To say things got a little complicated since her wife landed her breakthrough role would be an understatement. Sure, there was celebration, there was much libation to be had; They’d gotten drunk and made all weekend a whirlwind of Sapphic activity, which Maddie hardly remembered as anything but a blur. Her wife, a famous star, in a big name movie.
It wasn’t until about three days later that Trish had finally told her she wasn’t necessarily going to be playing a human.
In showbiz they say to never work with children or animals. Training a dog to do what you want it to do is very frustrating and time-consuming for a director on a time crunch. Animals make messes and can’t be directed easily. It’d be a lot easier if an animal just had a human mind and one could direct them like a human. Well, that’s what Trish had signed up for.
“To be a dog?” Maddie said, holding a copy of the contract. She had to sign it too, since she’d be the responsible party for Trish for the term of the filming. While she was a dog, Maddie would have full legal responsibility for her wife’s affairs.
“A rough collie, to be precise,” Trish replied. “You know, like Lassie.”
Trish’s first day home in her new full-time ‘costume’ was awkward, to say the least. The vet on set had some foods to recommend and some foods to avoid, so Maddie had to hit up the supermarket to grab a couple bags and a bowl. Trish was, needless to say, less than impressed with the whole deal. She swore up and down she wouldn’t eat it, and Maddie had to swear up and down she wasn’t going to force her but she wanted her to be healthy. Eventually, Maddie caved, and she cooked up some boneless chicken breasts and canned green beans for dinner, the best she could do on short notice for the sudden restrictions on Trish’s diet.
And then there was the fur. Fur everywhere. Maddie hadn’t had a pet since she was too young to be involved in the daily care and responsibility. She was mostly winging it, with massive help from internet how-to articles and pet owner’s forums. It gave her a funny feeling, really, looking up pet information to apply to caring for her wife. It was a dizzying list of dos, don’ts, always, nevers, sometimes. Trish often complained about being cut off from coffee and alcohol, their two favorite treats together.
After the first few days there was a vet checkup, then another a week later, then there was one scheduled for two weeks ahead. Maddie was still getting over her initial doubt about the whole situation. She thought she’d psyched herself up for it. She’d told herself ‘Next Tuesday, Trish will come home as a dog.’ She’d told herself ‘Day after tomorrow, Trish will come home as a dog.’ Then it was ‘In an hour, I’ll have to go pick up Trish, and she’ll be a dog.’ It didn’t dull the fluttery feeling in her stomach from seeing the fluffy, shaggy coat and long, narrow, sharp face of a collie and knowing it was her wife. Standing there on four paws, just the height of her knee, tail involuntarily wagging, ears pinned to the sides in what must have been embarrassment. There was an awkward stretch of silence between Trish, the collie, and Maddie, the human, before it all exploded at once. The first time Maddie felt the touch of her wife’s paws was when she jumped up on her, unable to contain the barking that punctuated her speech about how happy she was to see her and how she felt so lively and excited! Her pads were soft and she was surprisingly light. Her head only came up to the bottom of Maddie’s chest.
Reminiscing on the couch, Maddie looked over to her wife. Trish was laying on her feet, her massive amounts of fur keeping them warm. Under all that fluff, Maddie could feel how narrow her wife’s body was now, and how soft her stomach was. The script was propped up against the arm of the couch and Trish was working through it. Her tail was sweeping back and forth over Maddie’s knees, leaving fur on her pajama pants.
She’d loath to admit it but she couldn’t help herself from catching a momentary glimpse of what was under her wife’s tail from time to time. After all, her wife was a dog and dogs didn’t wear pants or much of anything, especially not with that much fur. It was awkward at first, but Maddie was pretty confident that Trish had never caught her staring. She got more used to it as time went on, anyways.
For Trish’s part, there was more than a little frustration. It’d been awhile since she and Maddie had been intimate. Sure they cuddled more than ever, but there was a little more she was thinking of, even while she read the blasé script and its predictable plot and lines. There was something deep in her that made her stomach feel fluttery even while she tried to ignore it. She could smell everything, from the cleaner Maddie had used on the countertop to a detailed inventory of what was in the kitchen’s wastebasket right now. She could also definitely smell the scent of her wife, a hundred times stronger than she’d ever noticed it before, and it was more than soothing, it was good.
There was a hint of sandalwood and a hint of something floral, and those were probably her moisturizer. There was the strawberry and mint smell of her conditioner. There was the smell of her deodorant which wasn’t the highlight for Trish’s new nose. All that paled in comparison to the scent of her, just her, underneath it all. The slightly musky, alluring, heady scent she had that Trish drank up every time they were close.