Author's Note
In Dog Aliens 2, which is available now, Raffle's humans adopt a 'baby brother' for him, except that he's really not a baby, and he acts like anything but a brother. Oreo is Raffle's opposite. Where Raffle is obedient, Oreo tries to get away with all he can. Where Raffle is reasonable, calm, and friendly, Oreo is irrational, defensive, and... defensive, LOL! The first few chapters of Dog Aliens 2: Oreo follow. Enjoy!
Dog Aliens 2 - Chapter 1: Raffle
The animal shelter employee pulled the Springer Spaniel / Border Collie mix’s speckled lips back so my humans could see that he lacked teeth in the sides of his mouth.
“See? Oreo is just a puppy.”
My male human said, “Well, I guess our Queensland Heeler will be helping us raise this Springer Spaniel puppy!”
His mate said, “Can you hold him while we go get him a collar and a leash?”
It wasn’t an odd question considering how the animal shelter had ambushed my humans at a Pet Smart store.
They’d gone in to look around at things for me. They hadn’t brought me because the trip hadn’t been planned. They’d stopped on their way home from the movies. I heard them talking about it later.
When they entered the store, they noticed about 50 kennels near the entrance, with big signs saying “Adopt Me!” Not even a human could have missed the display. I saw it later on that evening.
At first, my humans ignored the homeless animals and went about shopping around for toys and treats for me, as they did every week or so, bless them. They went up and down every aisle in the big-dog section, handling squeaky toys, raw-hides, and even cookies meant for dogs. They never bought any of those silly dog cookies. I prefer dog biscuits. They’re healthier.
Gradually, my humans’ curiosity about what types of animals the Humane Society had brought to be rescued got the better of them.
“Wanna go check out the animals they brought for adoption from the pound?”
“I thought you’d never ask!”
With big grins on their faces, they rushed over to look. There were a few cats, but the vast majority of the kennels contained abandoned Kaxians. You humans call us ‘large breed dogs’.
“We really should get Raffle a girlfriend, to keep him company when one of us can’t be with him,” she said.
“Or a buddy, anyway,” the animal shelter employee interjected.
“Yeah, a buddy would be good.”
“Look! This female kind of looks like him.”
“Yeah, she kind of does.”
“Excuse me, Sir?”
“Yes?”
“Can we see this dog outside her kennel?”
“Sure.”
They petted her and tried to play with her, but she was skittish and timid. She barely raised her head up to look them in the eyes. Still, my mistress was hung up on the idea of getting me a girlfriend. She tried really hard to like this skittish, timid dog that looked like me.
My master had another Kaxian in mind to be my buddy, though.
“Let’s put her back.” He waved at the animal shelter employee. “Sir! Yeah, we’re not interested in this one after all. Thanks.” He showed her the dog he had in mind.
The funny thing was that sometime between that moment and when they entered the store, they had gone from buying toys to deciding to rescue another dog! Now it was just a question of which dog they were going to adopt.
The dog my master had in mind for my buddy, and the one my mistress determined would be my new ‘baby brother’, is a mix between a show-bred English Springer Spaniel and a Border Collie, with more wolf in him than I have. He’s all black except for white smatterings on his paws, chin, throat, stomach, and the tip of his tail.
“This one looks like he’ll play more than that other one,” my male human said. “See how alert he is?”
“Yeah, maybe that other one is old,” my female human said.
The animal shelter employee said, “This one is a puppy, so he’ll play a lot!”
“He’s a puppy? He’s so big, though.”
“Yeah, see? Look at his teeth.”
And this is where we came in, when my female human said, “Can you hold him while we go get him a collar and a leash?”
“Of course. There is some paperwork you need to fill out first, though.”
“OK.”
They filled out the paperwork, made their adoption of Oreo official, and were halfway through picking out not only a collar and leash but also a harness, a sleeping kennel, a comfy bed, dog dishes, a long-hair dog brush, and a dozen toys before they started wondering what my reaction might be, to them bringing a strange dog into our home.
