You stare at Aiken - no wait - his dog tag say Aidan. You remember him from the previous night. But he was in a seperate cage. How did he get into the one you chose to sleep in?
As if reading your mind Aidan walks over to one side of the cage. There you see a sort of dog door. There is one on both sides of the cage and you realize that this allows the dogs to 'visit' one another.
"Well dogs ARE social animals." you muse out loud. Aidan looks at you and pants. He seems almost to have understood you.
Shaking your head you rise. You feel strangely stiff in the back. You move towards the door, and let yourself out. Aidan approaches the door, but doesn't leave. He looks at you in an odd way - almost as if he finds what you're doing funny. You shake it out of your head. Then your stomach growls. Aidan barks and noses the still-full dogfood bowl at you. You stare at him and the food - surely you can't eat it?
Your stomach lets you know that it's hungry and it doesn't look like you're any closer to the exit than the night before. You sigh, and try a piece of the dog food. To your surpise you find it very tasty. You sit down and eat it all, feeling strangely satisfied. You catch yourself licking your fingers and laugh. You then pick up the waterbowl and drink from it. Some splshes on you, and you find yourself wishing you could drink it a little closer to the ground. You rise again. Your back is still a llittle stiff. You turn to close the door, but find Aidan has done it for you. You blink. "There is something strange about this place." you say out loud. Yet despite its strangeness you don't feel veryy alarmed. In fact, now that you've rested you start walking down the seemingly endless aisle. As you walk more and more breeds of dogs present themselves. You find youself slowing down and staring at them more than yesterday. They still don't react to your presence, but that bothers you less today than yesterday. You're kind of glad they accept you, but you're not sure why yet.
You continue down the aisle towards the exit. It always seems so close, yet so far away. You are briefly reminded of the cartoons you watched when you were younger - how characters would coax an animal into moving forward by putting something it wanted just in front of its eyes, but always out of reach.
After a while of walking you take a break. Your feet hurt, and your stomach is growling again. You find an empty cage and sit in it. You don't hesitate to eat and drink. Then you take off your socks and shoes, and start massaging your feet. As you do, you notice that your toes seem thicker than you remember. And your feet are certainly hairier - or are they. You never really paid attention before. You notice that your hands seem hairier as well, and your fingers seem to be thicker too. You shake it out of your head as imagination and rise, forgetting to put your socks and shoes back on. You don't notice that you've started walking on your toes rather than flat foot. It isn't until you are many cages away that you remember your socks and shoes, but walking barefoot feels so nice you don't bother to go back.
You find it hard to keep your consentration on the exit. There are strange new smells reaching your nose, and new sounds reaching your ears. They all seem to be comming from the dogs. You keep going forward, but take long breaks to look at the dogs. All the dogs seem so happy. You finally break out of a long daydream about what it might be like to be a dog and...