An odd little family (smiling critters x mother figure reader + sister figure oc

-⭒- Anxiety Help -⭒-

"Uh, DogDay can't hear though.." He whispered this in your ear and you raised a brow at him. "It's not bad! But I think it would be better if he didn't hear, at least not right now." You sighed and nodded,

"Alright alright. Uh, hey Dot?"

"Yeah?" She looked up from the game box where she, Hoppy and Bobby were cleaning up the pieces.

"Can you get DogDay ready for bed please? The others need to tell me something real quick." You looked from Bubba to her and she blinked at you processing the request before shrugging,

"Yeah sure. Hey DD! You're stuck with me tonight." She went over and picked up DogDay as he giggled, "No! Not that!" He said through his laughter.

Dorothy then took him upstairs and you turned back to the other critters.

"Ok, so what did you all want to tell me?"

— — —

They all had sat you at the table and Bubba started to explain, "Well, we've seen that DogDay will get really nervous and jittery when you or Dot aren't around."

"He paces all the time and doesn't want to play with us a lot anymore!" Hoppy exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air.

"I see, has this been going on for a while now?" You asked with a worried tone, tapping your fingers on the table in a rhythmic fashion.

"Yeah but he's been getting more nervous lately." Bobby said, wrapping her hands together.

"Hmm, this reminds me of when dogs get separation anxiety." You mumbled, leaning back in your chair.

"That's what I was thinking." Bubba said, rubbing his chin with one hand (or stub, whatever you call elephant hands-).

"But what do we do about it?" Kickin asked. You tapped your foot against the ground.

"We could talk to him about it? That might help." You sat forward again, "I might see if I can get shorter hours. I feel like they already overwork me, I don't think I need to be there all those hours." You chewed on your cheek and mumbled that last sentence to yourself.

"Tomorrow?" Picky asked,

"Hm?" You turned your gaze back to her, "Sorry what was that hun?"

"Should we talk to him about it tomorrow?" She asked again and you nodded.

"That could work, Dot doesn't have plans for Saturday, so she'll be here." You answered and Bubba nodded,

"Ok, we'll talk to him about it tomorrow then."

— — —

The next day the critters were all playing outside together. You had told Dorothy the plan about what you all were going to do and she had agreed to not say anything about it. So it was a fairly quiet day for all the critters. Once you got home you all met together in the kitchen.

"So DogDay, there's something we need to talk to you about. It's nothing bad, promise, just something we're all a bit concerned about." You started as DogDay's ears twitched and he nodded slightly,

"Ok, what is it?"

"We think you have separation anxiety-" Kickin blurted out, earning him a punch on the shoulder from Hoppy which cut him off abruptly. Kickin glared at her and she returned it while DogDay tilted his head,

"What's that?" he asked and you sighed,

"Ok let's try this again," you muttered, rubbing the space between your brows, "DogDay, do you get nervous when me, Dot, or both of us are out of the house?" He thought about that for a moment before nodding slightly,

"Yeah. Is that bad?" He nodded and fidgeted with his paws in front of him and you shook your head slightly,

"Not entirely, but does it get bad?" He nodded again and you sighed softly, "Alright, we think you might have separation anxiety, hun. And we're going to try and help." You patted his head and he nodded,

"Can you? Because sometimes it gets really bad and I think that maybe something bad happened and then I feel like I might throw up." He looked down at the table then back up at you. You didn't know that they could feel like throwing up since they were a lot like toys but then again then could eat soâ€".

"Of course we can, sweetie. It'll most likely take time but we'll help the best we can." You booped his nose making him giggle and he nodded along.

— — —

The thing you thought might help was if you gradually started leaving him for longer periods of time, obviously Dorothy had school and she couldn't miss a few hours so it was mainly you being the subject of this test. You had gotten some leeway on work and after a while DogDay got better at handling you and Dot being away for your normal hours (obviously this took a while but I don't want to write all that-).

After a few months he seemed to be handling it a lot better. There were still days where he would feel nervous about you and/or Dot being gone for a while but he learned to handle it better. Guess all it takes is time.

— — —

A/N: Hope this chapter turned out alright! I was writing this on not too much sleep and I wasn't sure how to end it.

But I hope you enjoyed and have a good day/afternoon/night!