“What about Raffle? Won’t he try to eat Oreo if we bring him into the house?”
“Oh, yeah. Hm. Maybe it would be better if we brought Raffle here to meet our new puppy.”
“Yeah, he’s less territorial when he meets other dogs away from home.”
They bought all the new stuff, took it over to the Humane Society’s display at the front of the pet store, picked up Oreo, and put his new leash and collar on him.
“We need our current dog to meet Oreo before we will be sure we can take him home. My husband is going to get Raffle and bring him here to meet Oreo. I’m pretty sure it will be OK, but we need to do this, just in case.”
“Yeah, OK, we understand.”
And that was the first time Oreo ran away.
My mistress was sitting in the store with her new ‘puppy’ and a shopping cart full of stuff for him. I was walking up to the store with my master, to meet my new ‘baby brother’.
He slipped out of his collar and ran under some displays to escape down the main aisle of the store, toward the reptile aquariums in the back. My mistress had a shopping cart full of stuff she didn’t want to get stolen, so she did the best she could to wheel it in front of her as she chased him through the store displays.
“Excuse me! Coming through! Sorry!”
She jigged and jagged around piles of dog food bags, trying to keep Oreo in sight. Toys fell on the floor and squeaked loudly. All the Kaxians and Niques in the store barked.
Fortunately, all the other pet store customers were either amused or sympathetic. Unfortunately, none of them did a thing to help. They all just looked at each other and laughed or smiled.
She finally had to leave the cart in the aisle and crawl after her new ‘puppy’ into a warren of kennels piled up in a corner before she caught the little stinker.
When I first saw Oreo, the two of them had just returned to the front of the store and were panting in their seats by the Humane Society’s display.
“You’re no puppy!” I said to my new ‘baby brother’.
“Aw, relax. If your human wants to treat me like a puppy, then I’m all for it.”
She did want to. She was cuddling him protectively. She seemed concerned about us barking at each other, too.
“Be nice, Raffle!”
“Ha ha! You have to be nice to me now!”
“Be nice, Oreo!”
He wasn’t going to cooperate, but I quickly composed and sent him a mental movie of the two of us paling around together: barking at the Niques together through our back-yard fence, for one thing, but also just standing next to each other and not being aggressive, here at the store and in the truck on the way home.
Our mistress was happy that we had stopped barking at each other, and she stood between us so she could pet both of us, one with each hand.
Just as we all were leaving together, one of the shelter employees came up to our humans and spoke in a whisper, as if that could keep me or Oreo from hearing him. Silly human.
“What’s the kennel for?”
“We crate train. It’s a safe place for Oreo to sleep.”
“Oh. Well, you may find him more resistant to crate training than most puppies.”
“Why’s that?”
The shelter employee was still whispering.
“He was abandoned in a crate.??
?
My mistress started crying as she cuddled Oreo and petted him and tried to reassure him he would not be abandoned again.
“Oh my poor, poor puppy. We’re going to love you and take care of you and never abandon you. I promise.”
My master joined in on petting Oreo, and agreed to the promises his mate made.
“Yes, yes, Boy, yes.”
Our humans loaded Oreo’s sleeping crate, dishes, and toys into the camper shell of our little truck, put harnesses on us both, and then seat-belted me into the little space behind the passenger seat and Oreo behind the driver seat.
On the way home, they parked at a restaurant. They took us both out for a short walk to do our business and then seat-belted us behind the seats again. It was winter now in the Coachella Valley, so the windows were only cracked open, not wide open like in summer. They went inside the restaurant.
“Forget this. I’m getting out of here!”
Oreo started chewing through the seat-belt in front of him, frustrated about being tied to the truck through his car harness.
“Quit that!”
Oreo laughed.
“Just because she thinks I’m a puppy and she told you to be nice to me, that doesn’t mean I’m going to do what you say. Dream on.”
He kept on chewing. He wasn’t even chewing on the seatbelt that had him tied to the truck, but I wasn’t going to point that out.
