I wake blearily back in my kennel on the bed of blankets. James is sitting next to the bed tapping away on his tablet again. I open my mouth to say hi, but all that comes out is a tired sounding whine. I stop immediately as I hear my new voice -- too shocked to do much of anything as James looks up at me. 'Oh April, great. You're looking -- and sounding -- good! Ben said the procedures all went swimmingly well and that you should be healed by the end of the night and ready to go through with the remainder of your procedures tomorrow.'
He strokes my hair absently as he offers me a bowl to drink from. After a beat, I reach to pick it up, and he reprimands me immediately along with a sharp buzz from the collar still around my neck. 'No -- you're a dog now. You must lower your head to the bowl,' he says sternly. I lower my head and put my face right down to the water obediently, too tired to hold a fuss. 'Good girl,' James croons, 'the vet cut the small piece of skin under your tongue, so now your tongue will be longer and will be easily used to lap up water.' I freeze, startled at the change I didn't notice being discussed yesterday and give it a try, he's right it makes it a little easier than dipping my whole chin in the bowl. I collapse exhausted back to the bed, my head starts to wander in circles while I ponder my new lack of humanity. It's only downhill from here really isn't it. James's soft stroking on my hair lulls me to sleep while I think about how much more I will have changed by this time tomorrow. By then I might even have my new master.
When I wake up presumably in what must be the next morning, I immediately notice a difference. I can smell more sharply than yesterday, the chemical smell in the kennel is now pervasive and it stings a little. At least they clean this place, I think to myself as I start to assess the other changes. I can feel the ears that now extend from my head twitch with the sounds I can hear -- soft breathing from where James must be sitting, and then I realise I can hear the sharp ring of the telephone clearly from all the way down the corridor and the following muffled conversation.
Then I feel it -- I slowly roll over to get to my hands and knees to look around at my rear end. And there's my tail. It sits hanging down slightly between my back legs. With half a thought it's raised in the air, and I give it an experimental wag. It feels a little uncomfortable at first, but then I notice it starts to feel vaguely pleasant too.
'That's why we chose the TailSpin 3.0 you know.' I turn to look at James and see he's surveying me with barely restrained glee on his face as he looks at my tail. 'While it is surgically attached to your tailbone, it also has an appendage that goes inside your anus to connect to the nerve endings and veins there. This is what transmits your feelings and emotions to it; when you're happy, your tail will wag on its own and so on. It's perhaps a small bonus that it can rub rather nicely internally if you're excessively happy.'
I look incredulously back at my tail. 'Come.' James orders. I turn back around and crawl over on my hands and knees and sit on my knees in front of him. He looks me over appreciatively. 'Good girl, you're already so much more obedient. Maybe training you tomorrow won't be so bad after all, huh?' He says as he reaches down to rub my stomach. I jolt back a little at the suddenly more intimate contact. 'Woah, girl, woah. Just giving you some belly rubs. Lay down.'
I hesitantly lay on my back in front of him, he reaches out immediately and starts to rub my stomach in firm circles again. It brings forward a very urgent pressing need to pee, I can't remember the last time I went -- before court? Surely not! I roll over to my feet quickly and look around -- of course there's no actual toilet in a kennel. I whine and look at the door and then at James.
