A naturally freaked out James turned and barked as ferociously as he could at the two women who stood in front of him. He may no longer have had his human body or voice, but he still had his usual intelligence and it wasn't hard to get his message across here. He wanted to be turned back. Now.
"Quiet, James!" the doctor ordered and, still bound by her commands, he grudgingly fell silent.
"Good, now sit!"
Again James did as he was told and shifted into a sitting position at the doctors feet. He looked up at her as a dutiful pet would it's owner and waited for her to speak again. Dr Stevens knelt down and ruffled James' fur playfully. In spite of everything it almost felt reassuring.
"There is no point complaining, James. You are a dog now. All anyone will see or hear when you approach them or try to communicate with them will be a dog. Humans cannot help you because you are no longer one of us. As I've been trying to tell you since you got here, you are an animal from now on. The only question is which kind you end up as"
James whimpered sadly at this bleak statement. The doctor seemed to soften a little.
"Look at me, I can make this easier for you"
The brown Labrador that was James looked up into the doctors eyes as she spoke to him in a calm and soothing voice.
"You have always been a dog, James. An obedient, well trained dog. You don't ever remember being human. And you like being a dog. You don't like boring human things like going to work or attending to household chores. You like going on walks, running around in the grass outside, playing with other dogs, chasing cats and rabbits, drinking and eating from your bowl and chewing on your favourite rubber bone. You are loyal and obedient to humans but you are not one of us. In fact, other than a few simple commands most of the time you can't even understand what we're talking about"
It was at that point James could no longer comprehend a word the doctor was saying. For a moment something felt a little off, just a slightly unsettling feeling at the back of his mind as if he had forgotten something important. But then he let that concern go. Everything seemed to be fine. Although he was getting a little bored of being stuck in his owners stuffy office all day. He wanted to go and run around on the grass outside while the sun was still shining. There was a park nearby and maybe there would be some other dogs for him to chase around with. Maybe even a nice female dog or two. Well, even if he didn't get outside today he couldn't complain. He had it pretty good.
James could hear the two humans voices above him, though he had no idea what they were saying, it was just a collection of sounds. The human's business was no concern of his anyway. Eventually he did hear something that made his ears prick up.
"Here boy, you must be thirsty!"
James looked up. His owners nice friend was smiling down at him. She nodded down to a green bowl at the end of the room. It had some sort of a pattern on it. Had he been able to read, he would have recognised it as five letters - JAMES. It was full to the brim with clean, refreshing water. James could hardly believe his luck as he trotted eagerly towards it and began lapping at the clear liquid greedily with his tongue.
Denise looked down at the happy dog drinking from it's bowl in awe. It seemed impossible that the creature in front of her had been an intelligent human less than an hour ago.
"That's incredible!" Denise gushed at Dr Stevens who nodded back at her with a look of satisfaction at a job well done "So, um, how much of him is still in there?"
"A hundred per cent" the doctor answered with certainty "That dog is just as much James as the man who walked into the room earlier was. He's just been given a different role in life"
"So, what happens to him next?" Denise asked. James continued to to drink obliviously from his bowl as his fate was being decided above him.
"Well, that's not our decision to make" Dr Stevens replied as she reached for her phone.