Jared stayed on cloud nine knowing that this unfortunate mix-up would soon come to a close once his dad arrived to take him home where, hopefully, he could make another attempt to communicate with someone who could help him regain human form.
After giving Jared a treat from the stash he kept in his pocket, Dr. Brinkley left, reminding the sheepdog that he would be going home soon. Jared, in gratitude, licked the vet's hand again. The experience had been enough to convince Jared that, after all, being a dog had been fun — at first. Now he wanted to get home and get back his proper body.
In mid-afternoon, a new shift of shelter workers arrived and began work. A couple of men in the shelter's uniforms entered the area with the holding cages and began removing dogs from their cages. Jared watched as about a half dozen canines were taken out of the room. Finally, the two men returned. One of them, holding a clipboard, checked off something on a sheet of paper.
"You get the sheepdog, and that should about do it," he said. "We can drive the whole lot over to Brownsburg and still be back in time for dinner."
"Get me?" Jared didn't like the sound of it as the man approached his cage.
Jared barked. "Hey! Hold on!"
"Calm down, boy," the man said. "This is for your own good. They got way more room over at Brownsburg."
Brownsburg was a 90-minute drive. Jared had ridden the team bus to many a baseball game in the town.
Jared tried to put up a fight, but the man put an end to his resistance with a simple but firmly delivered "Behave, boy!"
To his horror, he found himself complying, following in a docile manner as the man led him to a waiting van already loaded with the other dogs. He felt like he was sleepwalking as his dog instincts worked to deliver him to the van in order to please the human master. In no time, he had been loaded with the other dogs and found himself on the road to Brownsburg.
"This is a mistake," he kept barking. "I am supposed to go home."
Instead, he was cooped up with other dogs, speeding toward a new destination in a town more than 90 miles from his home.