Changed

"Alright now, gather around little pups. I’m going to tell you a story, a story that took place not all that long ago during a winter season, just like this.” I told the four puppies who sat in front of me wagging their tails as they waited for me to tell them my story. The four puppies were Seraphina, Austin, Maysilee, and Fennick. All of them were part of their own little pack of four and were the self-proclaimed Junkyard Puppies. “Is this going to be a good story?” Fennick asked, he hated my sappier stories, I’d learned that just by watching my audience. “No, this is going to be one of the best stories you have ever heard.” I told him, rubbing his head affectionately before launching into my story.

"Mommy, mommy!" Were the attention grabbing words that woke me up from the lovely dream that I had been in. It's too early in the morning for this. I grumbled to myself mentally as I slowly cracked opened my eyes. The sight that greeted me was that of a little eight year old girl with reddish-brown hair pointing at me excitedly and looking over to where ever her "mommy" was with her green eyes. While she waited for her mother to hurry up, I tried to wake up and seem more interesting. I couldn't help but notice the little girl's attire, considering it was winter. She wore a pair of blue jean overalls, which I had to do a double take on because of what she wore underneath, which was a green top that only covered her chest and would have showed off her belly if she hadn't been wearing the overalls. She had what looked like a red collar with a golden bell attached to it on her neck along with a gorgeous blue and purple scarf. On her head she wore a red hat that had cat-like ears on them and I noticed that out from a hole at the bottom of her overalls was a cat tail. She was an interesting girl, that was for sure, but I liked her already. She liked to dress up and she didn't seem to care what other people would think about it. I liked and respected that sort of thing in someone.

"What is it dear?" It was the little girl's mom. She seemed sweet and nice, but I was wary. My old owners had abandoned me when they had moved and I didn't want a repeat of that experience. And these people reminded me of my old owners.

"I want this one mommy!" The little girl exclaimed, beaming up at her mother. Her mom looked at me, clearly assessing me.

"Are you sure sweetheart?" She asked her daughter. "I mean, this dog has two different color eyes, she could be blind in the blue one." I bit back a bark of a laugh, or a growl. I wasn't sure which one because that comment made me want to do one of them. Clearly this lady knew nothing about dogs. Just because I had one blue eye, it didn't mean that I was blind in it. Fortunately for me, one of the intelligent and knowledgeable staff here at Hearts Pound came over and stood next to the mother. It was Jim, he was one of the best and most understanding staff members that I had met and he was my personal favorite employee. If I was to be doomed to never be adopted, it would be worth it just because he showed me so much love already. He'd probably adopt me, if he didn't already have a pet cat.

"So are you looking at adopting this one Ms. O'Connor?" He asked them as he smiled over at me before focusing his attention on the woman and her daughter, who was nodding emphatically. The woman looked over at her daughter, who was looking up at her pleadingly, then sighed in defeat. "I guess we are." She told him, smiling half-heartedly in a way that made it clear to me that she would have preferred any other dog but me. I whined softly, saddened by this realization. It was my eyes, wasn't it? Everyone seemed to be freaked out by the fact that I had one blue eye and one albino eye. The door to my kennel was unlocked and the little girl dashed in and smiled at me. I loved this girl dearly already, she loved me despite my eyes and she wanted me. I got up and started wagging my tail in pure joy as I beamed up at her and started panting. Her smile grew and she scratched my head, right where I liked it. How did she know? I thought with a smile as I closed my eyes and immersed myself in this moment. It wasn't long before Jim came in and put a collar on me and attached a leash to it and then handed the leash over to the little girl. I followed them out of the back room and into the front one where the little girl's mom signed some papers and paid for me. Apparently, according to the papers, my name was now Natalie. I liked it, it had a nice sound to it and it was a very pretty name. When we were out of the pound, the little girl, Emmy, turned to me and smiled. She took off her pretty pink and blue scarf and put it around my neck. I looked down at it and then back up at Emmy; I smiled at her and licked her face. Her mother looked over at us and suddenly this look came into her eyes that scared me. She stormed over and took the scarf off me and handed it back to Emma.

