The Kennel

Who decides who wins at life’s lottery? It seemed to me like the deck was stacked against me. My parents were always fighting, and my siblings would do everything they could to annoy me. I was never that into school, and while my grades weren’t great, they were at least passing. I never felt like I fit in anywhere, and didn’t have a lot of friends. Something always felt a little off with my life.

Somehow I managed to make it all the way through high school without going crazy. At my parent’s insistence, I applied to my local colleges, but none of them were all that interested in me, opting for the more serious students. Here I was facing the rest of my life, and having no idea what to do next or where to go.

I tried to get my parents to help me, and point me in a good direction, but they never seemed to have time for me. I spent most of the summer babysitting my brother, and got tired of it quickly, as he was a big pain and his friends always got on my nerves.

Towards the end of the summer, I started running low on funds. As I still had no plans for the next school year, I started looking for something to help pass the time and earn a few dollars until I could find a path to start down.

I happened to find a gentleman in his forties who had just inherited his uncle’s old kennel, and wanted someone to help him fix it up and get it running. I guess I was the only one who was interested, because I got the call later that night that saying I was the perfect candidate. He told me to show up next Monday morning wearing something that I wouldn’t mind getting messy.

I’m not sure why, but the idea of working at a kennel with dogs excited me. I had never been able to have one my self, because my stupid brother was allergic. I had always daydreamed what it would be like to have a faithful companion to greet me when I came home, and was the perfect escape from real life. I had always felt very comfortable around dogs, even envying the relationships they had with their owners.

Around 9:00 am Monday, I rode my bike over to my new bosses house, and rang the bell. He answered the door, and said, “You must be hunter! Come in and let me get you situated. You can call me Kevin”. I followed him into the house, and glanced around taking in the décor. It clearly hadn’t changed much since the 1980’s, and was in desperate need of updating and repair.

Kevin led me through the house and towards the back where a newer looking addition to the house featured what looked to be space for about 12 dogs, with indoor and outdoor areas, and a small apartment for the attendant so that someone would always be able to keep an eye on the dogs regardless of the weather.

As we toured the area, I could tell that the kennels had seen a lot of use when they were new, but had fallen into disrepair. Kevin estimated that we could get 3 or 4 of the up and running fairly easily, but the others would require more repairs, and might need to wait until they had some money coming in to cover the costs.

As it had started raining, we started with the apartment, and found that it was still full of most of the furniture of the past attendant. Kevin told me that I could keep what I wanted, and bag up the rest to go to the dump. I found a few cool things, including a laptop that still worked, and some video games. During a break, we tried the games out on a TV we found in the apartment, and ended up playing them for a few hours.

By the end of the week, we had gotten the apartment up to a fairly livable state, just needing a new coat of paint, and perhaps replace some of the more worn furniture. I was impressed with how much progress we had made in such short time.

As I was getting ready to leave on Friday, Kevin sat me down on the couch, and asked me if I was interested in moving into the apartment, and maybe taking the job of attendant when we got the kennel open. I could hardly believe it. This was too good to be true. I could finally get away from my loser family and have a place of my own, rent free.

I quickly agreed, and spent the weekend moving what little stuff I had into the apartment. I was glad that there was some furniture, so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor. The bed was well used, but I didn’t mind it so much since I finally had my own room and privacy. It seemed like my life was finally starting to turn around.

Over the next few months we managed to get the kennels we could up and running, cleaning out the others so they looked at least presentable for when people would come for pick ups and drop off. We hung one of those “pardon our dust” signs on the door.

Kevin had set the reopening for early summer, and we had plenty of people interested in making reservations, as there weren’t many places in the area. Before I knew it we were totally booked for the summer, and Kevin said we would make enough money to fix up most if not all of the remaining kennels over the winter.

As the weather got warmer, I started to enjoy spending time outside enjoying the weather. As we were in a secluded area, and Kevin had gone out of town for a few days, I decided to walk the grounds naked. It was very liberating and I enjoyed every minuet of it. After lunch, I started to get a little silly, and decided to pretend like I was a dog, and still naked, let myself into one of the runs.

