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Keep your arm steady. She thought to herself.
Chili, along with her older sister sat by the small circular table in the living room. All sorts of crayons and markers were scattered on top with pages of papers flying everywhere. They were both watching the TV too, something about bears with symbols of their stomachs saving the day. (Personally, Chili would’ve preferred watching the show with the colorful ponies, but she stubbornly knew that she couldn’t force the show to play at the moment). The warm brown of the walls adorned with old histrotic paintings gave a more cozy vibe to this
Dad went to go fishing again, he wasn't at the lake nearby the house this time though. Thankfully, mum was home. Because the kitchen didn't have a door and it was right next to the living room, Chili could easily hear the boiling water and smell pesto sauce scent coming from there.
Their mother peeked her head through the doorway to check in on both of them. She was also a red heeler bearing a striking resemblance to her eldest daughter. “Are you two having a fun time?”
“Yeah!” Brandy brought up her paper to show it off to her mom, something related to the beach or something, Chili didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, all she knew was that her older sister was making a gift for a friend. “Harper’s going to love it! I made sure I made it, like, really really realistic!” She bragged.
Chili stopped moving the crayon held in her paw mid-coloring and looked down at her own drawing.
A horse - specifically a waler, like the one her mum had - standing right next to her mom. Her mom held the horse's bridle in one hand, and in the other some sort of trophy, the horse had a big blue ribbon. The background, despite being unfinished, clearly showed them near a stable.
She started to color a little harder with her crayon, making swift movements with her paw. Before it snapped in half not long after. Chili threw the crayon on the table with a gentle thud, grabbing the attention of her mum who had actually walked inside the room to admire her older daughter’s piece of art while her younger pup was busy looking at her own.
Her mum grabbed the piece of paper and examined it. “Is this me?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t make eye contact, instead looking down at the floor.
The oldest red heeler looked at her young daughter with a worried look. “What’s wrong?”
Chili hesitated for a moment. “I’m just kinda worried it’s not good enough to be a mother’s day gift.”
“Really?” Mum tilted her head, perplexed at her own daughters answer. “I think it looks amazing.”
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Chili opened the window and began to cough. The scent of the chemicals she was spraying while cleaning was becoming overbearing. She walked over to the sink again, rinsing the cloth and squeezing it as much as she could. Before walking back over to the wall, it still needed a little bit more scrubbing to go.
“Mum! Mum!”
Chili turned towards the source of the noise. Her daughter, Bluey, was over at the door, clearly excited over something. The pup ran, almost slipping on the wet floor.
“Careful!” Chili went to grab her to maintain her balance. The blue pup was much less freaked out than the adult in the room. “What is it?”
Confidently, the seven year old turned the paper she had been holding between her paws towards the orange dog. It was a drawing made with the markers Bandit had bought her a couple of days ago. It depicted Chili in a cartoonish chibi art style with a red mask and cape flying with some sort of dog in her arms. Tall buildings colored in gray and blue surrounded her with dogs below smiling. The ground looked all jumbled up which made it hard to tell what exactly was happening, the only thing Chili could clearly tell is that a car was on fire.
“Look! That’s you!” Bluey proudly told her. “Miss Calypso made us draw something for mother’s day!”
“Aw, thank you Bluey, I like it a lot.” Chili scratched the back of Bluey’s ears. “Can you stick it onto the fridge for me? I’ll get back to you in a second.”
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“Stop!”
The horse halted and Chili immediately let go of the bridle once she heard her mom say that. She maintained her balance, thankfully not falling off its back despite coming close.
Her mom ran right next to her. She took Chili’s paw and the rein she just dropped. She adjusted her daughter's hand position with the palms upwards. “You need to hold it between your pinky and ring finger.” She let go of her daughter’s paw, now holding the rein the proper way “Like that.”
If she wasn’t on some sort of fishing trip with her father, then she was over at her mother’s horse stable doing horseback riding.
Her mother worked in equestrianism and would often tell her all about the races she’s done and bring her and Brandy to the stable, so naturally Chili had a huge love for horses. Horses were all she could practically draw all the time, now that her mum considered her old enough to do some lessons with her during the summer, she was ecstatic to say the least.
“Right, remember-”
“Don’t jerk the reins, don’t rush, and don’t panic!” Chili finished her mum's sentence. They repeated it so many times, Chili could probably recite it three times faster in her sleep.
