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SHEBA** :**

MAN' **S BEST** GIRLFRIEnD

By Darth Strainjyer

"You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him."

-- W. Bruce Cameron

Before that strange night, a lot of people used to say that they wished their significant others could be as loyal and loving as their pets. No one back then would have believed that it might actually come to pass.

The night that changed everything for everyone happened on one cool night in April, and as everyone knows, nothing was ever quite the same since. However, all the specifics of my particular experience with Sheba had its roots several years before the notorious incident even occurred. Yes, I'm sure everyone has a story to tell about that night and what happened afterwards. Especially with all the political debate and legislation that's currently going on regarding the world's new normal. The sheer number of pets in the world alone tells you that the stories from that night in April should be so numerous as to outnumber the stars in the sky.

My name is Douglas Wilkinson and I think that, like so many others, I want to write it down to put this all into some kind of perspective. To do that, I have to start with the circumstances that brought Sheba to me and into my home.

And that story starts, as so many stories often do, with falling for the wrong woman.

Her name was Kristen, and she was beautiful and adorable. We met at cybercafé downtown, and we seemed to instantly hit it off. Perhaps I should have known better. At the time I was a highly successful web designer, and that tended to attract a lot of leach like people trying to be my friend to get access to my money. But I was so smitten with Kristen that I wouldn't believe she was one of them. And, perhaps at first, she wasn't. At first, it was wonderful. We were inseparable, and it seemed we had a long future in front of us.

Everything went wrong the minute Anna came into the picture.

I have no idea where Kristen met her, but Anna was like poison to our relationship. Anna was some kind of obsessive man hater and female elitist that tended to try to hide her real opinions. She seemed okay at first, but that soon changed. She began to fill Kristen's head with the idea that everything I had should rightfully belong to her, and that I should just give her everything I owned, everything that I had worked for, and that I should expect nothing in return except for being allowed in her presence. Don't get me wrong, I was perfectly happy to buy Kristen whatever she wanted, but Anna told her that it all should belong to her, and none of it to me.

Needless to say, I was not on board with that.

Anna then proceeded to convince Kristen that the way to get my money was to accuse me of abuse. I had never hurt her. Not once. In fact, until Anna appeared we barely had any arguments. I never, since the day we met, had ever laid a hand on her. But very quickly all hell opened up and swallowed me whole. In the ensuing fire storm, I was investigated, lost my livelihood, all my friends and family, and found that not a single person believed that I was innocent of the charges. As far as everyone was concerned, the accusation was all the proof they needed. As my expenses mounted and my savings dwindled, I had to sell my house and move into a small apartment, resulting in Kristen, at Anna's insistence, attacking and attempting to sue me for not giving the house to her for free.

My accounts diminished as legal fees mounted and the court battle continued. The one beam of hope was my attorney, Madeleine Huller, a tough skilled trial lawyer and one of the only people who believed I hadn't ever beaten Kristen. Madeline skillfully and aggressively punched holes in the accusations and after a long drawn out struggle, managed to get me acquitted. Not that anyone except Madeleine believed that I was innocent.

I tried to counter sue for defamation but found that the courts wouldn't hear my case. All in all, I had lost practically everything. With everyone thinking I was some kind of woman beater, I had to leave the city I'd lived in all my life and find somewhere new to live. But still, the stain of the ordeal followed me everywhere I went.

Last I'd heard, Kristen was in a lot of financial trouble as well and had become a recluse. There was even talk of her being homeless and living in her car. Anna had gotten herself into all kinds of legal problems for making false accusations about other people and was facing heavy fines and even jail time on perjury charges (of course she insisted she was the victim of a male conspiracy). Served them both right, I supposed, but that did nothing relieve my problems.

Getting any kind of job was difficult. And ultimately I had to resort to freelancing under pseudonyms, which gradually allowed me to slowly pick up the pieces of my life and start putting them together.

When I had first gotten to the new city, I had been living out of a motel, and eventually a small crummy apartment. Little by little, my situation improved. Eventually, I was able to buy a house again, although nothing like what I had before, it was a modest one story house in a decent area. It had pretty much all I needed: Living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and three extra rooms, one of which became my office and work room.

