas the girls received a dog, he was meant to be a surprise but Helen had heard barking and rushed downstairs. By the next year, there were collectively five dogs at the circus who each had learnt new tricks and would put on a show during intermission.