You notice a rack of collars and start to look through them. Listed on the tags are different species of dogs.
You find yourself tempted by this simply because your younger brother keeps asking to get a dog. You think to
yourself briefly about how fun it would be to get one of these and put it on to transform into a dog and play
with your brother as a dog. You then pause to wonder if that's messed up, but decide it's not.
You decide you'd want to turn into a big dog, so you look through them until you find one that says
Newfoundland on the tag. Those are huge, hulking black dogs. That will do, you think to yourself as you pull
the large collar off the rack and walk to the register with it in hand. The shop woman comes over and admires
the choice. "Ah, an excellent choice."
"How does it work?" you ask.
"Well, you just put on the collar and it works it's magic right away, turning you into a dog for a few hours
and then you turn back," replied the shop keeper.
"Cool, I can't wait to try it out," you reply.
The shopkeeper rings up the purchase. "That'll be $10."
"That's it?" you reply, surprised.
"I only charge for the materials. My magic is no charge."
"Wow, thank you so much," You reply.
She hands you a paper bag with the collar inside. "Have a good day!"
"You too!" you reply.
You find yourself running home on this quiet Saturday morning, too excited to stop. Luckily it's just you and
your brother this weekend, as your parents are out of town. This will be the perfect weekend to do this. You
run into the house and upstairs. You pull the collar out and toss the bag aside. You sit down on the bed and
undo the buckle. You slide off the tag and take a deep breath. After a moment, you wrap the leather collar
around your neck and do the buckle. You sit on the edge of the bed and patiently wait for something to happen.
Nothing happens.
You look around for the tag and find instructions printed on the back. You skim the directions, put on collar,
yes, it should be working, you think to yourself.
"Oh, come on," you mutter and toss the card away. Suddenly you feel like a complete idiot. This was a total
waste of ten bucks, you think to yourself as you reach up to undo the buckle. To your shock, you feel thin,
coarse strands of hair growing in on your neck.
"What the..." you mutter, running across the hall to the bathroom. You see the black fur growing in all over
your face as well. You nose and lips are turning black. You suddenly feel very scared. Sure you had fantasized
about a transformation like this, but now that it was happening, it was a bit much. "Wait, I was just
joking...stop."
You watch as your own hair darkens and your ears grow and flop over. You feel a dull pain in your rear which
you realize is your tail starting to grow out. You watch as the shaggy black fur grows in as your hands become
front paws. Your clothes start to tear as your body reforms. Your face reforms into a canine snout as the last
bits of your humanity slips away. You drop to all fours and the remains of your clothes fall away. Oh well,
best make the best of it.
You make your way downstairs into the family room, where you find your brother playing video games. You let
out a loud bark and he turns around, stunned.
"Hey boy, what are you doing in here?" he asked, grinning ear to ear. "You wanna go play?"
You bark again and he pauses the game and opens the patio door. You both go outside on the deck. He gets down
on his knees and scratches you behind the ears. You can't believe how good that feels. You two go out in the
yard and he starts throwing a stick for you. You give into your dog instincts and play fetch with him for a
good hour until you both collapse on the ground. He pets you some more as you rest your head on his leg.
"I see you don't have any tags. You can be my dog if my parents will let me keep you. I still don't know how
you got into the house. My brother must not have closed the front door all the way or something..."
He keeps petting you a while longer until to his surprise, he finds himself pulling out large chunks of fur.
"What the hell?"
You perk up and see your paws stretching back out into human hands. It's too late now, he's going to find out.
Your fur falls out and disintegrates as your snout and tail draw back in. You sheepishly turn to your brother,
wearing nothing but the leather collar. He has a look of shock on his face.
"That was so..." he says.
You brace yourself for a fit.
...so awesome!" he exclaims. "Can you do that anytime you want?"
"I think so, yeah," you reply.
"This is way cooler than a regular dog! My brother can turn into a dog!" he exclaims.
You quickly shush him. "First off, no one else can know about this, not even Mom and Dad. Got it?"
He quickly nods.
"Ok. Second of all, I'm naked," you say. You brother runs over to the deck and grabs a blanket off the sun
lounger, where your Mom left it the night before.
"This is so cool!" says your brother as you wrap the blanket around yourself and you both go inside.