Sometimes the house felt much bigger due to my isolation: A fortress of solitude from all my other solitude. Making friends was difficult if not impossible as my fictional past always crept up to ruin it. When people mysteriously stopped calling, it usually meant they'd gone online and found news articles and the like. And, of course, the fact that I was acquitted didn't matter to fuck'n anyone. Eventually, I stopped even trying.

I no longer even considered dating again. There was nobody I could trust, not a single person, to open myself up to like that again. I had begun to see people, probably rightfully so, as only interested in themselves and what they could take from me. I was starting to see every other human being as a potential enemy. I could not bring myself to believe that there was anyone who wasn't going to hurt me somehow. And so, I let it be, and retreated into my work and seclusion. I tended to listen to a lot of jazz as it seemed to relax me, to some extent.

Some days I felt like the only person in the world, and loneliness crept up insidiously upon me, threatening to swallow me whole. Days occurred with increasing frequency where it was all I could do the force myself out of bed to face an empty house and an empty life in an unending empty world. I thought of suicide from time to time. I began to drink more and more heavily. One day I realized that I was in my thirties already, and years had seemed to pass me by.

It was on one of those days that I was clicking through the internet randomly looking at things with a zombie like stare that I found an answer staring right at me. On the screen, although I'm totally at a loss to remember how I got there, was a meme that grabbed my attention.

It depicted a happy looking German Sheppard running along a picturesque beach with its tongue hanging out. The text over the picture read:

"If you love someone, set them free.

If you hate someone, set them free.

Basically, set everyone free and get a dog.

People are stupid."

I know it was supposed to be funny and not something that you were supposed to take seriously, but the meme seemed to speak to me. Somehow, the idea seemed to click. A dog, a good dog, was a nice loyal companion. I could no longer trust people, but maybe I could trust a pet. Maybe I could fill this empty void that I lived in with an animal companion, instead of bourbon or vodka. Perhaps, the unconditional love that a good pet could provide would be just what I needed.

I saw ads on TV all the time encouraging people to adopt rescue animals. Lots of people owned dogs, so this should have been something I could do. How hard could it be? This would be a snap.

Boy, was I wrong.

Adopting a pet turned out to be a four alarm nightmare. To begin with, I found that a lot of the people who ran these places didn't seem to be running on all eight cylinders. Surprising as it may seem, a lot of these people were more misanthropic than me. I filled out seven to ten page adoption forms, many worded in such a way as to trick you into giving the wrong answers, subjected myself to rude and often hostile "interviews" that felt more like an interrogation, and allowed intrusive home visits where people tried to go through my drawers and closets.

For five months, I put up with that, only to be rejected every time. Reasons given for my rejections, when they were given at all, ranged from the fact that I worked full time (even though I worked from home), I didn't have a wife or significant other, my house wasn't big enough, and even that they thought I was "weird".

But of course, even if those didn't come up, they would do a background check and Kristen's lies would appear. One woman from one of these places actually showed up on my doorstep and tore up my application right in front of me (like I said, a lot of these people seemed to have some serious mental problems, and coming from me, that's bad). It was insane. All those ads telling you to adopt, and when you tried to you were told to go to hell. After months, I threw my hands up and spiraled back into depression and drinking.

I thought of buying from a breeder but couldn't really afford any of those expensive places and there weren't any places just breeding regular dogs, they all had to be special pedigree. But the idea continued to bounce around in my mind. I started looking at alternative sources and finally came across something on a site called BerthasList. Think Craigslist but more skeevy. There, I found an ad with a picture of a large spectacular looking black lab named Sheba. Something about her wide eyes and sleek black coat just had me, she seemed to be speaking to me right though the computer. Looking over the listing, there were more pictures provided. She was lean but tightly built, with wide brown eyes and floppy triangular ears. Her muzzle was a little shorter than usual but wide and her nose tipped it delightfully in shots where she was sniffing the camera. All and all, she looked like she could be a show dog. There was a slightly steep "adoption fee", but it was less than a breeder and I knew I wanted to meet this dog.