"Emmy," Ms. O'Connor shouted, sounding very unhappy, "Don't put your scarf on the dog, it'll just rip it up and get it all dirty and hairy," she told her, "Besides, you need it way more than the dog does."

Emmy looked at me, crestfallen. I probably had the same look on my face, I loved that scarf it was so pretty and was in my eyes the first sign of what I knew was going to turn out to be a great friendship between us.

****

I was alone at my new home, Emmy and her mother had gone shopping and had left me here because the store didn't allow pets in. I loved my new home; I'd been here for only a few weeks and already loved it. There were lots of toys for me to play with; snow that covered the ground for me to play in and I had my own dog house. Life was good. Right now, I was standing at the white picket fence in the front yard waiting for my family to come back from their shopping trip when I saw a strange white car drive past me and park across the street from our house. Let me just say, unlike some others of my kind, I don't find enjoyment in chasing cars or have an interest in them. One of my brothers, Nathan, had loved to chase cars and his love had landed him with a severely injured leg and he still hadn’t learned his lesson. So why did this particular car fascinate me? Simple. I knew for a fact that it was not one of the cars owned by the people who lived across the street from my family and what also caught my eye other than the fact that it was that it parked on the other side of the road across from my house was the fact that the people inside the car weren't getting out. They were just staring at me for long periods of time, occasionally they'd pull out a book or a newspaper and pretend to read, but mostly, they were staring at me. I knew they were, I could see them because their windows were rolled down. At one point, they started talking to one another, my ears swiveled towards them, trying to pick out their conversation. I was worried about what they were planning to do, maybe they were going to try to rob us and they were staring at me because they thought I was a guard dog or something. At first, it was hard to pick up what they were saying, I strained a little and finally managed to hear them.

"Is that the one?" The one in the driver's seat asked. "The one we saw at the pound?"

"Yeah, it is. I can tell because it has those same creepy bi-colored eyes." The passenger replied, grinning at his partner. I was thoroughly spooked now. They were undeniably talking about me, but why? What did they want from me? What were they planning on doing to me? When had they seen me at the pound? I don't remember having ever seen either of these creeps there, I'm certain I would have noticed them quite easily and been able to remember them. It'd be hard to forget their ugly mugs.

"I thought the boss was certain it wasn't going to get sold." The man in the driver's side asked, he sounded like he didn't have very many brain cells and was an elementary school drop out. Then again, if these two were your average garden variety thugs, that was part of the stereotype.

"Well obviously he was wrong." The other one replied, I watched as he rolled his eyes at his companion and then returned his attention to me. Suddenly, I saw him bring up some sort of gun-like thing and aim it at me. My eyes widened in fear. What was he going to do? Surely he wasn't going to shoot me, right? He wasn't going to kill me, was he? My brain was snowing questions and I was frozen in fear. I wanted to run, but I couldn't, and before long I felt something like a bee sting hit me in the flank and everything afterwards became blurry. It was like I was in a dream as I watched myself fall to the snow covered ground and then everything went black.

****

Cold. It was cold. So very, very cold. A shiver rippled through my fur as I came back into consciousness. I felt like I was sleeping on ice in a small cave that was open to the harsh winter weather. Slowly, I opened my eyes, only to be blinded by the sheen of metal and white walls. Where am I? I thought to myself as I looked about the room for some sort of clue. As I looked around, I spotted something that sent chills rippling down my spine. Scalpels, needles, stomach pumps, knives, forceps, scissors, syringes, and sutures were on shiny metal trays or on shiny metal topped counters. I was, without a doubt, inside a laboratory. As I looked around, I saw the faces of other terrified animals that seemed to have been here for quite some time. Many of whom no longer looked like ordinary animals any more, their appearances had been altered and had unnatural colorations and markings. In the cage next to me, I saw a female rat. She looked as if she hadn't been altered in some way yet, she was perhaps new here just as I am. So many questions rolled though my head, questions like: What were they going to do to me? What will become of me? Will I ever get to see Emma ever again? My questions and other thoughts were interrupted when someone in a lab coat entered. He wasn't one of the people in the strange white van who had clearly sedated me and dog napped me, but he was just as scary as they were. Behind him came another person in a lab coat, a female. She was probably a lab assistant or something. Whatever she was, I didn’t like her or the man, so I backed away into one of the corners in my cage, hoping not to get noticed, even though I knew that it'd be impossible for them not to notice me. The man came up to me and looked at the clipboard that was hanging on the front of my cage. He took it down and started reading its contents. He nodded as he read and then looked over at his assistant. "Martha, we're going to try the new chemical we got today, Zarcor, on these two," he said, gesturing with a finger at me and the rat next to me. I whined, scared of what on earth this chemical would do to us, "we're going to start them off on a small dosage and then work our way up to a full one over a month." He told her.

