Kev saw at a distance a man and another dog coming their way. He crossed the road, walked to the collection receptacle, and quickly dropped the baggie. When he headed back toward the impostor and Jared, Kev heard a slight commotion and noticed that the man walking his own dog had gotten closer and triggered a response from Kev's transformed sibling.
His brother — the canine sheepdog, anyway — had ducked behind the impostor, cowed by the other dog on a leash, which was a large, powerfully build Rottweiler. The large, dark dog growled and made a lunge, but the dog's owner pulled the dog up short with a quick jerk of the leash.
"Easy there, Buster," the man told the dog. He smiled at Kev and the impostor. "I don't know what came over him. Buster's usually much better behaved."
Kev watched, pained, as his transformed brother cowered behind the impostor, fully submissive in the face of the Rottweiler's aggression.
"I guess our dog's a big coward," the impostor denounced Jared.
The sheepdog whimpered.
The man gave the leash a little slack, and his big dog wandered closer with a confident stance and swagger. The sheepdog whined and whimpered some more, especially when the Rottweiler, without the least formality, sniffed of the other dog's butt. The sheepdog twisted, trying to get its rear away from the other dog's inquisitive nose.
The age-old canine greeting must have triggered something, because the sheepdog stopped its twisting in circles and raised its head and made a wary loop around the larger, muscular Rottweiler and have a tentative sniff of its own.
The Rottweiler woofed. "Just so we know who is boss."
"You are," the sheepdog replied in an immediate whimper that seemed to placate the Rottweiler.
"There," the man said. "They're friends. We should take them to the dog run and let them keep getting acquainted."
"That's a good idea," the impostor said, turning to the nearby park with the fenced areas permitting escorted dogs a chance to run and frolic off leashes.
Kev, on the other hand, wasn't convinced. By the way he tugged on the leash and tried to head in the direction of home, neither was the sheepdog.
"He'll like it," the impostor said with a wide grin.
All of the sheepdog's body language, however, pointed to the exact opposite. The scents and noises from the dog run filled the sheepdog with unease.