The guy selling her was a wonderful piece of shit whose name I don't recall and don't really care about. He won Sheba in a messy divorce from his wife and was now selling the dog just to spite her. I'll tell you, I never wanted to punch someone so much in my life, not even Anna. I couldn't imagine anyone treating such a wonderful looking dog like that. The whole time I was there he paid no attention to Sheba even when she trotted over asking for some. She seemed timid around me and nervous, and I got the impression the asshole didn't treat her very well.

She was housebroken and up to date on all her shots, so that was good. According to him, she was friendly and good with other dogs and cats. He actually told me with a tone of disdain that he was afraid if someone broke in she'd make friends with the robber.

Eventually she came to me and let me pet her. Her tail started wagging and she nuzzled my hand and I knew I had to take her home. She was an amazingly friendly and loving dog.

When I told her owner with a big grin on my face that he had a sale all he had to say was, "Pony up the cash and take her."

Fuck I wanted to punch this guy.

I paid up, signed all the paperwork and took Sheba home with me. It took a little time for her to completely warm up to me, but after that she showered me with unconditional love and affection. I quickly became to consummate dog parent, taking her on walks and to the park and making sure I always had time for her. I found a good vet in the area and got her regular checkups.

Sheba was a good loving dog. And the best companion I could hope for. I bought her a dog bed, but she preferred to hop up on my bed and sleep at the foot of it. Sheba became my constant companion and my best friend, and for once I no longer felt so lonely. I gave her food, I gave her shelter and attention and she repaid me with unconditional affection. It was far more gratifying than any friendship I'd ever had with another human. And really, that's how I thought of her. Not as my pet so much but as my friend.

My drinking and depression rapidly began to ebb off and things started to get much better. Several of my aliases had started to attract a lot of clients and I was doing pretty well for myself once more, though not as well I had been before Kristen. I was even considering having a second floor and a den added to the house so there'd be more room for Sheba. I did get her a large heated dog house for the back yard.

Sometime later, I got a new neighbor. A pretty blonde woman named Alyssa moved in to the house next door who doted on an enormous St. Bernard named Titan. I mean, seriously, this thing looked like Cujo on steroids but he was one of the nicest, gentlest dogs you could ever meet. We often encountered each other walking our dogs and Sheba and Titan quickly began friends.

With our dogs always wanting to spend time with each other, Alyssa and I really had no choice to become acquaintances. She seemed like a really nice girl, but I knew all too well that looks could be deceiving and I couldn't bring myself to do anything but regard her with suspicion. I certainly could not regard her with any romantic intention and that was fine because, fortunately, she never seemed interested in me that way.

Like I said, I wouldn't even consider starting dating again. I simply didn't want to trust people again. And it wasn't like I could start dating my dog. At least, at the time I thought I couldn't.

Alyssa did seem to want to be more of a friend to me, but I had no reason to trust her. No reason to trust any human being, so I kept her at arm's length. I rebuffed her occasional invites to barbecues and house parties, and kept our relationship as casual as I could. I never entered her house and she never entered mine and all our conversations were held outside. Which was just fine with me. She seemed alright, but then again, they always did at first. In any event all we really talked about was our dogs and maybe the occasional movie or TV show.

We had one such meeting on that strange irrevocable day in April.

I had taken Sheba out for a walk and over to a local dog park for the day. The weatherman had predicted sunny skies all day that day, but I after an hour or at the dog park, clouds began to roll in. Literally roll, like a pyroclastic flow down the side of a volcano the gray clouds soon filled the sky leaving the day overcast, but not too cold to stay out. It was so strange they way they had come billowing in like smoke from a factory to cover the sky, but at the time I just seemed like some strange weather.

As we all know now, it was a lot stranger than that.

Once we finished the day off we walked home, with Sheba as usual stopping to sniff everything she came to and pulling on her leash in a way that left me wondering if I was walking her or if she was walking me.

As I arrived home, it was starting to get dark, and as I came up the walkway, Alyssa was coming out of her house with Titan, starting a walk of their own.

