Title - Padfoot's Tail

Regulus Black gets a new puppy, but the puppy doesn't fit in well with his family. The puppy - Sirius - runs away from the Blacks is search of something more.

Warnings: Puppy!Abuse :( :(

Written for: The A-Z Challenge. A = Animal!AU

Stratego: Prompt - Puppy!Sirius

Would You Rather - Being trapped

The little black dog danced around, trying to get some attention. He watched the other dogs getting picked up and petted and taken away and he waited impatiently for his own turn.

He nudged at hands that made their way into the pen, nipping to get attention, pouncing on fingers. Yapping so they would look at him and he would get a cuddle.

But they ignored him, going for the quieter dogs.

After six days, puppy had almost given up having his own special human to cuddle, immensely jealous of the puppies that had gone already, when he saw grey eyes staring down at him and a hand reaching nervously for him.

He pounced on the hand, attempting to roll on it, something which he realised wasn't possible as he hit the floor. He looked up hopefully.

"Pedigree?" Came a voice that hurt his sensitive ears.

"Yes, if you'd like to follow me," another voice said.

"I'm going to call you Snuffles," the boy whispered, finally reaching to pick him up.

"Leave it," came a deep voice. "It needs to be cleaned and wormed and whatever else they do to dogs to ensure they are safe to handle." The voice left no room for argument, and Snuffles as he now was, was satisfied by a quick scratch on the head when the deep-voiced man was looking in the other direction.

It wasn't long before Snuffles found himself being placed into a cage and away from what had been his home for the last few months.

...oOo...

Rules were strange in this new place. He was living in what seemed to be his own room. It was all right, he supposed. But he wanted more of the cuddles. The boy had yet to hold him properly and all the other puppies had been snuggled immediately.

He watched through the glass at the family and his food and water would be filled regularly too.

But he felt lonely that he couldn't get to them to show his new people that he wanted to be friends.

It took a few weeks for a sharp metal object to poke him. That happened twice.

"Injections are done, he's fine to take outside now," a man said and Snuffles was finally glad to be scooped up in the boys arms. Cuddles were perfect - they were wonderful.

He wanted to stay there all day.

"Come on Snuffles," his boy said.

"Regulus, we've told you that Snuffles isn't the suitable name," the woman snapped. "Did Kreacher not tell you what names were appropriate?"

Another man glared down at him. "I did, my Lady," the man said, producing a list.

Snuffles watched in curiosity as his boy took the list.

"Sirius, I suppose," he said.

A collar was slipped around Snuffles... now Sirius' neck.

"Kreacher, have the appropriate paperwork filled out for him, tags and whatever else. Find a dog-walker."

"But mother, I thought that I... I would take him for a walk."

"Of course not," the man replied.

...oOo...

Sirius lay in his bed, his side hurting. He had been a bad dog, as his master said. He shouldn't have gone near the flowers. He hadn't known, but the foot striking his side was warning enough.

It hurt to move, even though he didn't want to get up. He upset the masters too much. He peed in the wrong place, dug in the wrong spots. He chewed the wrong things.

He wasn't trying to be bad at all, he just hadn't been told he wasn't supposed to do these things. But each punishment hurt.

He didn't like being punished.

...oOo...

"Look Sirius, it's a wolf," Regulus said, as he walked alongside his dog. He wasn't holding the lead, as that was the job of the dog-walker. "It's a real wolf."

Sirius' eyes followed his young master's and he saw another dog playing with a man a good distance away. But his master said it was a wolf, so Sirius decided that he would see it as a wolf too... whatever that was.

"Maybe one day mother will let me play ball with you?"

Sirius didn't reply. He was used to not playing the games that others in the park played. His masters didn't see the point in games.

He alternated between watching the wolf, and watching his master stare at the man and wolf playing before the dog walker finally began moving again.

...oOo...

He had upset them now. He had been locked in the conservatory for almost two days without food and water now, and he had finished what had been in his bowl when he had been thrown in there.

It wasn't his fault that he missed his young master who had gone away to boarding school. It wasn't his fault that they had left the door open and Sirius had found his way to Regulus' bedroom, settling down on the bed which still smelt like his master. He missed him.

There had been shouts about how he was a dirty animal. Get off the furniture. The kick came as he rushed to the top of the stairs, sending him flying down half of them. As he began to limp to his room, a hand grabbed the collar and dragged him into it. He couldn't help the yelp that came from his mouth.

...oOo...