"Yes, Dr. Varikoff." The assistant, Martha, replied as he walked out of the room. She put on some gloves and reached into the rat's cage and brought her out. She fought long and hard before the assistant had to knock her out with a sedative while she got a syringe full of the purple chemical and stuck it into the rat. I watched in horror as the rat writhed in pain, apparently the assistant had taken too long to get herself prepare because the rat was now conscious for this. That poor rat didn't deserve this, none of us had deserved this. When the syringe had been emptied, Martha stopped and removed the syringe. She then picked the rat up and deposited her back into her cage, writhing in pain. I felt so sorry for the poor thing, but pity was taking a back seat now to fear because I knew that I was next. The way she came towards my cage scared me. It was like she didn’t care about me, like I was just another number or rather, another victim. She stabbed me with a needle, something that made my world spin and become all blurry before everything just went black. The last thing I felt before passing out was the feel of the harsh cold metal of the lab table.

****

Cold. I felt so very, very cold once again when I had at last come to. I don’t know why, but it felt like my nose was frozen along with my toes, I was also experiencing a queer feeling that I could only describe as having icicles that were stuck to me and ran from under my eyes and ended at the bottom of my lower jaw. When I moved my tail it felt like there were daggers of ice cutting into my tail and on my lower backside. I winced from the pain that came from the feeling of having ice being on me, in me. Suddenly, I heard the click of something and then I heard the assistant who had obviously given me a dose of that drug talking. I listened intently to her, knowing that my life and my well-fare were in her hands and listening to her was my only way of knowing what was going to happen to me before it happened. This is what I heard:

"The dog we gave the drug Zarcor to has within only a few days of having received the first few doses of the drug has expressed some interesting side-affects which have caused a few mutations to occur. The dog's gray fur now has blue strips on her tail and lower back. She also has blue markings that trail from her eyes down to her jaw. After further testing we have discovered that the areas where the subject has developed these blue markings appear to be a completely different temperature than the rest of the subject’s body, coming in at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. We are not certain what in the drug has caused this, but so far, this does not appear to affect the subject in any way, but that has yet to be affirmed as the affects of the sedative have only just recently worn off and I have yet to observe how the subject is handling these changes in her body."

I shivered, and not because of the feeling of ice I had in all those areas, but because of what I had just learned. They had changed me. Without the possibility of ever being able to reverse the affects, how could anyone, even my beloved new owner Emmy still love me knowing I’d been altered by these creeps? As I thought about this, Martha came over and looked at me, observed me. I didn’t know what to do, give her false data and pretend this was nothing? Or show her how much I hated what they’d done to me. I decided on growling at her, she smiled at me and laughed. Seeming to take my behavior lightly, lie this was all just some big joke. Then I realized why she had really acted the way she did, it was to distract me from what was in her other hand when she had opened my cage door, another syringe filled with the nasty drug. I growled even more, threatening her, wanting to make her know that I did not want to go through with this, that I would fight her. With another laugh, she grabbed me by the scruff and hauled me out like a puppy and then plopped me down on the metal table where I was then held down by two other lab assistants. I soon found that I couldn’t fight anymore. I whined pitifully as I watched helplessly as she grabbed the syringe and pierced it through my flesh. When she pushed down on the plunger, I could almost feel the nasty liquid make its way into my body, tainting it, changing it. It shocked my system and I felt my body convulse, I growled and struggled frantically. Trying to get away however I could, but it was futile. I soon felt unable to do anything as the drug coursed its way through my veins, it felt like it was causing a flux in my body temperature. I kept feeling cold in all those same places, but now I also felt so very hot as well, in random little spots on my head and back. My vision kept going in and out of focus and then it just started blurring and then everything went black.

