Rex, seeing Xander with the leash that master once used to walk him, reacted quickly.
"I'll walk Fran... I mean Rex," he said, taking the leash from Xander's hands. "You clean up or relax until I get back."
Xander gave Rex a kiss, which again sent the dog's newly human form tingling. He must have even blushed a little. "You're just so sweet and romantic tonight," Xander said.
Frank, in the meantime, watched everything from the body of his own dog that he now occupied. He resisted the urge to recoil as Rex reached down and latched the leash to his collar.
Once Master and dog were outside the house and walking along the neighborhood streets, Frank got his first opportunity to voice some of his thoughts. "Listen, I've been thinking," he began.
"Good, master. What have you been thinking about?"
Frank stopped in his tracks. "What have I...I have been thinking about how to get us back in the right bodies! What do you think I've been thinking about?"
Rex frowned and looked ready to respond, but he didn't. Frank felt a bit bad about biting his dog's head off. "Look, I am just stressed," he said. "Understand?"
As he barked to his former dog, Rex saw that Frank has passed him up. With Frank's tirade fresh in his ears, Rex gave a sharp tug on the leash paired with "Heel, boy."
Frank, in an uncomfortable surprise, did. Then Rex stopped and turned. "I am sorry you are stressed, Master. I am stressed, too, but I am dealing with it."
Frank would have responded, but about that time he saw a great shaggy mass followed by a kid with a white-knuckled hold on the leash fastened to the collar around the great shaggy form's neck.
"That's mine," the great shaggy thing barked as it drew closer and began sniffing Frank's neck. "That collar! It's my collar!"
"Shaggy!" The boy shouted as he regained control over his runaway sheepdog. "What got into you?"
Frank had listened, shocked. Had that sheepdog just talked to him?
Rex looked down as the sheepdog continued to sniff and whimper. "What do you mean?"
The sheepdog looked up and, from behind a fringe of fur, blinked. Had the human walking the big Rottweiler wearing his collar just talked to him? Had he understood him?
In the meantime, it all made sense. He had found the collar in the trash. When he got home, the only thing different about his routine had been that same collar... and a wish he now remembered making. Had he really wished to have Rex's life with nothing to do but eat and sleep all day?
Kevin watched as the tall man questioned his brother the sheepdog. "Why are you talking to my dog?" Kevin asked.
Rex stepped forward as a translator. "I think I can explain," he said. "Your dog believes that my master's collar belongs to him. Your dog also claims to not be a dog. My master is also not really a dog. We switched bodies..."
Kevin's eyes went wide. He looked into his sheepdog's eyes. "Jared?"
"Kevin, get the collar back," Jared barked, although he knew his brother couldn't understand his barks.
"Perhaps we all should discuss this," Rex said reasonably. "We could go back to Master's home..."
"Xander's there," Frank barked.
"Oh, perhaps not."
"We can go back to our place," Kevin said helpfully.
Jared whimpered and tugged on the leash. "Oh, what's the matter?" Kevin asked as a thought occurred to him."Oh, is it because our parents are at home?"
Jared barked once. "That's it," Rex said helpfully.
"It's my collar," Jared barked. "I want to be a boy again!"
"We have not determined that," Rex said implacably in response to the sheepdog. "Besides, my master is wearing the collar. He should be allowed to change back first."
"You understand him?" Kevin asked.
"Of course."
"I am sure we can work something out," Kevin said. "We need to get both my dog...I mean my brother... and your dog back in their human bodies."
"Agreed," Rex said as Frank listened with building anticipation.
The unlikely group decided to...