She waved to me, "Hey, Doug."

"Hi, Alyssa." I said back noncommittally.

Sheba and Titan ran to each other and began one of their customary intense sniffing sessions, tails wagging happily. While they got chummy, that left me standing there in awkward silence with Alyssa. As friendly as she was, I still regarded her with suspicion just like I did everyone I came into contact with. Looks are deceiving, I knew that from hard, bitter experience, and that thought always flashed through my mind whenever I dealt with Alyssa.

"So, how about this weather, huh?" She asked looking up at the clouds, "Crazy, right?"

"Yeah, crazy." I offered blandly.

Conversations between us usually went that way, with her trying to pull things out of me and me casually resisting. I appreciated that she wanted to be a friendly neighbor, but anyone asking a lot of personal questions set off all my paranoid alarm bells. Anyone trying to be friendly with me always brought back to mind my first meeting with Kristen.

"Oh!" She said, eyes widening, "Have you been watching the news today?"

"I never watch the news," I reminded her, "I already know how much the world sucks. I don't need a constant reminder."

She rolled her eyes a little but continued like I hadn't said anything, "NASA lost contact with the International Space Station. It happened in an instant: Everything was fine and then wham, the whole thing shut off. For like three hours all the electronics on it shut down. They just reestablished contact, but not everything's working."

Given how often Alyssa talked about NASA and Space X and anyone else who was wasting money shooting crap into space, it wasn't hard to figure out that she was a space nerd. I recalled her mentioning having an annual pass to the local aerospace museum. Seemed like a waste of time to me.

"That's rough." I admitted.

"I know, I hope they're all okay." Alyssa said.

I didn't reply. Alyssa folded her arms over her chest, raising an eyebrow at me. After a few seconds she talked again.

"Listen, I know it's not your thing but Marjorie is having a birthday party at the park for her dog Mulder, and she's invited all the dog owners in the neighborhood. She said I can invite a friend if they have a dog, and I thought you and Sheba might like to come?"

I had no idea who Marjorie was, I didn't really know any of my neighbors by name except for Alyssa, and that was entirely by choice. The mere idea of going to a party made me irritated. Alyssa's latest attempt to get me into contact with people who would probably and one point try to destroy me angered me as usual. Also I may have been cordial with Alyssa, but we weren't friends. I didn't have fiends. Not anymore.

"I don't think so." I said levelly.

She sighed, "Listen, Doug. I did a little digging and I know what happened to you. I know why you're so antisocial. I know what you've been through with that woman . . ."

Shit!

I felt my blood run cold. Chills ran up my spine and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Damnit, she'd found Kristen's lies. The lies everyone believed. Here we went: Alyssa had found out about the accusations. It was now only a matter of time before she decided I was guilty, probably already had. Now it would be all over the neighborhood, and I'd probably end up with a mob in front of my house. I was going to have to leave, that was that.

". . . but you can't let that color your view of everyone. No man is an island and if you cut keep cutting yourself off from everyone . . ."

"I have to go." I interpreted her, pulling on Sheba's leash and walking away towards my door.

"Wait! Doug! Listen . . ." Alyssa protested.

"Good bye." I pulled the protesting Sheba into the house and closed the door.

After brooding for a bit, I turned the TV on. A news report was on the screen:

" . . . meteorologists have no explanation for the bizarre cloud cover weather patterns being reported all over the world . . ."

I switched the channel, irritated, consumed by my own dark thoughts.

I sat around the house nervously, contemplating what might happen next. Would I have to move? What would Alyssa do when she inevitably decided I was a criminal who had escaped justice, just like everyone else always did? I decided it couldn't hurt to look for a new place to go to before all the shit inevitability started up.

Ever the faithful companion, Sheba seemed to realize I was upset and trotted over to me, nuzzling me and licking my hand. All the stress seemed to fade away and I put my hand on her head, stroking her soft fur, feeling the warm glow brought on by her unconditional love and trust. This was how people should be: Loyal, affectionate, caring . . . all the traits that no human had shown me since Kristen and her fuck'n destructive bullshit. I petted Sheba and played with her for a while until I decided to lose myself in work.

