After digging several unproductive times at the irritating itch behind his left ear, Jared whined from a spike of frustration. "What the hell is causing that?"
He felt something crawling through his fur and over his skin. If he listened closely, he could almost hear the raspy sound of tiny multiple legs scampering at will through his dense pelt.
"Do I have freakin' fleas?" Jared whimpered. When another scratch failed to bring any relief, he twisted his neck and nipped at the affected region. He gnawed, nibbled, and bit at the itch, whimpering deep in his throat the entire time.
After more worrying and slobbering over his short-haired pelt, Jared sprawled on the grass. The cool blades tickled his belly and helped him forget about the damnable fleas. He started to relax when a new aggravation bolted through his skull like a knife through butter.
The teenager-turned-canine writhed almost in agony in the grass as he heard a tremendously painful noise assault his furry, upright ears. He pushed his snout into the grass and tried to cover his ears with his front paws. "What the hell?" Jared whimpered.
On the other side of the hedge, his neighbor had launched his riding lawnmower into action and started the leisurely right to left sweeps of his wide, spacious lawn without a thought to how the neighbor's dog might deal with the grating sounds of the mower's engine and rapidly rotating blades.
"Oh my god, make it stop," Jared whined, cringing in the grass, all attempts failing to block the hurtful noise. The exhaust fumes from the mower added to his misery by overpowering his nostrils.
Finally, he took the only course of action open to him. He put as much space as he could between himself and the awful racket. Unfortunately, no place in the yard appeared beyond the reach of the infernal sounds coming from the neighbor's yard. He whimpered one last time before he trotted on the sidewalk. He walked half a block before the assault from the neighbor's mower lessened. At that point, he looked around at his surroundings. He knew the neighborhood like the back of his hand, well, now paw. Nevertheless, everything now looked different and new.
He figured he might as well explore until Kevin returned. Putting more distance between the racket of the mowing and himself, he padded happily along the concrete sidewalk.