The one he was chewing kept my master safe while he was driving the truck! I had to stop him, to keep my master safe. I tried playing a mental movie of Oreo going to sleep, but I couldn’t get through. His mind was bright lavender with resentment, at me, no doubt. Instead of using a mental movie to control him, I tried to reason with Oreo.
“It’s pointless, though! Even if you chew all the way through the seat-belt, you’re still locked inside this truck cab!”
But Oreo didn’t listen. He kept right on chewing. He was already halfway through.
I tried reason again.
“You won’t be able to open the door and get out anyway, so stop!”
Eyes mocking me for being tied up and unable to stop him, he kept chewing. He was almost all the way through when our humans came back. My master was less than pleased.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“What’s wrong?” said the calm but resigned voice of our mistress.
“Oreo chewed the seat-belt all up!”
“Oh no!”
My master’s mind was a red ball of rage. I hate to think what might have become of my new ‘baby brother’ if the seat hadn’t been between him and my master, but to give him credit, my master stormed on foot into the sage brush and cactus to cool off.
My mistress wisely let her mate go off alone to calm his rage.
When he returned to the truck, I fully expected him to declare we were taking Oreo right back to the animal shelter. I debated playing my master a mental movie to stop that from happening. I would be able to. His mind was a calm blue once more when he got back to the truck.
I did have a duty to protect Oreo and watch out for him. He was a fellow Kaxian, an alien from the planet Kax, just like me. I knew this because all large-breed dogs are Kaxians. Small-breed dogs are from a rival planet called Nique.
But, Oreo was so obnoxious!
I hesitated longer than I am proud to admit. I didn’t need to decide, though.
My master aimed the truck toward home. My mistress sighed, and we all kept quiet the rest of the way home, each lost in our own thoughts.
We got home a little while later. It was dark out, and time for me to be fed. Time for Oreo to be fed, too, I guessed. Before unbuckling the ruined seat-belt and letting Oreo out of the truck, our master petted him while he gave him a little lecture. I backed the lecture up with a mental movie.
“Oreo, Puppy, you can’t chew seat-belts. No! Now, you aren’t going to ride in the car again until we have a muzzle for you, and for the rest of your life, you are going to wear a muzzle whenever you are in the car.”
It turned out Oreo was a ‘pet-me’ type. As soon as our human started petting him, he rolled over onto his back and exposed his belly to be scratched. Our human obliged gently and with love.
Our mistress stood back smiling, watching her mate pet her new ‘puppy’. She spoke with excitement.
“Shall we take him inside and feed them both and then show Oreo around his new home?”
My master’s voice was soothing.
“Yeah, Puppy. Come see your new home.”
My master carried Oreo’s sleeping kennel, comfy bed, dog dishes, long-hair dog brush, and dozen toys inside. My mistress took us both through the gate into the grassy fenced back-yard to do more business on our way into their den.
Our Nique neighbors, Cherry the Chihuahua and Fred the Toy Poodle, came out to chide us through the tall wooden fence, of course. Also of course, they had heard our human lecturing Oreo, and they could smell Oreo’s true age for this life, just as I could.
“Ha ha!” Fred said.
“How’s it going, three-year-old ‘puppy’?” Cherry said.
“I’m glad I don’t get muzzled in the car.”
For once, I agreed with our Nique neighbors, so this time I didn’t send mental movies to the squirrels high up in the pine trees, telling them to pummel the Niques with pine cones. Oreo took it in stride, though. I was beginning to think he had no shame.
“It’s going great! I’ve got two pushover humans to feed me and pet me, and Raffle here has to be nice to me because they said so. Life is good!”
“Well, good luck with the ‘puppy’ stuff.”
“Yeah, your humans have to let you out.”
“You don’t have a doggy door like we do.”
“Ha ha!”
The Niques tried to rile Oreo up, but his mind stayed cool as a cucumber. In spite of all the annoyance I still harbored for my new ‘baby brother’ because of his lack of respect for our humans, I was impressed at how he avoided being annoyed by the Niques. What he said next exemplified his cavalier attitude toward them.
