"Wait, I have other questions!" James interjected. It was true, he had many, and more than that he was keen to do anything he could to delay the "animal regression" part of his therapy - even if that meant continuing this strange conversation whilst sitting naked with his legs spread wide apart.
"No, I've indulged you enough already" Dr Stevens answered matter-of-factly "Besides, animals can't speak English. Until further notice your only means of communication will be to bark like a dog. Do I make myself clear?"
"Ruff! Arf! Woof!" James responded, finding these three sounds to now be the full extent of his vocabulary.
"Good. And animals aren't allowed on my nice, clean furniture. Get up!"
James stood on command.
"Now get down on all fours"
"Arf?" James sulkily but obediently lowered himself onto his hands and knees. The carpet he was now looking down at seemed to be immaculately clean at least, but that wasn't much of a consolation. He just wished the ground would swallow him up.
"James, look at me!" Dr Stevens voice came booming down from above. James raised his head to see she was holding a red rubber ball. He really hoped she wasn't going to do what he thought she was.
"Now, I'm going to throw this ball. When I shout 'fetch' you will retrieve it for me. Naturally, you will not be able change your posture or use your hands or feet to pick things up until I say otherwise. Do I make myself clear?"
"Ruff!"
"Good dog!" the doctor smiled with satisfaction as she raised the ball and released it so it flew across the room, eventually rolling under a desk by the wall at the back of the office "Now fetch!"
James turned and scurried towards the balls' new location quickly, as much to get this experience over with as anything. He made it to the desk and moved the upper part of his body underneath it while the lower part remained uncovered and pointed directly up at the doctor and her assistant. James tried not to think about the view he was giving them as he lowered his head to the ground and, after a couple of failed attempts, was able to clasp the toy ball securely between his teeth. He then hurried back to Dr Stevens and raised his head to present it to her.
"Good boy!" She smiled almost mockingly as she took it from him and ruffled his hair in approval before throwing it in another direction "Now fetch!"
This game went on relentlessly for some time. At first it was just in the doctors office, but it soon moved into the corridor with other employees and residents of this bizarre facility going about there business around him. Nobody seemed to view his nudity or behaviour as at all out of place. Most of these people, he assumed from their mundane and clinical attire, were likely staff but there were a few sights that disturbed him during the brief periods he had between retrieving the ball and returning to Doctor Stevens office. One staff member was accompanied by a monkey on a lead, another by a rabbit in a cage and a third carrying a parrot, also in a cage. There was nothing particularly unusual about that, James figured, until the parrot passed him.
"Help! Get me out of here!" It squawked before being sternly hushed by it's captor "I'm human!"
Had those three animals really been formerly human? James was sure that couldn't be the case. It had to be some kind of psychological trick being played on him - parrots could be trained to say anything. At any rate, he didn't have much time to think further on it, he needed to get the ball back to the doctor. On his previous attempt he had accidentally dropped it, been admonished and made to start again, This game was getting tiring now. His hands and knees were chafing on the carpeted floor, which wasn't as clean in the corridors as it was inside the doctors office.
Thankfully, it seemed the game was over as, on James' return, the doctor passed the ball to Denise who tidied it away.
"Very good, James" the doctor smiled as she stroked up her fingers and down his back "You are behaving as a dog would. However, you are doing it because you are being told to and not because you would naturally wish to. To change that I will need to use some more advanced mind control techniques. However, I wonder if it might be sensible to get you looking the part first. What do you think Denise?"