****

“Hey, psst, wake up.” I opened an eye slowly, knowing I was going to be blinded by the lights that flooded the laboratory. When my vision focused, I saw the rat that had undergone the same testing as I had. She had been changed too. She had changed too. Her eyes were now pink, her ears, feet, and tails were all purple. Yes, I said tails. She had grown a second tail that matched the first one. It was purple with blue stripes and had purple fluffs at the ends of the tails. Her gray pelt now had some lighter gray markings, pink leopard spots with blue inside the pink, and a pink squiggly line that blazed across on both sides. “What is it?” I asked her groggily, hating that I was staring at her, but I was half-asleep and I tend to stare at whatever is in front of me when I’m in that state.

“You gotta get up,” she said urgently, “they’re talking about you.”

I was more than a little confused until I caught the conversation going on between the doctor and Martha.

“….she appears to have developed some leopard spots just like the rat has sir, her eyes also appear to have changed color, they’ve become paler and brighter and her pink eye has turned violet.”

“Interesting, very interesting,” The doctor mused. “Keep a close eye on them; I’m keenly interested in what else will develop when we continue giving them the drug.”

My only thought at that point was that I did not want to stick around long enough to find out what was going to happen to me. I turned to the rat, “We have got to get out of here.”

“Indeed, but I’m afraid that I may be the only one who will be able to get out. I can unlock my cage and get out, but there’s no way I’m going to manage to get you out too.” The rat informed me, rather glumly. She didn’t appear to want to leave me behind.

“Then go, get out of here.” I told her. “If you manage to find my humans, please find some way to tell them where I am.” I don’t know why I still wanted them to come get me, I guess it was because somewhere deep down inside, I hoped that they would still love me no matter what happened to me.

“I will, I promise.” She said. “My name is Isabella by the way, what’s yours?”

“Natalie.” I replied, giving her a half-hearted smile. “I just hope that I’ll never forget it while I’m in here, or any other part of me.” I felt so glum right now.

The rat frowned, seeming unhappy with what I said, but understanding all the same. “Cheer up.” She said. “You’ll get out of here alright, you’ll see. I’m going to get out of here tonight and it won’t be too long before your humans come for you.”

I nodded, but didn’t say anything. At this point, all I had was hope.

****

She escaped that night, just like she said she would. I waited patiently for some sort of sign that would tell me that Isabella had made contact with my family, but nothing of the sort ever came. A week slowly passed by and I was still in here, fortunately, Isabella's disappearance had caused a bit of hubbub and I hadn’t been tested on in a while, for which I was relieved. It wasn’t until the week before Christmas that something new had happened in the lab, a new lab assistant had been hired. A Ms. Hatfielder, who was now in charge of watching us lab animals to make sure we didn’t escape. When she came into the room, I felt a strange recognition. For some strange reason that I couldn't explain, she reminded me so very much of Emmy’s mother, but I knew that couldn’t possibly be right. The lady hated me, she wouldn’t go through the trouble of trying to rescue me, she was more likely to try and convince her daughter that I was not going to be found and that they should go get a different dog. Besides, despite this feeling that I felt that told me that I knew this lady, she didn’t look like her. Her eyes were green instead of blue and her hair was brown instead of blonde; but the feeling kept nagging at me all the while. I just couldn’t shake it.

