So the next morning, Osvaldo got up and looked in the mirror. Nothing else had obviously changed, but he was still clearly part beagle. A piece of silverware fell in the kitchen downstairs, causing his floppy ears to twitch. It was extremely hot in his bedroom, and his long tongue made another appearance as he started to pant. As soon as he noticed what he was doing, he stopped panting and turned on the air conditioner.
One change he did notice as he was getting dressed was that his tail had grown fur. Short, patchy fur like a beagle's. He knew his tail was going to complicate dressing for school. He didn't want it to hang out of his pants all day, but it was much too long to fit comfortably in his underwear. Finally, he solved the problem by cutting a tail hole in his underwear and wearing loose jeans. It had some freedom to move against the denim, but if he held his tail at the right angle then it wasn't obvious from the outside. Once again, he could hide his ears under his hat.
"At least I'm still mostly human," he thought.
In class, his hearing was a bit muffled under his hat, but fortunately his senses had become more acute, so he could still understand the lecture. It was hard to find ways to sit comfortably, and he was glad when it was time to go to lunch. Standing in the cafeteria line, he could smell all the lunches almost overpoweringly. Like any dog smelling food, Osvald absentmindedly started wagging his tail, which could then be easily seen through his pants. He noticed a few people staring at them, heard the swishing sound of fur against denim, and quickly forced his happy tail back to its hidden position. Everyone in the cafeteria just continued their mundane conversations. No one even noticed his canine tongue lapping up the milk he drank with his food. Everything was quite alright...until phys ed.
In the men's locker room, it was time for everyone to change into gym clothes. Taking off his shoes and pants, he left his hat on. But he forgot about his beagle tail, which he had got used to as a part of him. He didn't bother to hide it as it hung behind him in a comfortable--highly visible--position.
"Hey, dude, what's this?" someone asked loudly behind him. He then felt someone's palm and fingers around his tail, gripping firmly and pulling. In immediate, excruciating pain, Osvaldo yelped! The boy behind him quickly let go and jumped back in surprise.
There was no time for Osvaldo to explain as a new pain took hold of him, this time in his legs. His bare feet started stretching and narrowing. His leg hair turned brown and white, but didn't thicken into fur just yet. The toes grew pads on the bottom like animal paws. His toenails fell out, to be replaced by thick, black dog claws.
The reforming of his legs caused him to crinkle to the ground, and his hat fell off, revealing his fuzzy brown ears for everyone to see. As he lay there, the other boys stared at him, jaws gaping. His secret couldn't be concealed anymore: all present could now see that Osvaldo had been gradually transforming into an animal.
Not moving, he just lay there whimpering, wondering what their reaction would be.