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It wasn't until the third time Gabriel popped in on Dean throwing a fit over the stray puppy Sam had picked up and brought home that he decided to step in. By now it had become clear that neither brother was going to back down over the dog. So Gabriel simply decided to address Dean’s concerns.
His first attempt to fix the problem was to simply snap his fingers and fix up Dean’s allergies. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite do the trick.
At least Dean was able to protest the dog’s presence without breaking off to sneeze mid-sentence, now.
The puppy, which Sam had named Buffy, provoking intense eye-rolling from Dean, had an unfortunate love of mud, and rolling in it. Every single time Sam took her out she would return with dirt and mud splattered all over her yellow coat, and trek it all through the bunker.
Sam kept her as clean as was possible for a dog that liked rolling in things as much as Buffy did, and the bunker had never been mopped more, but somehow there seemed to always be at least one paw print left for Dean to find.
Gabriel’s next idea was to make the dog self-cleaning booties. But the look in Buffy’s huge, soulful eyes when she realised she couldn’t dig through (Dean’s) garden bed to get to her bone was just so pitiful, Gabriel had to take them off.
He tried getting the Winchesters a robo-vacuum cleaner and setting it free in the bunker, but Cas tripped over it and might have broken his nose had he been human.
He tried talking to Buffy and simply asking her to wipe her feet before coming in. To the dog’s credit, she did try, but didn’t seem to fully grasp the concept.
It wasn’t until Buffy came inside, clearly having rolled on an actual dead animal, that Gabriel watched Sam wrinkle his nose, pick her up and carry her into the bathroom.
To his surprise, the dog was ecstatic over the prospect of getting bathed, wagging her tail and barking excitedly where any other dog Gabriel had met would have been growling and shying away. Clearly his dogs had all been giant wusses. Sam laughed and informed Gabriel that Buffy loved the bath, as long as he used warm water.
By the time Buffy was clean, though, the bathroom looked like Sam had slain a Kelpie in it. Gabriel cleaned the mess with a snap to save Sam having to mop yet again.
The next day there was a dog bath and a weird shower with buttons sitting outside the bunker. After a quick half hour lesson with Gabriel, Buffy knew how to run the water, how to adjust the temperature, and how to make sure she was clean and dry enough before coming in. She could even sort of dry herself off, if only by rolling on a towel.
Buffy took to the bath so much Dean started calling her Fish, and Gabriel took his nicknaming the puppy as a sign of his growing acceptance.
Sam stared at his dog in confusion as she nosed at the button that dispensed soapy water.
‘You really taught her all that in half an hour? And she actually does it?’
Gabriel shrugged. ‘Dogs are easy to teach, especially if you talk to them in their language. And she likes baths. It wasn’t hard to convince her. You’re going to have to give her treats for agreeing to use the shampoo, though.’
‘You speak dog?’
‘I am the Messenger.’ Gabriel’s smile was the special one he only wore around Sam, when his guard was down and he wasn’t playing Angel or Trickster. Just Gabe.
Buffy yelped once when she accidentally sprayed herself in the face with shampoo. Gabriel chuckled at her as she shook her head, spray flying everywhere. He snapped his fingers, Sam supposed to get the suds out of Buffy’s eyes, and she happily nosed the warm water tap back on to rinse herself off.
When Buffy was clean enough, she hopped out of the tub, the shower head magically shutting itself off behind her, and padded over to Sam before shaking herself off.
Suddenly drenched, Sam could only glare as Gabriel laughed himself to tears at Sam’s misfortune. Buffy, a little overexcited, took the laughter as a invitation to tackle Gabriel to the ground and lick his face, and then Sam was laughing, too.