Chris looks over his shoulder to see if Beth Anne is around before turning once again to look at the large Old English Sheepdog before him. The sheepdog looks at him and pants contentedly with an expectant look in its veiled eyes.
"Well, do you still want to play with me or my friends?" The large, shaggy dog asks him.
Chris looks at the dog and then at the kids.
"No offense, but I think I will play with your friends if it is all the same to you. I am not much of a dog person." He tells the dog.
The dog laughs a barking laugh before setting down on its shaggy haunches again.
"None taken, my friend, none taken." The sheepdog tells him with a toothy smile. "Those boys are quite a handful for a single dog like me to take care of anyway. Always running about and getting into trouble. Not to mention that each one of them wants to have me for themselves. So which of my friends do you want to play with anyway?"
Chris looks up and over the dog’s shaggy backside at the two boys. He spends a minute just looking at them before making up his mind.
"I think I will take the boy on the left." Chris tells him.
The sheepdog laughs again and then smiles.
"Oh you will like Jeremy. He is so well trained and obedient that I don’t think you will have much of a problem with him."
Chris enters the enclosure behind the Old English Sheepdog. And as he does so, a flash of light blinds him for just one second. He stumbles and falls to the ground. Landing on his hands and knees, he hears the boys playing again with their large shaggy friend. And then oddly enough he hears himself panting contentedly. Chris shakes himself all over, feeling the thick shaggy fur coat that now covers his entire body.
He stands there, on all fours now, and looks himself over. He sees that he is now large and just as shaggy as his pack mate with thick white and dark gray fur. And what’s odder still is the feeling that what he sees is completely natural to him. It wasn’t before, but now it is. Chris pants contentedly and feels himself growing excited. He wants to play.
"Here I come!" He barks.
He romps over to the two boys and his fellow sheepdog. He smells their happiness, their excitement and their joy at having him as their newest friend.
Minutes later, Chris is with his new friend, Jeremy. He is sitting down next to his friend and getting a rather affectionate back rub. He pants contentedly at his friend’s touch and watches his pack mate play with the other boy.
"So how do you like being my dog, Chris?" His human friend asks him.
Chris happily woofs in answer to his friend’s question before leaning against him and giving him a friendly tongue bath.
"Looks like you really being a large, friendly Old English Sheepdog then. Good boy!"
Chris smiles and whole heartedly agrees with his friend. It is good to be a dog.