“Whatever makes you feel good about yourselves.”
Just then, our mistress called us in for food, and we took off running for it. Food is good!
After we ate, our humans showed Oreo around the house. First, they showed him our pack’s orange carpeted sleeping den with their king-size bed and our two sleeping kennels, mine on our master’s side of the bed, and Oreo’s on our mistress’s side.
“Go in your house, Raffle.”
I went inside my sleeping kennel. It’s really much more like a wolf den than the big bedroom is. I like it in there. It’s my refuge, especially when scary human toddlers visit.
Oreo did not want to go inside his sleeping kennel. We all understood why, but my master was determined.
“Go in your house, Oreo.”
Oreo wasn’t budging. My master picked him up and put him in his kennel.
“Good boy, Oreo.”
As soon as my master let Oreo go, he flew out of the sleeping kennel with a big scowl on his face and started threatening to run away. Of course, I was the only one who could understand what he was saying.
“That’s enough of this kennel stuff, and I’m not wearing a muzzle, either. First chance I get, I’m out of here for good.”
Next, they took us all the way down the orange carpeted hall to the white-tiled kitchen and showed Oreo where the water was.
“Drink water, Raffle.”
I dutifully drank from the water dispenser. As it always does after I drink, the bowl filled, and air bubbles went up into the top of the water dispenser.
Oreo must have never seen a water dispenser before. He jumped three feet at the sound the air bubbles made!
“Wow! He’s afraid of the water dispenser, Scott!”
“Get him a bowl of water, then, and let’s make sure he knows where he can drink.”
She put a bowl of water down next to the water dispenser and ruffled the surface of the water with her han
d.
“Oreo, drink water!”
I knew he understood her, but he played dumb, just looking at her with his ears perched up, wagging his tail.
“Raffle, drink water.”
This was getting tiring! I dutifully drank again.
“Good boy, Raffle!”
“Oreo! Drink water!”
They did more hand swishing in his water dish.
He played like he finally got it, and at last drank some water.
“Good boy, Oreo!”
Both of our humans beamed smiles at him and petted him.
They might have been fooled, but I wasn’t. I let him know, too.
“Why did you have to make that so difficult?”
“It was worth it. I got fresh water, didn’t I?”
And then my mistress complicated my world almost beyond belief by making me Oreo’s caretaker while she was busy earning money to buy our food and her mate was sleeping so he could do the same.
“Come, Raffle!”
I ran to her, like I always do.
She scratched my belly while I stood next to her, like she always does.
“Look, see how I’m cleaning Oreo’s face? See? He has crumbs on his cheeks and eye-snot coming out of his eyes. We need to clean his face for him. Let’s clean his ears, too.”
She showed me how to clean the “puppy’s” ears, and then went on.
“Raffle, Oreo is just a puppy, and we need to take care of him. You will have to care for him while I am busy with my work.”
She petted me then, and smiled at me as she sealed my fate by idly giving me a binding command.
“Take care of your baby brother, Raffle. Keep him from running away from me again.”
Dog Aliens 2 - Chapter 2: Lido
Lido the English Bulldog smiled at his mate. Skil the black Labrador Retriever threw her tail up high, perked her ears at him, and then said what she had said every morning for the past year.
“I’ll race you to the front gate!”
“OK! 1, 2, 3, go!”
They both took off running.
Lido’s belly had gotten much smaller since Skil’s humans adopted him from the animal shelter a year ago. These new humans weren’t as generous with the food. They assumed their working dogs would hunt. Lido supposed that was a good thing. He could run faster now. Skil still won all their races, but that was OK with him.
He nearly caught up with her. Nearly.
Skil ran past rows and rows of grapevines that were green and bore new fruit. Even though it was winter, this was the desert. It never froze, and the sun was almost always shining. Humans grew food here year-round. The water came through a human-made river that ran for hundreds of miles from the nearest real river, the Colorado, before it delivered the water to pipes that ran underground for miles here to Lido and Skil’s humans’ vineyard.