You woke up nice and refreshed, perhaps more so than you ever had before. You weren't sure what it was, but
surely, it couldn't have been the fact that you were now a dog, was it? You stretch out, a little clumsily as
you really weren't used to this new body. But well, there was no time like the present to try to get used to
the new body. You stumble over to the doggie door and push your way through, tripping a little bit as you go.
"Damn it," you whisper, quickly shuffling your paws to regain traction. "Come on, you can do this. You can
do this. One foot after another after another..."
It was slow going, but you began to make your way down the hotel hallway, awkwardly, and having a hard time
keeping a straight line, but you were moving at least. This was clearly going to take some practice.
Before too long, you make your way to the front desk. You wonder if you're up particularly early, because you
don't see any people about. You can smell the receptionist, but that's the extent of it.
"Excuse me," you call out as you sit down.
"Um... hello?" you hear the receptionist say, clearly confused.
"Down here," you answer. "I'm still not used to this, so I'm not sure I could really hop up to the
counter..."
"OH! Oh my God, you..." the receptionist peeks down over the countertop at you, eyes wide with surprise.
She's a young woman, and you can practically smell the nervousness. "You can talk?!"
"Yeah, sure, why not? I wasn't a dog until you people turned me into one. What, this isn't normal?"
"Well, I don't... I don't know, this is my first week..." ahh, that's why she was nervous. "Let me look it
up..."
She disappears for a moment, and you hear the ruffling of pages.
"Oh! Here we go. Uh... less than one percent of transformed dogs retain their ability to speak and think in
terms of human thought. Those with particularly strong senses of self may in rare cases maintain their human
minds and speech."
"Huh. Wow. So I guess I'm pretty special."
"I'd say. So uh... did you need help with anything?"
"Yeah, actually. I mean... now that I am a dog, I feel great, and I really like it, but... but I don't... I
didn't agree to this, I didn't..."
"No? Okay, let me look up your information... hold your head up a bit..." she leans back over the counter
with a scan gun and the light beam passes over your collar.
"Okay, here we go... our records indicate we've not only got your permission, but that you specifically
requested this."
"Requested? I would know if I requested this, I mean... I didn't even know this was POSSIBLE, let alone..."
"Well, there is no mixup here, I've got your signature and everything... oh, and a cosigner..."
"Wait - cosigner? I... Brad Templeton, right?"
"Yes. Husband?"
"Boyfriend. Do you have a phone that I could use?"
"Uh... yeah, um... right around that corner there," she said, pointing around the corner to the left. "That
phone has speaker capabilities just in case of you know, a transformation like yours."
"Thanks. Clearly, I have a call to make."
You make your way towards where the receptionist pointed, getting better at walking on all fours, but still
not quite up to standard canine form. At the end of the hall is a booth with a seat in it and a phone up on
the wall. You were okay with being a dog, you really were, but this situation was starting to smell fishy,
and it was time to get to the bottom of it.