“Great!” Her mum clasped her hands. She stepped back further away, right next to where Brandy was watching them quietly, resting on a bench.
“Ready?” Mum shouted, holding the whistle that was dangling on her neck on her paw. Her daughter responded with a thumbs up, immediately turning her attention back towards the obstacle course that was laid out for the horse.
Once the blaring of the whistle was heard, the waler began to run. Chili made sure to gently point the horse in the right direction, not pulling on the reins tightly or in a way that would freak out the horse.
They walked up one ramp with a curve (it was a little hard for the both of them to maneuver without stepping off it, but they got through it, eventually), made sure to not step on some sticks like a minefield, and made impressive leaps over multiple oxer’s one after another, which Chili barely managed to stay balanced on the saddle.
Chili made the horse stop for a moment to fix her position on the saddle. She heard her mom and Brandy cheering from the sidelines like it was a sports game, despite being the only one in the stable. She looked ahead at the last obstacle with a look of determination, imagining herself as if she were in some sort of action movie.
Making sure she grabbed them just like how her mom showed her (palms up, between the pinky and ring finger) and gently pulled the reins, to which the horse simply walked over to the obstacle. Ok not as dramatic as she imagined it, but at least they got there.
It was a water obstacle, the water section panned a tad bit longer than she was used to seeing, and the other side had a bucket with apples and carrots. Mum’s horse was trying to get straight to the bucket, wanting to trot around the obstacle, but Chili managed to maintain the horse's focus.
Chili shifted her weight, adjusting the position of her legs on the saddle, grip tight on the reins.
She signaled to her mum’s horse, and she has never seen such a horse leap as high as this one did. Chili clung to the horse, watching the shadow of the giant animal quickly fly across the puddle of water. Chili flinched once they fell with a thud to the found, the bucket of veggies in front of them.
There was a small splash heard, the horse probably accidentally stepped on, but for the most part the horse did very well with the jump.
Chili almost fell off her horse once she heard her mom and sister screaming for joy and running towards her without warning. “I knew you could do it, Chili!” Brandy shouted, putting down the small, slim camera she was (apparently) holding. Their mum got the younger daughter off her horse, giving her a little twirl. The horse just went ahead to the bucket, munching on the apples and carrots without a care in the world.
“You finished your first obstacle course!” Mum told her, walking over to her horse and giving her a good rub on the face. The horse she specifically chose for Chili was one that never won a race, she was always beat by another horse her mum would always mention. "You two did a great job! We can do another one tomorrow if you’d like?”
“Yeah!” Chili screamed out, throwing her arms in the air. She could practically feel the adrenaline pumping through her. “I’m going to help Storm! That way next time she's totally going to beat Jovial Merryment.” Chili said the last sentence with a dramatic scoff, with her arms crossed and rolling her eyes.
Chili’s mum stifled a bit of laugher and shrugged, trying to hide a smirk. “Maybe!”
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“Great job, Bingo! I didn’t even have to ask you to do that!”
Chili rubbed the back of her daughter's ear, Bingo wagging her tail and giggled.
The orange pup had grabbed the Milky Way wrapper after it was knocked by the breeze onto the concrete and threw it away in a nearby rubbish bin before sitting back.
She and both of her daughters were sitting outside in front of the petrol station eating some snacks and the three of them just said their goodbyes to Wendy and Judo as they got back in the bus.
Chili had a half-eaten sandwich (which wasn’t really worth the price), the kids were done eating and they were waiting for Bandit who staying with their car to be done. They still had a long way to go until their final destination.
Chili looked up to her eldest daughter. The seven year old was staring at something in the far distance between the hills.
“Mum,” Bluey, not having turned away from the nature scenery, pointed at it. “What’s that?”
“That’s Mount Eugenie.”
“No, not that, I know that.” Bluey said with her know-it-all tone, still pointing at the same place. “I mean that! The brown thing!”
A lot of things were brown when you were out in nature, so naturally it would be hard to figure out. The red heeler looked a little longer until she finally spotted it.
It was a small building, but not a house. Dogs were seen handling lanky creatures, who were walking beside them to make laps on the lighter yellow piece of land that was surrounded by wooden fences, some were riding on them too. It took her a little bit before she connected the dots.
“That’s a horse stable!” Chili answered. “My mum used to take me to one she owned.”