I pulled out my sketch pad and sat in the living room, sketching out ideas for my latest job, while I watched TV. The show I had on was some kind of sci fi show about an alien attack that killed most of the human race leaving only a handful of isolated survivors in various parts of the country. The survivors had no contact with each other at this point and didn't even know if anyone else was still alive.

Sounded like paradise to me. Except for the threat of marauding killer aliens.

As always, Sheba stayed by me, curling up at my feet or pressing her head in my lap for some attention. As I lost myself in the designing process, the hours ticked away. I was now watching some medieval fantasy that was loaded with gore and nudity in the Game Of Thrones mode, but without much of a story to it. At least none that I could decipher. Still, given the way people treated me, watching them get skewered on swords and spears was darkly appealing, and this thing had enough lies, betrayal, stabbings, and decapitations to warm the heart of any fan of 80s slasher movies.

It was around 8:10 pm that I began to notice that something was wrong. Appropriately, it was Sheba who clued me in.

As I busied myself in design concepts, I heard her starting to whine in an agitated manner. I looked over to her and saw that her tail was between her legs and her head was low to the ground. Her eyes looked around the room, eyes wide and frightened, face scrunched up. Something was scaring her, and scaring her big time. For the second time that day, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

"What's the matter, girl?" I asked her soothingly

As first I worried that some kind of intruder was in the house, but when I looked around I saw no one. I went to the window, afraid I'd see a mob of concerned citizens on the warpath. But the street was empty and dark except for the street lights, and no one was around.

When I came back from the window, Sheba had retreated under the dining room table and was visibly trembling, still whining in high pitched noises, her head low to the ground, looking to me for protection.

"Hey, Sheba," I said, "What's wrong, girl?"

Sheba continued to whine and shake with fear. It was setting my nerves on edge. Something was wrong but I had no idea what, and it killed be to see her like this. As I crossed over to her to start comforting her, the picture on the TV abruptly cut out.

One minute it was on, the next the screen was covered in snow, and hissing sounds of static flowed out of the set loudly and jarringly. But this wasn't like any video noise I'd ever seen before. The snow was moving across the screen in ripples from the exact center, like when someone threw a stone into a pond. The static was fading in and out with each ripple that made its way to the screen. I realized that I could also hear tiny high pitched electric pulses, like the sounds of old fashioned wireless communication of years gone by.

The phone rang and I almost jumped out of my skin.

I reached over and picked it up, "Yeah?"

It was Alyssa's voice, "Doug? Is your TV out?"

"Yeah, it just went out." I said, looking at the bizarre patterns on my screen.

"Ben's TV is out, too." Alyssa told me.

I had no idea who Ben was.

"So something's wrong with the service." I suggested.

"Ben's got cable. You and I have satellite."

"Okay?"

"And we don't even have the same providers. Mandy called me and her TV is out and she's a cable cutter, she just has a Roku box."

I honestly didn't care about all that. My real concern was Sheba. I crouched down next to the table and put my hand out for Sheba. But she stayed under there, continuing to whine pathetically and shake uncontrollably. She was scared out of her wits about something.

"Hey, Alyssa?" I asked her, worried, "Is Titan acting strange?"

"Yeah," She replied, but the signal started to fade in and out, "He's all worked up about someth . . . barking . . . ceiling . . . won't . . ."

I heard those strange beeping sounds through the phone this time, and then the line went dead. Completely dead. No dial tone, no static, just silence. I fumbled around with it, but nothing happened. I put it down and reached for my smart phone.

The screen read "No service."

I jumped as Sheba suddenly started barking loudly. She had come out from under the table and was baring her teeth savagely and she barked and growled. She seemed to be trying to protect us from some danger but she wasn't barking at anyone or anything in the house. She was barking strait up in the air, her head tilted all the way back as she sent her warnings up towards the ceiling.

A chill ran down my spine. There was no attic in the house. Was there someone in the ceiling crawlspace? No, the crawlspace was above the hall near the bedroom and office. There was nothing at where she was barking at. It was like she was growling at the sky above the house.

