Dog Boy

37

After so many weeks that had stretched on forever, February seemed to flash by in an instant. I'd settled into what my life now was. I'd started to actually feel bored again sometimes, and it felt fantastic. There was however, a lot more going on in my life. I was doing stuff with my friends more, and especially with Jackie. The Applegate High School Canis Club was starting to feel more like a real club - and I still had to pinch myself that me and my friends had pulled this together.

There was however, the very difficult experience in those weeks, of watching my parents change. My dad had fought so hard to cure the disease. My mom had tried so hard to support Ashley and I when we transformed. But they'd still found it so hard to accept who we were now - and then they'd succumbed to the uncaring virus.

I saw a distinct somber shift as the virus advanced in them. They looked like they thought they were going to die in a few days - and I couldn't blame them. It had felt the same way to me. After a time, I'd wake up, see them eating breakfast and watching the news - and I couldn't see much of their old selves left. All of us, after a month of harsh resistance, were now changed forever.

Nausea and discomfort were constantly on their faces. They were not willing to put on a mask of cheerfulness like I'd been at first, neither did they let themselves spiral into depression. They simply tried to keep living, all while encountering one annoyance about their change after another.

But soon the tide began to turn. Revulsion from looking behind them and seeing a tail, turned into annoyed chuckling from it getting in the way again. Sickness turned to just frustration, and eventually even that faded. Their mood improved to the point that they were able to joke about it - Dad remarking that the virus had even infected the house, with dog hair finding its way everywhere.

They'd now been canis for two weeks or so, and they still were largely in the same mood - that of tiredness. They were no longer disgusted. They were just exhausted with having to deal with it. Part of me had hoped they'd fully embrace it like I had. I was starting to realize that Jackie and I were outliers - and that it was unfair to look down on canis people who did not find comfort in it like we did.

With their changes though... was a sense of less distance. Mom and Dad were having to get used to a lot of new things - but Ashley and I had already experienced them. We knew how they felt - and they now understood how we felt. They were still obviously uncomfortable - but there was no longer a sense of hesitation when they looked at us, or confusion when they saw me wag my tail. They smiled at me. They asked me how my day had gone, without changing the subject when I talked about something like the club. I felt... I felt like they were my parents again.

Ashley, by this time, was by no means cheerful - not that she had been a cheery kind of person before the transformation - but she didn't seem to be in such a dark place anymore. She wasn't super positive, but she also wasn't making dramatic statements about how the world was going to end. I felt like Mom and Dad had been right to take her tablet away for a while, and get her more focused on real life. It seemed like she'd even made a few friends at school that were interested in some nerdy stuff like she was.

This I felt, was the most encouraging development with her. I couldn't understand how anyone with canis could go it alone - Wendy sadly, seemed to be one of those people, and I had talked with my other friends about how we could help her feel welcomed into our group again.

On the first day of March, that was the biggest worry on my mind - my continued mission to help other canis people. I had finished another day of school, and we had the club again. Our numbers had ebbed and flowed a bit - often swelling a lot when we had refreshments - but I'd started to feel like the people who were at every meeting had really changed. The small group of shy kids still played their games in the other room, but had started inviting other shy canis people to join them. Aidan had finally gotten at least a few people who seemed to like playing his overly complicated board games. It seemed at times that the person socializing there the least was me, tired out from making sure everything was working right.