Dog Boy

51

Jackie sprung upward in bed Saturday morning, and before any other need came to her mind, she picked up the phone, and called the Hewitts. Meagan picked up after just two rings.

"Hey Jackie."

"Hey Meagan," she said with a widening smile.

"Sorry to say," Meagan sighed, "but Matt and Ashley haven't shown any change."

Jackie's ears, perked up before, now slumped down.

"Oh."

"Lucas is working at it honey, don't worry," Meagan said. "We'll figure it out."

"Okay."

"But if you want to come over, you're totally welcome. You could always take Matt for a walk. I'm sure he'd really appreciate it."

"Yeah, I guess."

She didn't make any small talk, just said see you later, and hung up. At least nothing worse had happened to Matt and Ashley - but gosh she wished that she could've gone to their house, and been greeted by him running to the door, and getting a hug from the real Matt again.

When she got there, he did run to her - just on all fours. He had been at the ready up against the door long before she even reached their porch. It was funny how easily he recognized she was here - but she in turn recognized his scent from a distance, and so he surely knew her smell too. Interestingly, Matt and Ashley had shown a cautiousness, and even an animosity at times, towards normal humans. It felt, at least to Jackie, that the two of them felt that canis people understood them.

 After opening the door and calming Matt down, Jackie scratched his head, and he licked her hand. He suddenly stopped, and looked up at her. She hadn't smiled very widely at him, or given him a good belly rub right on the spot. Did he sense her disappointment? Or was she misinterpreting his random instinctual actions?

Walking inside, she greeted Meagan and Lucas, who badgered her into having some waffles. Though Jackie still felt nervous about imposing on the Hewitts, they seemed to be trying quite hard to wear down her inhibitions. Lucas made some really good waffles, aided mostly by homemade syrup. While Jackie enjoyed hers, Matt and Ashley seemed extremely eager when two waffle halves were placed in their food bowls.

Jackie was able to get herself to chat a bit with Meagan and Lucas, responding to questions about how classes were going - but Jackie was eager to just get out and walk without any further conversation.

She was careful to not say the word "walk" while grabbing Matt's leash to his collar - the one that didn't have scary electric shocking bits on it. Matt was very happy as soon as he knew what was going on. Poor Ashley was smart enough to know what was happening, and she had to be held back by Meagan. Despite being told that she'd go on a walk later, she obviously didn't quite understand. Eventually though, Jackie got out the door with Matt.

She looked down at him as they began the walk towards a nearby bike path. He panted without a care in the world. She sighed, wishing she could be as happy as he was. She wagged her tail slightly, and intentionally. Unfortunately, she couldn't force herself to not feel disappointment.

****

Me was happy. Dog girl was taking me on a walk. Days where she walked me were good days. There were many good smells around me.

"You like the smell of all the flowers, don't you?"

Me didn't know what she meant, but she seemed happy about this, so me happy too. Me smelled her. She smelled like the other things around me. Those things... what were they? Flowers? Me didn't understand. Some humans and dog humans smelled like flowers, others smelled like dirt. Others smelled boring. Had dog girl been digging up flowers?