“Ohhh, okay!” Bluey sat back onto her seat, staring blankly at the floor in awkward silence. “Mum, can we go to a horse stable?”
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Chili closed the cabinets near her and Bandit’s king-size bed once she thought the way she organised everything in them satisfied her. Bingo and Bluey wouldn’t let her go downstairs because king Flufflestubble had banned her for being too much of a hard worker (not their exact words, but that was basically what they had described).
While she worked upstairs she kept hearing commotion happening downstairs. A mixer being used, panicked yelping, and the such, though it seemed to have quieted down.
She went over to the balcony to get some fresh air. The blistering sun rays hitting her golden fur felt nice, though quickly overwhelmed her, having to put a paw over her eyes to see better She went to retreat back into the shade, but was stopped once she saw something from the corner of her eye.
Below she saw Bandit. The blue heeler was talking to their neighbor, Wendy, over the fence. She gave him a carton of eggs, two, in fact. Bandit told their neighbor ‘thanks, mate.’ with a wave before walking back inside the kitchen, not having realised his wife witnessed the whole ordeal.
She mentally chuckled, they weren’t really great at keeping a surprise secret.
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“Happy birthday!” Brandy and their father had yelled out as the waiter put two plates down. The first one had a cupcake with a caramel drizzle with a candle stuck on top, and a chocolate souffle in the other.
They decided to visit a restaurant after her father took her and her sister out on a fishing ride (‘ not to brag or anything, but I caught a pretty big trout! ’ Chili kept telling her sister on the way there, to which she wasn’t amused at all). The family was waiting for their entire order to arrive before they started. The steaks and salads on the table were laid out in a semi-organised manner, needless to say their father couldn’t wait to dig in.
The waiter took out a lighter and proceeded to light the candle. The candle was the type to emit sparks, which caused the birthday girl to flinch.
Chili didn’t mean to blow the candle as quickly as she did, but pretended as if it were intentional once she saw her sister and father clapping and cheering.
The irish settler took the blown out candle off of the cupcake. “Let me know if you need anything else.” They pointed at the golden bell placed between the salt and pepper shakers. “Hope you had a good rest of your night.” they said, leaving the family’s table right after.
Brandy reached over the other side of the table to give her sister a noogie. “Look at you, you’re now a big girl!”
“I’m only eighteen!” Chili laughed as she pushed away her sister's paw.
“Yeah, and you kept calling me old! I was in college!” Brandy sat back into her seat, sticking her tongue out in a playful manner. “Who’s old now?”
After their father cut in their conversation to tell a lame joke, Mort took his glass filled with cold water and held it up. His daughters did the same, Chili had her glass filled with watermelon juice while brandy also had water. All three clinked their glasses and began eating.
Chili looked at the empty seat right beside her.
Despite them being only three dogs, they still wanted a table for four.
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“Ok! Now open your eyes!”
Chili removed her paw from her face. Given that her daughter, who just turned eight a couple of months ago, was still too short to properly do it herself, the red heeler decided to help her by covering them with her own paws. The pup guided her with her other free arm throughout the house, only saying stuff like “watch it!’ or “careful!” when, say, walking down the stairs.
She was now standing in the kitchen, the sun shining through the windows and backdoor made the room much more warmer. Bingo was sitting on the tall stool with a gleeful wide smile, while Bandit was right next to the kitchen table perpendicular to her.
In the middle of the small wooden table was a cake. Funfetti, to be more specific.
The top layer was smooshed and a little slanted to the right, the cream also wasn’t smoothed out. The coloring on the sprinkles had melted into the buttercream, like a beginner artist not having a good grasp on how watercolor works. There was also a little bit of smudged orange frosting, with the extra piece of paper that had “happy 44th birthday, mum!” written in orange crayon In front of the plate, it was easy to assume the frosting was supposed to have the same phrase spelled but was removed last second.
But still, Chili couldn’t help but smile.
“Happy birthday!” The rest of the family members yelled out. Her daughters ran up toward her to hug her legs.
“Stripe and Trixie won’t be able to come.” Bandit told her, his arm behind his head. “They mentioned something about a dentist’s appointment for Socks? Sorry about that.”
Chili looked back at him, were those tears forming in her eyes?
“Don’t worry about it.” She bent down to her daughter's level, kissing bluey on the forehead. “I'm just glad I'm with you all.”