The still small black dog made his way to the park. He had walked this way hundreds of times before, so it was nothing new to him. What was new was his master beating him with a rolled up newspaper. He couldn't count but yelp after yelp until his throat hurt. Only then did he realise that it was too much. He bared his teeth, daring his master to try again.

With the next attempt, his teeth were ripping into the newspaper.

Vicious animal. Disgusting behaviour. Dangerous. We can't let him near Regulus. We'll get him put down.

Sirius knew what those words meant. It meant that he would be completely gone. They didn't want him anymore. When the back door was opened again, he pushed his way out, squeezing through the hole at the back that he knew was there, but never bothered going through before.

He found a spot in the park, tree with very low branches which protected him from the rain. He liked the park, it was a happy place. It was where he would be taken and be away from his masters. It was where Regulus would talk to him and pay him attention.

It's where he'd see other dogs playing.

He stayed hidden until the rain stopped and found a puddle. He began drinking from it before sniffing around for food.

He didn't care that it was cold or wet, or how long it had been on the ground, Sirius ate the half eaten hot-dog and crawled into a bush to avoid the cold air.

...oOo...

Two days were spent the same way.

On the third day, he found himself growling as another animal began to push its way into his bush. That was his space. He carefully backed out, uncertain of the threat that the animal possessed. He heard the animal rustling through the bush, following him and he whimpered. He hadn't wanted to move much, he was still in a lot of pain from before.

"There's a puppy in the bush," came a voice, but he ignored it, focused on the animal that came out. It was the wolf that Regulus had pointed out to him. Sirius was frozen in place as the dog moved towards him, quickly spinning as the dog tried to go behind him.

Though the spinning just reminded him that his paw hurt. He let out a yelp, bringing his paw up and the wolf stopped and watched him.

"Did Moony hurt him?" Came a female voice.

"No, the dog... I think it's already hurt," the man said.

"Does he have a collar?"

Sirius backed away as hands moved towards him. He quickly cowered away, whimpering. What if they hurt him too? A nose nudged his and the other dog whimpered, laying down in front of his and Sirius was intrigued. The other dog wasn't going to hurt him. He stayed still, scared as the hands moved closer, but after a brush over his neck, they moved away again.

He help completely still.

"No collar. Stray?"

"He is quite thin," the female voice said.

"Should we bring him to a shelter?"

"Will he let you pick him up?" The woman asked.

Sirius moved away from the hands.

Safe. Safe.

His eyes darted to the wolf. It was telling him over and over that these people were safe. He stopped moving away and trusted the wolf's word. Hands wrapped around him, lifting him and he was face to face with a man with glasses.

One arm was wrapped around him, holding him there. The other was in front of his face. He gave it a sniff and hesitantly licked him.

"He's friendly, Lily," the man said, eagerly. "We could keep him."

"Two dogs? We've already got a Tamaskan, do we really want a... what breed is it? How big will it get?"

"I'm thinking he's going to be pretty big," James agreed. "But Moony seems to like him."

Lily was silent for a long time. "How do we trust that he's house-trained and everything?"

"Let's just take him home and see?" James suggested.

Sirius didn't struggle against the man's hold as the man carried him from the park.

...oOo...

"Padfoot," the man said.

"What?" The Lily asked.

"That's what we should call him."

"James, you're not supposed to name him," Lily scolded.

"I know, but we can't keep referring to him as 'the puppy' or whatever."

'Padfoot' sat on the floor, watching the humans argue about him. When the woman began gesturing at him, her hand moving close, he couldn't help but back away, whimpering. It was always her that had smacked him hard when he had done wrong.

Immediately Lily stopped, realising she was upsetting him and Sirius, now known as Padfoot watched nervously as she leaned down to him.

"Come here," she said softly, her tone similar to one that Regulus used to use and Sirius found himself looking around. His eyes met the amber eyes of Moony.

Safe

Moony said she was safe, and Padfoot allowed her to reach for him, her fingers stroking through his fur before she picked him up.

"He's so frightened," she murmured, holding the dog close to her. "Poor thing. His last owners mustn't have been very nice. He can stay... for now."

Sirius licked her hand, hoping she wouldn't be upset at his action, but she only smiled and hugged him close to her.

Padfoot snuggled against her. It had been rare for the Blacks to hug him like this.

"For now? I think we're too attached to him already. I can see Moony is," James replied.

Lily carefully put Padfoot down on the floor with her other dog.

"It's nice that Moony has a new friend," she replied. "Yes, I think Padfoot will fit in well around here."

Padfoot looked at Moony again, his eyes meeting amber ones. He felt happy. He had a friend and two possible masters that liked cuddles. He could be happy here.

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