After playing and running back and forth and barking, I started to get tired and fell asleep on one of the dog beds in the run. I don’t know how long I had been asleep, but it had gotten dark out, and I could hear Kevin calling my name. I hoped I could get out of the run, and back to the apartment before he could see me, but it was too late, and he rounded the corner as I was nearing the gate.

I expected him to get mad at me and fire me on the spot, but he just looked me up and down and smiled. “How are the runs Hunter?” he asked. I hung my head down, and replied “very comfortable”. Kevin started laughing and opened the gate for me. We walked back to the apartment, and Kevin told me not to worry, as he had often wished he could live the life of a dog. He rummaged through the bag he had been carrying, and presented me with a collar.

I looked down at the collar, and it was printed with the Kennels name, and had a nice tag on it that Kevin had engraved with my name. He told me he had been hoping that I would be willing to take the role of his dog, and wanted to know if I was interested in the position. I would be spending most of the time I was not taking care of the dogs either in one of the runs, or in the house with him, naked on all fours living as a full dog.

As I had never felt like I really belonged anywhere, or had much positive love or contact from my family, something inside me pushed me into accepting the role, knowing that I would be well cared for. As I accepted the position, Kevin gently took the collar and fastened it around my neck. I can’t explain it, but for some reason it felt right, and I felt a great sense of contentment that I had never known before.

Kevin led me back into the house where I spent the evening eating dinner out of a bowl, and being the best dog I could for him. When I really got into the dogs mindset, and was disappointed when Kevin told me it was time to go to bed. As I walked out back to the apartment, I looked back on the day, and realized that I made the right choice and found the home I was supposed to have.

I spent most of the rest of the spring naked, and as a dog, almost losing my self completely in the process. It was the most fun I had ever had, and could tell that Kevin was enjoying it too. I learned all of the typical dog tricks and got pretty good at them.

It was hard to switch back to human mode long enough to feed the dogs and clean the kennels, that summer, but somehow I managed. It was hard work, but I really enjoyed it, and started to feel a special kinship with the dogs. I even did obedience training with some of them, and having learned the tricks myself, I was able to teach them quickly, and efficiently, sometimes demonstrating them myself.

Sometimes I would do my chores in the kennel with nothing on but my collar, making sure that there were no drop offs or pick ups scheduled. Thanks to the buzzer and bell on the driveway, I always had time to get dressed before someone showed up.

Everything was going smoothly until I had to clean the run of a good sized lab. I had just found out that he was often prone to growl and lunge at people he didn’t know, and could be quite mean. He watched me carefully as I moved around his run, cleaning up after him, but for some reason he quickly seemed to accept my presence. Maybe he felt we had something in common. I was relieved when I was finished cleaning his run and feeding him, and found that as the week went on that we started to become friends, and I was able to clean up after and even pet him without any problems.

Kevin was watching the whole thing through the security cameras and came out, to make sure I was okay. After assuring him that I was, he was surprised, as he found the dog completely unmanageable, and was surprised I could do anything with him without getting bitten. All he had been able to do was get him in the run and quickly shut the cage, which was surprising, as most of the dogs loved him.

I was quite surprised when Kevin told me that the dogs owner had called and told him how impressed they were with how we were able to handle him, and that he would be staying with us anytime they were out of town.

It wasn’t long before we established a great reputation for the kennel, and were able to get all of the runs repaired, and even add a few new features. We won several awards for training and working with difficult dogs. The kennel was always booked to capacity.

Somehow, I still found time to play dog with Kevin. It wasn’t long before I started felling like I should be staying in the kennel, instead of taking care of it. One afternoon, Kevin called me to come outside, as he had something to show me. He had been working on something close to the apartment, and I was eager to see what it was.

As he pulled aside the curtain, I saw that it was a new run. This one had a nameplate with my name on it, and access to both the main house and apartment, so that I could easily access either one, and had a place to hide should I be in my dog role and someone show up unexpectedly. I could hardly contain my excitement.

When I had taken this job, I had thought it would be just a stepping stone to the next phase of my life. Now I know that I am loved, and have found where I belong. I couldn’t be happier and don’t have any desire to leave my master. I just hope Kevin can find someone to take over as attendant so that I can take my rightful place as his faithful pet, and get rid of the last of my unwanted humanity.