A Dog's Love

(Rocky's POV)

I sat at the door, waiting for my master to emerge from his bed. Mistress had woken very early this morning, patting me on the head as she left to go something she called a 'meeting'. Both my master and mistress went to quite a lot of those - they sounded very boring. Surely they'd much rather be at home playing ball with me?

I had heard my master last night talking into a shiny square thing that he held in his paw, and he sounded like was talking to his playmate. They were arranging to meet up today (which was tomorrow last night....too confusing? Okay) and to take us (me and my best friend, Hurley) on a long walk to the dog park.

I love going to the dog park - so many new friends to meet and play with. Master always gets stopped by people on the way there though, and that gets a little annoying - I just want to keep walking, I don't like stopping and starting all the time.

He never seems to mind though, and he'll always smile and hug the strangers as they pose for those shiny things they always have in their hands. Sometimes, I get roped into the madness as well - I don't mind that so much, especially since I get tons of extra attention!

It's been a little while, and my master still hasn't appeared. I stand and reach up a paw to scratch at the wood. The door pushes open a little, and I trot in, guided through the dark room by the sound of my human's breaths.

At the side of the bed, I stopped and sat down on the soft floor. I waited patiently, watching the pile of blankets for any sign of movement.

He finally rolls over to face me, and I let out a soft whine when I saw his eyes were still closed.

Come on, human. You promised me a walk this morning, why aren't you awake?

I whined a little louder this time and scratched at the blankets impatiently. Still, my master didn't wake.

Giving up on that, I decided it was time for a more direct approach: I trotted around to the end of the bed where my mistress had set up a step for me to use to get up on the bed - seeing as I can't jump that high. I leapt up the steps and onto the bed, carefully negotiating through the thickest blanket to get up to my master.

Stopping next to his head, I bent my head down and gave him a sniff. That's odd, he doesn't smell quite right. Something smells off - he smells like heat and sweat and....sickness. He smells sick.

I pressed my tongue to his head, and was surprised to find it very warm and a bit salty. Oh, my poor human: he's too hot.

I sat down behind his head and started to lick his face, hoping that it would cool him down. He let out a quiet whine in his sleep, and I kept licking. I didn't like how hot his skin was - this wasn't normal for my human, and I was getting a bit scared.

The sound of the front door being unlocked startled me, and I quickly stopped my task. I looked towards the bedroom door in anticipation - eyes wide and ears pricked, attuned to the tiniest sound. As I heard footsteps downstairs, I stood and bounded off the bed - ready to attack if I needed to. 

A familiar bark greeted me as I bounded down the stairs, and I was relieved to see my best friend and his own human waiting in the living room. Hurley padded over to me and we exchanged our hellos, before I trotted quickly over to the human.

"Heya Rocky!" he greeted enthusiastically, giving me a scratch behind my ears. Normally, I loved it when someone did that - especially my humans or their playmates - but today I just whined and rubbed his leg impatiently.

Hurley's human - who the other humans called Ant - frowned as I nudged his shoe, raising a paw to scratch his pant leg.

"What's up?" he asked, crouching down to his knees and trying to pat me again.