Trauma

success and therapy

Steve was still asleep when Bucky and Trauma arrived home so the former winter soldier put the sandwich in the frigde and then went to curl up next to his boyfriend. Steve stirred a little as Bucky krept close but then he stayed moveless. Bucky sighed and closed his eyes. He could hear claws clicking on the ground, felt something jump onto the bed and then a mass curled up against his legs. Bucky grinned and with the warmth of both his boyfriend and his dog he fell asleep in no time.

After this succeful night which the teo of them had spend together and bonding the dog's behaviour changed so rapidly that both Steve and Bucky were sure that some magic had to be involved. The distant, careful, independent dog turned into a loyal companion that followedeither Steve or Bucky around the house.

Since Bucky had told Steve about the succeful walk at night they decided that they would try to walk the dog when it was dark for it was the most enjoyable thing for everyone involved. Snd during those nightly, calm walks Steve and Bucky grew closer too. That was bacuse Bucky found it a lot easier to tell his boyfriend what was bothering him when he was walking around in the darkness and Steve listened gladly.

Bucky told Steve a lot of things on those walks, things that were big, had an enormous inpact on him and his life. He also talked about unimportant nonesense. Steve didn't mind he walked next to Bucky and listened.

They spend their mornings sleeping for their sleeping pattern had changed with their new habit of walking the dog at night. They took naps at noon now too, for they just couldn't manage to get enough sleep at night. Their everlasting shadow Trauma was with them.

Even though they tried to stay home as much as possible they still had to go grocery shopping during the day and on saturday they decided to go to the nearest pet store to get a fitting, new harness for Trauma.

Trauma was obviously nervous. There were humans, other dogs and there was noise, even though they had googled the store and chosen to come when the fewest people were there. But fewest doesn't mean few and there were more people than they had expected. Trauma did well though. They had to ask an employee for help who touched Trauma, helped them find the perfect harness that could be extended for when Trauma regaines weight again and wasn't a walking sceleton with fur and skin anymore. While being at the pet store they also bought a collar, which they could put around Trauma's throat while he was out in the garden. If he somehow managed to get out of the garden people would know who and where he belonged to. They also were very close to buying a little dog house for Trauma but eventually decided against it. It was true that the dog loved to spend time in the garden but he also stayed close to Steve and Bucky and probably wouldn't use the house.

It also was time to slowlt start mixing his boring chicken and rice meals with dog food and they let the employee advice them on this topic too. They were told that they should try raw feeding for the dog looked unhealthy and that would be the best way to provide him with all the necessary vitmains and minerals and what not to help his fur to grow. And Trauma stole a pig's ear from a box which he got to keep because they don't take already chewed on things back. Maybe, just maybe Steve and Bucky got three more pig's ears because they really sucked at not spoiling their dog.

Seeing that Trauma went absolutely nuts about and was ready to die for pig's ears they became his rewards whenever Bucky and Steve felt that the dog deserved rewarding. Which was often. Because pig's ears for the good boys. And Trauma turned out to be a very good boy.

He didn't have any outbursts on saturday, even though they went grocery shopping after their pet shop adventure. They had to buy meat for the raw feeding and new chicken for the healthy diet. One could see that Trauma wasn't calm and didn't like being out be he trusted Steve and Bucky to keep him safe. He just stuck to them and avoided everything else. They were lucky that Trauma still looked so beaten that no one felt the urge to touch him for that would probably have been enough to trigger the dog. Even though most people knew of the unwritten 'ask before you pet it' rule there are still some out there who willingly risk losing their arm by petting random dogs unask. And blaming the owners afterwards for having a dangerous dog.  Because it's always the dog's fault, never the humans.