"What's wrong girl?" I asked again, crossing to her.

Suddenly, everything went dead. The TV, the lights, everything shut off at once. Looking out the window all I saw was pitch black as all the all the street lights were out too, and all the windows in the other houses were dark. Because of the cloud cover, there was no light from the moon or stars so everything looked like a wall of solid shadow. I looked around the darkened house, wondering what could have caused the black out. I could hear Sheba whining again and she seemed to back under the table after her brief show of bravado. The whining was interspersed with occasional barks and growls.

I began to hear a strange low pitched pulsing sound. Strange deep noises that faded in and out. It wasn't coming from anything in the house. In fact it seemed to be coming from outside. It seemed to be coming from the sky.

After a few seconds of darkness, light began to filter in through the windows, and I could see that Sheba was lying on the floor under the table with her legs pulled up under her, her head on the ground her face scrunched up in fear. And she wasn't the only one because I could tell the light coming in through the living room window and the kitchen window next to the dining room wasn't from any streetlights coming back on.

Because the light was green.

It was faint, but the slight glow came through the window in the kitchen, through the door arch into the dining room, slightly illuminating the otherwise darkened room. Light from the front of the house was doing the same thing to the living room. I walked into the kitchen and looking out the window into the backyard I could see the green light was flickering across the yard. It seemed to be coming from above. Looking upwards I could see moving flashes of green light coming through the clouds overhead. Like lightening high in air that hadn't penetrated the cloud cover, except for its green color.

"Stay, Sheba." I told my dog and got no argument.

I walked around through the laundry room and went out into the yard. In the small time it took me to get there, the light had gotten brighter. Looking up now, I could clearly see the source of the lights: Large glowing blob like objects, obscured by their own luminescence were moving across the sky. They looked like meteors or animation I'd scene of comets. There was a good dozen that I could see up there. Behind each one what looked like a trail green glowing dust fell away from the main the part, sinking towards the ground. The whole sky was full of it, fluttering around like pixie dust from Peter Pan. All the while that creepy pulsing sound continued, and I could definitely tell now it was coming from the clouds.

I looked to the left and could see that Alyssa was standing on her back porch, looking up at the weird display in the sky. At first she didn't notice me, but when she did she looked at me and mouthed 'what the hell?'.

The display was mesmerizing and "meteors", or whatever you called them, moved across the sky trailing that falling dust. One of them that was traveling north seemed lower to the ground than the others. My pulse quickened as I realized it was headed downward like it was going crash. It was headed towards the other side of the freeway, but if all of those things were heading for the ground I could be in a lot of danger. But I had no idea what to do.

As the "meteor" got lower and lower, it suddenly flashed brightly as lightning bolt like streaks of green energy crackled along its surface. There was a low loud groaning sound, similar to a fog horn, and then the whole thing blew apart, exploding into a huge fog of that glowing dust which floated towards the ground in an enormous heavy cloud. I jumped back, my hands on my head as the cloud of dust seemed to fill the horizon in that direction.

There was another fog horn sound and another one of them exploded, this time off to the south west side. Like before it filled the horizon with a long cloud of that weird dust which began to sink towards the ground. It was almost beautiful in its way, and yet sinister at the same time. What the hell was it, and where had all these things come from.

"Doug!" Alyssa shrieked.

I looked up just in time to see one of the meteors barreling towards us. No sooner had I seen it than the whole mass burst open sending the dust in every directions, its glowing bulk obscuring the clouds. I yelped and crouched, down, instinctively covering my head as the dust fell towards us like snow. All around us more flashes filled the air as more of those things burst to rain down its weird sparkles on everything.

Alyssa had retreated into her house and that seemed like A good idea. Come to think of it, going out there in the first place was probably a bad idea. I bolted into the house just as the dust seemed about to settle on everything out there. I slammed the door shut and locked it just to be sure, my heart hammered in my chest. All the windows were closed so, assuming the dust wasn't hot and didn't set my roof on fire, Sheba and I might be safe. I turned around a cried out.

The dust was in my house.