As the days ticked by, I gave up hope on figuring out who this new lady was and just resigned myself to my favorite activity, staring at the shiny metal wall of my cage for hours on end. On the second hour into this, my door was opened and I was greeted by the face of Emmy’s mother. I cocked my head in confusion, this couldn’t be right. I was hallucinating. Yes, that’s right. I was hallucinating, it must’ve been a new affect of the drug, but when I looked around, I saw a brunette wig on lab desk and a contact case next to it. I looked back at the lady in front of me and my eyes widened. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it was her! It was Emmy’s mother! She’d come to rescue me! But how? Oh, whatever the reason was, I was just plain glad to know that I had been missed and I was still wanted. I just knew that we'd be escaping out of here and be on our way home soon. Ms. O'Connor smiled at me and whispered gently to me: “Calm down Natalie, I’m going to get you out of here right now.” I watched as she drew something out from under her lab coat. It was Emmy’s scarf! The soft, beautiful scarf she’d put around my neck when we’d left the pound. I wagged my tail in excitement, I couldn’t help myself. I was overflowing with happiness. She wrapped the scarf around my neck and tied it. She stepped back and smiled, admiring me I guess. I whined and looked around worriedly, hoping to tell her that we didn’t really have the time for this. She seemed to read my signal and went over and put her wig back on and then went about washing her hands and putting her contacts back in, then she went over to one corner of the room and grabbed a carrier and placed it on the table. She went over to my cage and grabbed the clipboard, I watched as she wrote “subject died at approximately 9:20 pm and has been taken for testing where it will afterwards be disposed of.” Gee, my human’s mom is one smart biscuit. I thought with pride as she finished writing and put the clipboard back. She whipped out a cell phone and quickly punched the keys on it with lightning speed, I waited patiently, I could hear the dial tone faintly. Who is she calling? I wondered, I strained to hear her as she talked to whoever she had called, it sounded like a male's voice, but I wasn't sure. Their conversation lasted only a minute or two and I hadn't been able to pick up what their conversation have been about, but whatever it was, I hoped that it had something to do with the escape. She tucked the phone away and then strode back over to my cage and opened it, then she hauled me out and carried me over to the lab table. She went and got a gurney that had a white cloth draped over it that hid the shelf underneath; she put the carrier down on the shelf and then put me on the top of the gurney and put the cloth over me. She then began walking out of the room. My heart pounded frantically inside my chest, I prayed no one would be able to hear it or see my really shallow breathing as I pretended to be dead. This had to work, otherwise we would both be caught and I would never get to see Emmy again and who knew what would happen to her mother. I could smell the anxiety and fear coming from Emmy’s mother in waves, the reason it seemed so strong and pungent to me was probably because it was mingling with my own. It made me glad that humans couldn’t smell the scent that came with certain feelings, but still, I worried. My mind kept coming up with crazy ideas like whether these humans had been experimenting on themselves as well and could smell fear and anxiety.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” Was the question that broke my endless stream of crazy ideas and almost made leaped away. It was him. The doctor who visited on occasion to check up on how things were going with those of us who were the test subjects for the drug Zarcor. Something in me made me freeze, even though I desperately wanted to get away, I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t let me. So I prayed, fervently prayed that Ms. O'Connor would be able to convince him with her lie.

“As I was making my rounds guarding the animals and making sure nothing happened, I realized that one of them had died and was stinking up the place. So I had Martha come in and check to make sure that I was right and she confirmed that one of the dogs had died. So right now I’m disposing the body.” She replied, not skipping a beat. She didn’t even hesitate when she had answered. I couldn’t see what was going on, but I just hoped with every fiber of my being that she didn’t look the least bit guilty to the Doctor.

