Still leaning up against the bathroom countertop with his shaggy forepaws, Jared looks into the mirror at the sheepdog that he has become. And he finds himself torn into two by what he sees. One part of him, the part of him that still thinks of himself as human can't believe what just happened to him. It was like he was the main character from the Shaggy Dog movie that he saw the other night with his parents and kid brother, Kevin. One moment he was just a young man coming home from school. And the next he gets turned into a large, shaggy Old English Sheepdog. And he doesn't know what to make of it or what to do about it. But there is new part of him that sees what has happened to him to be completely natural. It sees his transformation into a sheepdog as something that was meant to be. That new part of him wants to take in all of the new sounds and smells he is experiencing right now and revel in it as only a dog knows how. This new part wants him to appreciate his large, shaggy bulk. To admire his shaggy furcoat of white and dark blue merle fur. To admire the patches of dark blue merle fur that now covers an area over his right eye and ear and on a spot of his left elbow.
Jared begins to find himself unable to deny the fact that he really is a large, shaggy Old English Sheepdog. But the part of him that is still human is unwilling to embrace his new other half. It wants to know how he got this way. It wasn't like he found a ring like the guy in movie did.
As soon as he thought how the protagonist in the movie became a sheepdog like he did. He perks up his ears and raises his shaggy eyebrows in surprise. It wasn't a ring that did this to him. It was that medallion that he found!
Jared pushes himself off of the bathroom countertop and drops down onto all fours. Panting contentedly, he looks down briefly at himself standing on all fours and feels the new part of him wanting to forget about the medallion. The new part of him wants to go and find the couch in the living room and take a snooze. He growls in disgust and tries to focus his attention on getting back to being human again. But he finds it hard to focus his mind as he trots out of the bathroom and toward his own bedroom. He finds it hard to think about anything. The new part of him that is canine wants him to follow his newfound canine instincts.
Halfway down the hall, Jared is stopped by the sound of the front door of his home opening up and the sound of footsteps. Again his two sides clash. He finds himself divided into by the desire to hide himself from whoever just entered his home and the desire to be the friendly sheepdog. He feels his canine half wanting to go to see the person who just came. Forcefully Jared suppress that desire of his and trots quickly into his bedroom. Using his shaggy bulk, Jared nudges the door closed to the outside hallway.
Inside the relative safety of his bedroom, Jared listens to the sound of the footsteps coming closer and closer and pants nervously. He is hoping that the person in his home isn't one of his parents. He is afraid of what would happen next if they were to come into his room and find a large sheepdog in their home. He tries to be quiet but his body betrays him. While the part of him that is human wants to hide still, his canine half doesn't. It makes his whole shaggy body vibrate with doggy eagerness. Without even thinking about he woofs out out.
Woof! Woof!
Jared freezes and wonders why he just did that. But he has no time to ponder about it when he hears the footsteps outside his room stop. The bedroom door opens and Jared is caught between wanting to brace himself for the expected surprise and confusion from whomever the stranger is and wanting to play bow and play with the stranger. He closes his eyes and waits for the reaction he has been dreading. But it doesn't come. Instead he hears..
"What the? Oh wow, oh wow! A dog! A large sheepdog! Where did you come from boy?" Shouts an excited voice.
Jared opens up his eyes and sees that the stranger who had just walked into his room is kid brother, Kevin. He sees his brother standing just at the entryway to his bedroom, looking at him with wide excitement in his eyes. His brother's excitement toward finding a large shaggy sheepdog proves to be contagious. The part of Jared that is now canine forcefully pushes his human half aside.
Woof! Woof! Ruff!
He trots a few feet closer to his brother and then play bows. He pants excitedly and wags his stubby tail from side to side.
"Come here boy, come here!" Kevin says to him. He crouches before the sheepdog he sees and offers the dog his hand.
Jared struggles within himself to not giving into his canine self. But he finds himself getting weaker and weaker. His canine self is just too dominant for him now. He trots the rest of the way to his brother, now human friend, and sniffs his brother's hand. He licks his friend's hand and gets in return a playful scratch behind the ears. He pants excitedly and silently remarks to himself on how good it feels. Jared reaches up to Kevin's face and gives a friendly licking across both cheeks.
"Good boy, good dog." Kevin says to him in between licks.
Woof!
His brother spends the next few minutes playfully scratching him behind his ears and under his shaggy chin. And Jared finds himself thinking more and more like his new self. He sits down on his haunches and pants happily for his friend. Kevin then notices the dog collar around Jared's shaggy neck.
"Oh you are wearing a collar. Let me see if you have a name boy." He gets up from crouching in front of Jared and shifts his body to get a better look at the dog collar. Jared just sits there and waits for his friend to get that look. Kevin twists the collar around but finds no name on the collar and no address indicating where or who this sheepdog belongs to.
"Huh, no name or address?"
But he smiles after saying that.
"Well since you don't have a name doggy, how about I give you one? Would that be okay boy?" He asks Jared questioningly.
In a single moment, Jared's human self takes control.
"I am Jared, your big brother, Kevin. Its' me, I am the dog!" Jared tries to tell him.
Kevin listens to him, intrigued by the sheepdog's sudden chorus of barks and woofs. But he gets the wrong impression from his new canine buddy.
"What are you trying to tell me, boy? That you want me to give you a name? That you want me to adopt you as my pet?" He eagerly questions him.
Jared whines at his brother mistakenly misinterpreting what he was trying to say. He gets a reassuring pat on the head by his brother. And that reassuring pat encourages him to fall back into thinking and acting like a dog. He goes back to panting contentedly. He then sees Kevin smile and look at him in a new way.
"How about I call you, Shaggy, boy? Would you like to call Shaggy?"
At the mere mention of his new name, his human self is pushed deeply into his new canine subconscious mind. He finds himself liking his new name. He finds himself liking being near his new friend. Jared becomes Shaggy, Kevin's new friend and pet sheepdog.
He becomes a very happy dog.
Suddenly Kevin notices something on the bedroom floor.
"What's that?" He asks himself.
He reaches over and picks up a strange looking medallion. And he brings the medallion closer to him and Shaggy. Shaggy looks at it and then sniffs it. His canine self wonders briefly what is so important about that medallion. But that thought slips away as Shaggy finds himself wanting to play with his new human friend. He watches Kevin fiddle around with medallion. Kevin then slips the medallion into his pants' pocket and looks at Shaggy.
"Want to go outside and play a game of fetch, Shaggy?"
Panting excitedly, Shaggy gets back onto all fours and trots away from Kevin and over to the bedroom door. He looks at Kevin and woofs. Kevin smiles and walks over to him. He pats his shaggy friend on the head and opens the door for the both of them.
"Let's good play together!" Kevin shouts to himself and Shaggy. And then the two of them race toward the door leading to the backyard of the house.