Jared wasn't sure why life on four paws held such a magnetic attraction for him, but he made the best of it. After Shaggy returned to the house in his human form, Jared pottered around the yard, sniffing all the different smells and learning delightedly what each smell triggered in his new canine body.
He knew that the Doberman down the street had urinated at the edge of the yard, an act of defiance toward the other male dog, now Jared, that lived there.
He smelled where a possum's tiny feet had crossed the lawn the previous night to plunder a few uneaten nugget's from Shaggy's (now his) food dish.
He detected the scents of his family — dad, mom, Kevin, as well as their postal delivery person.
He learned that his body was not nearly as rotund and roly-poly as it appeared due to all the shaggy fur. A rather sleek canine form was simply buried beneath a vast amount of white and gray fur. An irritating strand of fur kept falling over both his eyes, which triggered an impossible urge to swipe at the offending fur with a non-existent hand.
His sniffing and exploring made him thirsty, but the only water available was held in a stainless steel water dish. Bugs and leaves had fallen into the dish, but his thirst was worse than the possibility of swallowing an insect. He lowered his snout over the bowl and began to lap water with a wide, pink tongue. Some of the droplets fell off and soaked into the beard of his furry coat.
Thirst no longer nagging at him, he trotted to the center of the yard where overhanging tree branches didn't obscure the stars and the large, nearly full moon. White points of light twinkled distantly against a murky gray cosmos. The scene stirred something in him. Without even thinking of it, he tossed back his head and began baying at the moon and stars.
An immediate response followed. It seemed every other dog in the neighborhood answered his call. He heard various breeds yipping, barking, howling, and baying in response. He also heard the window lift upstairs from his parents' room.
"Cut out that damn racket, Shaggy!" His dad leaned out the window and scolded him.
Jared would normally have simply let criticism from his father wash over him, but not now. The dog cringed and felt distressed at the human owner's displeasure. The simple scolding crushed down his earlier feelings of feeling at one with the wildness of the universe.
"Stupid dog," his dad muttered before slamming the window shut.
Distressed, he whimpered and whined, circling his doghouse before letting his shaggy form sink onto its belly in front of the house.
"Snap out of it," he told himself, to no avail. The subservience of the dog was too strong.
"The hell with this," Jared thought before his eyes grew heavy. "I'm switching back first thing in the morning."
At least that was his intention before he fell asleep.