Mike felt relief that he still had human faculties, however much they might be impaired by the dog's wiring and instincts that seem to have been part of the package with the Chronivac transformation.
He saw the park security personnel before they saw him, which permitted the newly-minted pit bull to exit the park while using a thick hedge for concealment. By the time he heard "There's the mutt!" shouted by one of the uniformed men he already had enough of a head start to leave the park far behind him.
He chuckled at his good fortune, which for him now meant wagging a tail and producing a couple of low "ruffs." By the time he reached the familiar row of townhouses, Mike felt a bit cocky. "Contact Manny, get his help, and I'll be back on two legs in no time."
He even entertained a fleeting thought about the "next time" he used the machine. "I'll just have to be a little more careful," he chided himself.
Mike's canine form noticed, even if it didn't quite break into his human thoughts, a strong scent carried by the breeze as he loped across a quiet suburban street, after taking time to look in both directions, of course, to the front of the townhouses. In what he took as a stroke of luck, he saw Manny standing on the sidewalk adjacent to a strip of grass.
Mike barked out an insistent greeting before he realized Manny had company. An English Springer Spaniel barked enthusiastically in response and surprised Manny with a forceful tug on the leash.
An involuntary sniff identified her as female in bold all-caps. A second, more inquisitive sniff delivered the slap in the face that triggered a cascade of physical responses, not the least being a subtle tingling around Mike's sheath. He whimpered.
"Who do we have here?" Manny spoke, looking down after reducing the slack in the spaniel's leash, and noticing a strange dog with no collar.
"Manny! It's me-eeee!" Mike yelped when the curious spaniel poked a pushy nose right against his butt.
"Bessie!" Manny scolded. "Behave like a lady."
Mike felt control over his body slipping. His pit bull form whirled and faced the spaniel, who happily turned aside, wagged a tail, and let him imbibe more of the heady pheromonal mix. With a whimper, Mike poked his own flatter snout to the other dog's butt.
"Am I going to have to get you two a room?" Manny said aloud with a laugh.
Mike felt the tingling around the sheath increase, but he tried to ignore it. He needed to—
"Come on, Bessie," Manny said and turned to walk up three steps to his front door. The spaniel, after a brief hesitation, followed.
Mike, in a strange mental fog, prepared to do the same only to have Manny, who had slipped Bessie inside the townhouse, block his way. "Sorry, boy. You need to go home."
"But..." Mike had time to bark before the door closed in his face.
That hadn't gone well at all and, to make matters worse, his red doggie dick had totally emerged from the protective sheath. He was horny as hell.
With what unclouded faculties he could muster, he wondered about that. He was gay... or at least bisexual...and definitely not interested in some prissy spaniel named Bessie. But he was horny as hell and no closer to getting help from Manny than when he'd launched himself on his plan.