But where the stupid, stubborn and lustful nature of an ass did nothing to improve Tony's distraught feelings at his condition, the willful nature of a dachsund helped Jeff, Jack and Eric and supported their determination to do something about this. Jeff, in particular, took the lead. Accompanied by Jack and Eric, they circled their unfortunate friend a few times. Jeff knew that Eric had lived on a farm till he was 11 and was familiar with jackasses. Jeff sniffed the horrible odor coming off Tony's hide and looked at Eric. Eric shook his head and did his best shrug of his shoulders that he could. The message got across. He's not supposed to smell this bad. Eric also lifted up one paw and pointed at Tony's liter bottle of a penis. Shake of the head and a shrug. It's not supposed to be that big. When they got around front of Tony again, Eric pointed up at Tony's head then his own ear. Shake of the head and a shrug. They're supposed to be long but not that long. As they were looking up, a gob of jackass spittle splashed over Jack's head, but Jack only looked furiously at his dachsund mates and wiped his head as best he could with his paws. Tony whimpered apologetically and Jack's anger was diminished when he realized that Tony couldn't control himself. He just kept drooling and having long trails of spit drop from his mouth with occasional globs at the peril of the dachsunds below. Eric signalled to Jeff that that wasn't normal either. The verdict Jeff got from Eric was that Tony was basically a normal jackass with some alterations made to further humiliate him.
Jeff stood a few steps in front of Tony and lifted one paw and gestured for Tony to drop to the ground. For defeated feeling Tony, it was no problem. With a nod of his head, Jeff gestured for his fellow dachsunds to join him and he rubbed his friend's head softly between the eyes with both paws and whimpered a few sounds of empathy. Eric and Jack rubbed his nose softly as well. Jeff was surprised out how coarse Tony's hair was. He glanced at Eric whose expression told him that no, it wasn't supposed to be that bad.
For his part, Tony only slowly pulled out of despair. I'm a fucking jackass and the only guys who can save me from being like this permanently have been turned into dachsunds. Great. Just great.
But the dachsunds weren't about to quit. Jeff stepped back from Tony. There was a nice bed of sand there right in front of Tony. First Jeff tapped his head with his paw and then pointed at Tony. With great effort he traced two vertical lines in the sand then a horizontal one across the top and then a 6. Tony realize he was being quizzed. The square root of 16. What's the square root of 16? Tony carefully nodded his head 4 times. Jeff, Jack and Eric all jumped up in the air barking happily. Jeff rubbed his friends face between the eyes again. Then, with great effort, Jeff traced capital letters "EC" in front of Tony. Tony nodded. To Tony's surprise, his friend, now just a dachsund, seemed to perk up as though he felt in control of the situation. He glanced at Jack and Eric standing on a rock just off the sand and they looked completely determined and trusting of their dachsund leader. Jeff had remembered where Emma lived. He'd never been there but had overheard her conversation with another girl in which she'd said it. The outlines of a plan were coming together in his head. Emma would keep the chronivac 4.0 for herself. She thinks she's disposed of us. Hell, she probably already called the animal rescue league on Tony and the pound on the three of us. We'll sneak in while she's off at school on Tuesday. The school didn't allow kids to bring laptops to school. Too much wireless talking back and forth and surfing the web during class had been the complaint. I can probably type very slowly with these little paws. Okay!
With laborious scratching in the sand, Jeff indicated to the others that they would have to get out of the park before somebody found them and that they would ride Tony up to the woods out back of where Emma lived and move in when she goes to school.
Jeff gestured with a paw to Jack and Eric and they jumped on Tony's back. Jack followed Eric's lead and dug his paws and teeth into Tony's coarse hide as strongly as he could. Tony could feel his friends digging in but just barely. Then Jeff scampered up onto Tony's back and made his way to the base of his neck. He dug in his back paws as well as he could and gave a sharp bark. As instructed, Tony tilted his head back and angled his abnormally long ears toward Jeff. Stretching as far along Tony's neck as he could, Jeff got his paws on the ends of Tony's ears. He sent up a happy yip echoed behind him by Jack and Eric. With great effort, he threaded the ends of Tony's ears through the claws of each paw. He now had steering controls. He sent up three sharp barks and Tony lifted himself off the ground. He pulled on Tony's left ear and gave it a little bite. Tony turned left toward a corner of the park. Jeff sent up three sharp barks and Tony increased the speed of his trot. He looked behind him at Jack and Eric and saw that they were having a hard time hanging on at this speed with Tony's awkward gait. Jeff sent up two sharp barks and Tony slowed his pace a little.
In this way, they proceeded out of the park and down a series of side streets. Luck was with them in that only a few people saw them. One very old lady sitting out on her front step just stared wide eyed as a jackass ridden by three dachsunds passed just 5 feet in front of her without slowing its pace. A guy in an apartment building parking lot sparking up before driving away saw the jackass ridden by dachsunds pass by and Jack could easily read his lips as he said "What the fuck?" and dropped his lit joint into his lap. Worst, was when they passed three boys in little league uniforms coming back from a game going the opposite direction on the other side of the street. One of the boys was Tony's brother. Tony stared and stared and Jeff could feel Tony's stifled whimper and the slowing of his pace. He rubbed his muzzle gently on Tony's left ear in understanding but then gave three sharp barks and as instructed, Tony picked up the pace.
They'd covered more than a mile when they passed an odd sight that changed their plans. There in the front seat of a Camaro was a german shepherd with a t-shirt on. Jeff directed Tony closer. The german shepherd had its feet still in a pair of jeans. Oh jeez. The car belonged to Phil Bridges, a guy on the basketball team, a guy that Emma didn't like. They couldn't wait a couple days. Who knows what she might do. They had to get the chronivac tonight.