Evolution Part I: Chapter Nineteen
I awoke several hours later in the middle of the night. The storm was still raging outside and the area around the portal to the house was damp and abandoned. It looked like it was going to go on the rest of the night, but I had to whizz so I braved...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Eighteen
It took more time to bring Pink Nose, Terrier-face and the shepherd-lab up to my level of understanding of language. During that time, life was busy but fairly uneventful save for another litter of male pups being delivered and three more dogs being...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Seventeen
A week after the shepherd-lab returned, Pink Nose and I were beginning to share simple conversations. He'd mastered the basics and was steadily gaining vocabulary. Watching him learn was probably the best thing for Terrier-face, Fatty and the...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Sixteen
And so terrier-face and fatty became my betas. A plus side to dog politics was that once everyone knew who was in charge, people readily accepted the roles assigned to them and there was only very infrequently any bad blood between us. Promoting the...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Fifteen
I went to go lie down in the shade under the canopy over the fountain. Several dogs lay nearby, eager to lick the wounds covering my body. They were already trying to worm their way to better positions in the hierarchy by subservience to the new Alpha....
Evolution Part I: Chapter Thirteen
He was right, of course. Just as he'd been right about everything. I just wished that he hadn't been this one time. It took just over a week for the black lab's premonition to come true. It was about half an hour after breakfast and I was lying...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Eleven
I was badly hurt after the fight. When the shepherd-lab finally removed his awesome bulk from my body, he and everyone else ignored me. I didn't dare to move because it hurt so much. My neck and my leg were bleeding freely, but I'd also been crushed...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Ten
I brooded on the thought of my stolen squirrel most of the night. I wasn't hard. I could hear the lab shepherd chewing greedily on the gristle of it like chewing gum on the other side of the yard. The sound of it made my blood boil. So much so that the...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Nine
To this day, I still don't know what possessed that squirrel to land right in the middle of a pen filled with dogs. It might have just been looking for food, or it might have been suicidal. I harbor a secret suspicion that it's even possible a human...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Eight
I didn't know it yet, but my diet had quite the opposite effect on my life than I'd intended. It, in fact, had set me on course to match with the very largest of dogs who lived in the yard. The humans never came out and said it (well, they might have,...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Seven
By the end of a week, the large bruise on my tummy had mostly cleared up and I was moving more easily. However, my wrenched paw took longer to heal, despite the fact that my lacerations had scabbed over nicely in less than a day; they wouldn't leave...
Evolution Part I: Chapter Six
I didn't roughhouse for a week after I'd suffered my defeat at the fangs of the brown lab. As for my relationship with my antagonist, it was little different than how it was before. He held no grudge against me nor I him. I showed him deference when...