“Very well, carry on.” He said, I heard him step aside to let her pass. “Thank you Doctor.” She replied, I felt a her pushing the gurney again and I felt to very relieved. I could have almost sighed with relief, but I knew that I couldn’t. Not if I wanted us to get out of here safe and sound, not unless I wanted to blow everything sky high. So I stayed as silent and as still as possible under the cover of the white sheet, glad that the trick "play dead" was finally coming in handy. After awhile, I felt the gurney roll to a stop and then felt the whisper of air as Ms. O'Connor removed the white sheet off of me. I remained lying on my side, but opened one of my eyes to see where we were. We were in a passage that was currently devoid of other people and security cameras. Which meant that no one would be able to see what we were doing. I waited anxiously as she opened up the carrier and put it next to me on the gurney. I went in it as fast I possibly could and felt her shut the door swiftly behind me and then lower me down to the shelf at the bottom. The sheet practically glided back on top and then we were on our way again. She kept an agonizingly slow, calm pace. I knew we were close, very close, to the exit and freedom, but I was still worried sick that we wouldn’t make it, that we’d be caught. That I would go back to being injected, inspected, and all sorts of other nasty things that I had no desire to experience again. I saw multi-colored spots dance before my eyes as we stepped out of the laboratory, I squinted as my eyes tried to adjust to the difference in lighting. Amidst the dancing spots, I saw a car that we were steadily approaching, inside on the driver's side, I saw Jim. What on earth was he doing here? Was the first question that came into my mind when I saw him, but it was a very unimportant question considering the situation. Clearly he was the one Ms. O'Connor had called and I wasn't going to argue about who my knights in shinning armor were. The only thing I was worried about was getting far enough away from this wretched place and fast. I felt myself being hurriedly strapped into the vehicle while in the carrier and heard the sound of seat belts being urgently pulled out and buckled. When all the car doors were closed shut the car started and I felt the car whip out from where it was parked. I could hear shouts as we pulled away from the laboratory, which I now saw had been located in an old vet practice. I was afraid, afraid they'd somehow take me away, that they'd find me again. My worries mounted as the red SUV that was our escape vehicle pealed out of the parking lot and we were driving away as fast as we legally could away from the god forsaken place. I didn’t feel truly safe until we were back safe and sound at home and I was safely inside in the sweet embrace of my family and especially Emmy, who was just excited as I was that we were back together again, just in time for the holidays.

****

My audience of four was enthralled with my story, I was pleased to see that Fennick had his favorite toy tight in his clutches; clearly he had been apprehensive about my story and how it would end. “Alright you four, that’s the end of the story. Now run along back home.” I told them.

“Awww, can’t we hear just one more story Aunt Natalie?” Maysilee complained, looking at the others who nodded their heads emphatically.

“Please.” They chorused, looking up at me with big, bright, shiny, pleading eyes.

I chuckled. “No. Not tonight.” I told them, shaking my head. “But if you come back tomorrow, I promise I’ll tell you the rest of the story.”

“You mean there’s more?” Austin asked, he looked like he was afraid for me. “You mean they came back?”

I laughed. “I guess you’ll just have to wait to find out.” I smiled and winked at him. “Now run along.”

“Okay! Bye Aunt Natalie, we’ll see you tomorrow.” I smiled as I watched them run off, back to their homes. I loved the little pups, even if I wasn’t really their aunt.

“What story did you tell this time? Was it the one about the Lab?” I turned to look at the speaker, it was Isabella.

I smiled. “Yeah, I did.” I told her as she scampered over next to me and watched as the pups split up and went to the separate houses that they lived in.

“It’s hard to believe isn’t it? That it’s been two whole years since we escaped.” She said.

“Yeah, I know.” I shivered. “I sure am glad that we were able to aid in their downfall, I’m just glad they’re all in prison.”

“Let’s hope they stay there forever.” Isabella replied, turning to leave.

“Going back to Aryankha’s already?” I knew she was only visiting, but I couldn’t help feel sad at how short a visit it had been.

“Hey, we live next door, it’s no big deal. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Isabella laughed.

“Haha, yeah, you’re right. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said, giving her an affectionate little lick on her head. I watched as she scampered away, completely out of sight.

And just in time too because the front door opened and I heard the sound of feet trying to knock the snow off the shoes that were on them and then the sound of Emmy running. I looked over and smiled, leaping over to meet Emmy as she came over and wrapped her arms around me. “Hey Natalie, how’re you doing?”

I started to lick her face excitedly, non-verbally telling her that I was great so long as she was around and I was surrounded by my friends and family. I love how our family had grown by one more after the laboratory fiasco, apparently Emmy's mom, Ms. O'Connor, and Jim had been dating even before they'd adopted me. Now they were married and Emmy had a daddy and I had a guy who knew what I liked in the way of treats.