During the time that the wizard dropped the ring onto the sidewalk in town, Freddy began reading from a prepared statement in his home office.
“Many of my fellow neighbors have questions about why I want to run for mayor. For those of you don’t know me, I am a public defender and work in Sacramento helping the most vulnerable people avoid jail for crimes they didn’t commit. I see injustice in the court system every day and though my work helps countless amounts of people, I have found that my work farther afield has led me to neglect the problems in my own backyard.”
As Freddy read through the statement, Evan watched him closely. Although he would have liked to have a talk with him, he knew his father was serious about his mayoral ambitions. Slouching in his chair, Evan continued to stare, while his papa continued speaking.
“On that fateful night, after seeing the abuses of our police department up close, I made the determination that I needed to run for public office. Specifically, I felt compelled to take on our town’s incumbent mayor because he is the center of gravity of the political establishment. He has complete control over the district attorney’s office, the police force and the town council. It is time for new leadership to clean up the corruption and start making our elected officials work in the interests of the people, not special interests.”
“Papa” Evan interrupted. “You know they aren’t going to let you say that whole statement during the interview, right?”
“Evan” Freddy replied with an annoyed tone. “What did I tell you about interrupting me?”
“I’m just saying that you should try to prepare for what kind of questions they might ask you about the arrest and why you want to be mayor, that’s all.”
“Evan, please. No more interruptions or I will ask you to leave.”
“Yes papa.”
Evan continued to watch his father read his notes aloud for a few minutes, before he noticed something odd. Freddy’s clean shaven face was beginning to rapidly sprout dark hair. It could be his imagination, in Evan’s estimation, but it was important to bring this up anyway.
“Papa” Evan said quietly.
“Evan” Freddy replied angrily. “That’s—“
“You forgot to shave this morning.”
“Of course I remembered to shave, Evan! I…”
Before Freddy finished his sentence, he felt his face and found that it was particularly prickly.
“Uh oh” Freddy thought to himself.
While Freddy tried to scramble to find a mirror, Evan watched his papa frantically opening up the desk drawers. After a few drawers were opened, Freddy found a handheld mirror and placed it up to his face. What he saw was black fur quickly enveloping the lower part of his jaw and poking out from the top of his shirt collar.
“Oh shit” Freddy quietly gasped.
Putting the mirror away, Freddy bent down under his desk and placed his chair in front of it as a blockade.
“Papa?” Evan asked curiously. “What’s going on? Why are you getting hairy?”
When Evan tried to move the chair, he noticed Freddy place his hand underneath to lock it in place. Before Freddy moved it away, Evan noticed that his papa’s hand was beginning to grow a brown coat of hair on it. Though he attempted to peer in and move the chair away, he found that his efforts were not successful.
As his son tried to reach him, Freddy began to remove his clothes. He took off his belt and pushed off his shoes and socks. Already, Freddy noticed that his body began to change into that of a dog’s. His feet were beginning to shrink, as his toes shrunk, one toe formed into a declaw and his nails turned black. Feeling his hands getting numb, Freddy quickly unbuttoned his slacks and pushed them off of his legs, tearing them a bit as they slipped past his now furry paws. Looking down on them, Freddy saw his legs shrink, get furry and begin to form into the back legs of a dog.
“Just great” Freddy thought to himself, as he attempted to take off his shirt.
Before he could begin to unbutton his dress shirt, his hands completely shrunk and formed into paws. Fur enveloped his arms and legs, as his fingers shrunk and black claws formed where his fingernails once were. Knowing it was useless to try to save his shirt now, he used his claws to rip up his dress shirt and shimmy it on to the floor next to his slightly ripped slacks.
When his shirt fell off, Freddy laid down on the floor and noticed his stomach was already covered in white fur. His back felt itchy, which indicated that black fur was already sprouting back there. Wanting to get off of his back, he carefully maneuvered himself to roll over into a four legged position. As he felt his tail push out from his backside, he could feel his knees snap back, allowing him to stand up like a proper dog would.
In that moment, Freddy felt his face begin to change. The fur on the bottom of his face moved upwards, covering it entirely in black and brown dog fur. His ears lifted up to the top of his head, as his muzzle extended out, his teeth grew sharp and his nose turned black and became damp. A few short blinks later and his vision changed from a world of color he saw before to a duller sepia. In that moment, Freddy knew it had happened once again. He had turned into a German Shepherd dog.
During the transformation, Evan began tinkering with the chair that Freddy had used to block his son out from seeing him transform. After some careful adjustments, the lock was removed and Evan rolled the chair out of the way. Peering into the underside of the desk, he could see a German Shepherd dog nervously looking up at him. Make a deduction based on Freddy’s hairy face and hand, along with the shredded cloths that were once Freddy’s clothes lying next to it, Evan said aloud.
“Papa! You’re a dog!”
The dog growled, as Evan took a step back.
“Wow, papa. Dad was right after all. Someone must have gone into the museum and stole whatever ring turned you into a dog.”
As Freddy began to think of a way out of this situation, one thing managed to cross his mind.
“I wasn’t turned on in that moment” he thought to himself. “Why did I turn into a dog just now?”
Before he could further ponder this question, he heard a loud knock on the door with his now more sensitive ears.
“Oh no” Freddy thought to himself, as the dog let out a whimper.
“Freddy!” Michael called from the other side of the door. “The news crew is here! Come out now!”
After calling for him a few times, Michael opened the door. Seeing Evan staring at him nervously, Michael was confused as to why he was moving to block his view of the underside of the desk.
