Geoff was wondering how he was going to get back in the house. His mom doesn't even remember the machine, so how would she realize it was her son. Geoff walked back and forth. It took a bit of getting used to walking on 4 feet. A couple of times he wondered what was following him when Geoff realized it was his tail. In Geoff's walking back and forth, he realized that the screen windows were down. That meant the windows were open. If he could just get through a screen, he could get into the house. But how?
The ground floor would be easy, but the only accessible windows to Geoff's squirrel stature were the two in front.
"Or what about the screen door by the back patio," Geoff thought to himself. He hopped over to the side of the house to remember the privacy fence. He didn't think he could crawl under or through anywhere. Then he heard barking, coming close. He turned to see a dog coming at him. But something side told him to run and he ran like he never ran before. The dog literally near his tail. He ran into his neighbor's back yard and around the front before hiding under some bushes.
Now Geoff thought he could outlast this dog, but then he heard a voice say, "Hey boy, what you go there?" Geoff knew the voice, but he just couldn't place it. He saw a partial face. He still couldn't place the face. Then he heard something that made his heart sink.
"Don't worry boy, I'll get my pellet gun out. You just keep him trapped."
Geoff was in a panic. If this jerk actually shot him, they wouldn't realize it was a person. So, after a minute of panic thoughts of death, Geoff took off and the dog was right behind him. Geoff ran to the tree next to his house but failed to climb up. He wasn't used to his claws. And then pain came from his tail. The dog caught him and bit down on his tail.
Geoff wanted to scream, but found he was hanging from the dog's mouth. Geoff chirped and swung his claws, but to no avail. The dog was carrying him. Geoff could see the bottom of the dog's head so Geoff swung back and then toward the fur. He slashed with his claws and the dog yelped.
Geoff didn't wait to see what happened. He ran back to the tree. That little voice inside kept saying, get up the tree and get the tree between you and your enemy. This time, Geoff managed to climb up the tree just as the dog leaped to the tree. Geoff climbed up some more until he was about 20 feet in the air. He could feel the small heart in his chest beating wildly. The dog barked and he climbed to the other side of the tree. Just having the tree between himself and the dog was a comfort.
Geoff could hear the human voice, but it wasn't so loud in his ears as the dog. Then Geoff felt another round of sever pain in his already hurting tail. He ran up to the first fork of the tree and hid inside. Just then, Geoff could hear something against the tree. Whoever owned the dog was shooting at him with that pellet gun. Geoff went from disliking guns to downright hating them. Another ping nearby. Geoff felt safe in the fork. Now he had the tree between him and both the barking dog and the nut with the gun.
Then Geoff heard another human voice. He didn't know what the human was talking about, but he knew that squirrels need to stay away from humans. Geoff shook his head. He was thinking like a squirrel. Probably the excitement was making the squirrel instincts take over.
OK, whoever it was had finally gone away. Geoff looked down. It was about a ways to roof. No way from the tree to the roof. He had to crawl out on a branch and then take a chance and jump.
Geoff was amazed how easy it was to crawl along these branches. Then the wind made the branch sway back and forth. Geoff had no problem holding on. Then the wind stopped for a moment. Geoff knew it was his chance and lept from the tree. It felt like forever to reach the roof. Geoff landed paws first but lost his footing and began to roll down the roof. He reached the edge, waiting to fall off to the ground, but he dropped a few inches and stopped.
Turning over, Geoff chirped a laugh. He landed in the gutter. He got on his hind legs and looked down. Nobody around. He climbed clumsily back up onto the roof and then to his window. He again stood on his hind legs. He couldn't reach his window. So he took a few steps back and then ran to the window. He lept and nearly lost his grip, but got onto the window sill. The screen was down but the window was up. For once he was happy his dad was cheap. No A/C, leave the windows open.
Now he had to get through the screen. He grabbed with his paws but couldn't tear the screen. Then he tried to take a bite and found his teeth did a very good job tearing the screen. Then once the screen had a large enough hole, he could reach in with a paw and tear a large hole. He knew he could leave it like that. His mom would think that was how the squirrel got into the house, and she would be right. He crawled in and dropped to the bed. He listened. He could hear distant sounds of people talking. Geoff looked at his computer. His screen saver had not yet kicked on. He would have to disable that the next time he changed into something else. He walked along the bed and then hopped to his chair. In his current amazement, he over-estimated the jump and ended up on his desk, nearly rolling off.
He walked up to the screen. The command to make him human was still on the screen. He walked over to the keyboard and pressed enter with both paws. The change back to human was painful, but he kept his mouth shut. But within three minutes, he was sitting on his desk, naked. He found sitting this way hurt. Standing up and walking to the mirror, he found he had several red marks on his back and butt. Using the machine, he made these marks go away.
His rob was still on the floor where he left it. Putting it on, he sat at the keyboard, thinking about what happened and what was next.