Canine Towards Humanity

CHAPTER 18

"Rowan?" Annie continued to call for him, but he stared into her eyes as if he'd fall into a deep doze right there. He seemed very drowsy.

I hope they don't mind if I take a nap. Besides, they seem happy and impressed enough!

Rowan started to doze off.

He awoke inside of Annie's vehicle, Annie seemed to be in a good mood, but he could smell the disappointment inside of her. He licked her, making sure she hadn't been upset with him.

"Hey, buddy! I'm okay."

That's it? No, you aren't.

He licked her arm again.

"Oh, right. Dogs can smell when you're a bit upset. I'm fine, Rowan; Really! I am only disappointed because a man disqualified us off of the pet show. If you hadn't passed out, I think we would've won. But, it wasn't your fault. You were in high temperatures, in the middle of a field." Annie stopped her conversation quickly.

"Wait, I'm talking to a dog." She sighed.

Rowan licked her arm again, trying to explain to her that he didn't feel like one. He understood everything she said. He just couldn't reply!

Things would be so much easier if only dogs could speak.

Once they arrived home, Annie plopped down onto her couch. Rowan had begun to chew on his rawhide bone, but he noticed she was down. He wondered why. Rowan grabbed his bone, offering the bone to Annie. She gripped the bone, and he could sense that all of her worries melted away right there. She chucked the bone for him, in hopes that he'd fetch it. And, he did.

Annie did win some cash later that night, to her surprise. The men knocked on her door, (which caused Rowan to start barking) and they gifted her with... $10,000!

"TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?" Annie exclaimed excitedly. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"We would like to award you with first place in our dog show. After the disqualification of you and Rowan, nobody seemed to be as interested in the show, so we ended it earlier. We hope you can forgive us, we have to disqualify anyone who's dog passes out during a show, it's in our contract. But, we'd like to invite you to our next dog show. Rowan was amazing. Everyone was loving the tricks he did!"

Annie stared at them for a moment, before agreeing with delight.

"Of course!" Annie shook their hand, shuffling through the thousands of dollars she'd made from that one show.

Annie and Rowan had started to show up to all of the shows they held, whether it was the most intense tricks or the most simple tricks you could think of, the crowd went wild everytime. They loved Rowan, they loved his fur, they loved how intelligent he was.

A few fans had even come up to Annie after a show, explaining theories they really believed of her dog.

"I don't think that's a dog. That has got to be a human trapped inside of a dog's body."

Annie nodded, believing not a word that came out of their mouth. But, she eventually did start to give deep thought into it.

"Are you a human, boy?"

Rowan stared at her with a bark of delight. He was hopeful she would understand him, though the language gap made that hard.

Yes, I am!

But, it just came out in barks and yaps.

Annie really did believe it after a while. She started to visit conspiracy theorists, and they claimed he had to of been a human. They'd started to run tests on him, putting "helmets" on his head that told them his brain activity. They also had attached vests to his chest, telling them his heart rate.

"Treat."

Rowan's heart rate went up, but just a bit. His brain activity barely increased.

"Food."

Rowan's brain activity did increase quite a bit, but died down pretty quickly as well.

"Football."

Rowan's heart rate ascended. His brain activity started to go up higher than it had before with these tests.

"Now, Rowan. I want you to tell me. Are you a man?"

They know? THEY KNOW? Do they actually? YES!
Rowan pondered to himself, with a hopeful expression.

His heart rate increased, not too much, but his brain activity was going wild. He started to wag his tail, attempting to communicate with the humans.

"Annie..."

"Yes?"

"Rowan is no canine."
"He's a human."