“What’s going on in here?” Michael asked his son, as he tried to peer over him. “Why are you blocking your papa’s desk?”
“Uh, it’s nothing, dad” Evan replied nervously. “Really, nothing to see here. Everything is fine.”
“Evan, move.”
Gently pushing his son out of the way, Michael looked down to see a German Shepherd, sitting on his haunches, looking up at him. Freddy’s shredded clothes, his belt and his shoes and socks were lying beside it.
“Oh my god!” Michael shrieked. “Freddy is that you?”
The dog nodded and looked up at Michael with puppy dog eyes.
“What happened?” Michael asked.
“Papa got hairy all of a sudden and then bent down under his desk” Evan explained. “He blocked me from looking at him, but when I finally managed to move the locked chair, this dog appeared. I’m assuming it’s papa.”
“Freddy, we have to get you out of here.”
Freddy whimpered, as Evan went to grab him by the scruff of his neck.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to move him out of the house?” Evan asked, as he pulled the dog up into a standing position.
“We can’t risk the news crew seeing him” Michael responded anxiously. “We need to let Freddy out for a while so he can try to turn back into himself again. Come on boy. Let’s go.”
The dog, embarrassed at already being like an animal, whimpered as he made his way out from under the desk and stood next to Michael.
“Let’s create a diversion to get Freddy out of here” Michael said to Evan. “I’m going to go talk to the news crew, while you get him out the back door. Make sure no one sees you. Got it?”
“Got it” Evan replied affirmatively. “Come on, papa. Let’s get you out of here.”
Unsure of whether this was the right course of action or not, the dog reluctantly moved to Evan’s side, while Michael went down to talk to the news crew.
“Come into the dining room for a second!” Freddy could hear Michael calling the news crew from downstairs. “I have to show you something!”
When the footsteps moved away from the front door, Evan quietly motioned for the dog to follow him downstairs. Quietly making their way down the stairs, Evan pulled the dog by the scruff of its neck to follow him into the kitchen. Once they were there, Evan began to turn the knob to the back door, but found it wouldn’t budge. The dog stared at Evan nervously, hoping he wouldn’t make too much noise. After trying for a few moments to open the door, the turning made a loud snapping noise.
“What was that?” the camera man asked from the dining room.
“Nothing” Michael replied anxiously, as he sought to reassure the news crew impatiently waiting to interview his husband. “Let me go into the kitchen for one second. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
The entire news crew groaned, as Michael made his way into the kitchen. Seeing Evan struggling to open the back door, Michael smacked his son’s hand and pointed in the direction of the dining room.
“Go tell the news crew about something you're learning at school, while I try to get this door open” Michael said to his son.
“But dad” Evan replied. “I don’t think they’re going to want to hear about my boring classes at school.”
“Just do it" Michael said sternly.
Evan sighed, as he made his way into the dining room.
“Hey guys” Evan could be heard calling out to the news crew. “Let me tell you something interesting that I've been learning about in school.”
As Evan sought to distract the news crew impatiently waiting for Freddy, Michael managed to get the door knob turned and was successfully able to open the back door.
“Come on boy” Michael called to the dog. “Out you get.”
Cautiously, the dog trotted outside, as Michael walked him around to the front of the house. In the front yard, Michael pointed his finger down the street.
“Go down to the end of the block and wait in the bushes near the vacant house” Michael commanded to the dog. “Try to masturbate yourself and see if it changes you back.”
The dog whimpered, which caused Michael to impatiently glare at him.
“We can’t keep you here while the news crew is in the house. If they spot you, they’ll ask too many questions, especially since we don’t own a dog.”
The dog continued to stand still, which irritated Michael even further.
“Freddy, if you want me to continue supporting your stupid mayoral campaign, which you shouldn’t even be doing anymore after this recent ordeal, then you need to hide and try to change yourself back.”
Knowing that Michael was not going to budge on this, the dog whimpered again and proceeded to walk down the block. Freddy hadn't been a dog in over twenty years, so walking on all fours was something he wasn't used to. Michael watched as the dog carefully looked around to make sure he wasn’t spotted by their neighbors. Unfortunately, before he could make his way into the bush, the man who had read the inscription on the back of the ring walked into his peripheral.
“Buddy!” the man yelled.
The dog looked up and spotted the man running towards him. In haste, the dog tried to run away, before the man managed to pin him down on the street.
“There you are” the man said, as he attached a collar and leash to the dog’s neck. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I thought I’d never see you again. Come on, boy. Time to go home.”
Noticing the dog’s resistance, the man managed to jerk him up into a standing position. As this occurred, the man could see Michael running towards him.
“Hey Tom!” Michael called to him as he approached. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m bringing my dog, Buddy, home” Tom replied impatiently, as he began to tug on Buddy’s leash.
“That’s not Buddy.”
“How do you know this? Do you have your own documentation proving it’s your dog?”
“No, but—-“
“Then if you have no proof of ownership, it’s to be presumed that it is my dog, Buddy. I have Buddy’s papers and can provide them in court. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m heading home now.”
“You can’t…”
Tom brushed Michael’s hand away, as the dog begrudgingly followed him home. Freddy thought this might be a mistake, but making a scene now could prove more problematic. Hoping to find a private spot in Tom’s house to pleasure himself in, Buddy walked with his owner back to the house.
Michael stood with his mouth agape, as Tom walked with Buddy towards his house. He wondered why Freddy was so willingly letting Tom take him back to his house. It would make rescuing him and finding a way to change him back that much harder. Knowing he had no other options at the moment, Michael walked back home to devise a strategy for getting Freddy back.
At Tom’s house….