It was floating down from the ceiling, passing through the roof and everything else like they weren't even there. The particles filled the laundry room with green light as they sank down. Once they reached the floor or the laundry machines or anything else they seemed to evaporate.

I ran into the dining room and found Sheba snapping at the dust, trying to bite it. I bolted too her, no sure if this stuff could be poisonous or not. My heart raced and desperate fear clutched at every part of me. I didn't know what I would do if something happened to my beloved dog.

I grabbed Sheba and pulled her too me, clamping my hand on her snout, "No girl. No girl. Don't do that, it's not safe."

Sheba pulled back towards the table and I went with her. We ended up both hiding together under the table like we would in an earthquake. I could see the flashes outside the window had stopped and I could no longer hear those strange droning sounds. All of those objects, whatever they were, must have burst. After a few minutes, the last of the dust disappeared and the house was dark once more.

After waiting a few minutes, I came out from under the table. Sheba followed me timidly and I crossed through the living room to look out the window. The street and sky were dark once more. I could make out a few people standing in front of their houses looking around in confusion, but the mysterious blobs and dust were completely gone, along with the fog horn noises.

I stared out the window everything that had just happened spinning through my mind, when the lights abruptly went on, scaring the shit out of me again. The power seemed to be back on and I heard the TV click on once more. I heard the familiar harsh repeated buzzing of an alert and turned around. My face sank as I saw what was on the screen.

Oh, fuck. This must really be big.

There on the TV screen was the stand by page for The Emergency Broadcast System. After a few seconds of the alarm, a woman's voice replaced it.

"This is the Emergency Broadcast System. At approximately 8:10 strange meteorological anomalies have begun appearing in the skies all over the world. We switch you now to the offices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency where . . ."

It droned on for a bit and then switched over to a hastily arranged broadcast where several scientists spent several minutes pretending they knew something and, not unexpectedly, they really didn't know shit. They cut to various video recordings of the event, brought out charts, maps and graphs. I watched for a while as various sundry authority figures tried to explain what everyone had seen but ultimately explaining absolutely nothing. Same as always.

I watched for a while, hoping for some kind of useful information. Those hopes were in vain as we cycled through all sorts of "experts" as they all tried to sound like they had some kind of clue, but they all ended up looking ignorant and fairly stupid. Eventually I tried changing channels but found more of the same. Some channels had people on, just apparently to fill time, babbling on about all kinds of insane theories. And I don't mean aliens, I honestly could have believed aliens after what I saw. No, multiple occult "experts" who I'd never heard of before suggested that Satanic cults, or witches, or scientologists were to blame.

When I went online it got even worse. One guy even went so far as to claim he had evidence that the culprit was that ancient Gnostic ceremonies were being performed in the basement of a donut shop in Lansing, Michigan (in later weeks it was revealed that the shop in question had no basement. But the reporter who had to go check that out got free donuts so . . . silver lining, I guess). His "evidence" was someone had sent him an anonymous email claiming that. One woman uploaded a video where she played that "I Write The Songs" song from Barry Manilow backwards and insisted it said 'Satan bring your green lights' and that the 'I' in the song was the Devil himself.

I started to wonder if people had always been this fuck'n stupid or was it a more recent development.

I finally turned everything off and went back to what I had been doing before. The green lights, thus far, had shown no sign of returning. Nobody was dropping dead just yet, so I might as well try to get some work done. After working with the notebook for about half an hour, I suddenly stopped as something had caught my attention.

Sheba was acting strange.

She was staggering around the room, her tail swinging lazily, her eyes wide and she acted like she was drunk. She swayed back and forth, her head bobbing up and down slowly. She was making huffing and whining sounds.

"What's the matter, girl?" I asked, crouching down next to her.

She flopped over on her side, writhing on the carpet, wiggling her legs around and twisting her body, her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth. She looked up at me, her eyes glazed over but wide with fear. Panic exploded in me as my beloved dog shuddered in her strange seizure. I was immobilized at first, and then reached for the phone. I knew where there was a 24 hour animal ER nearby. I prayed I could get her there in time.

But what happened next caused me to freeze as I was reaching.

Sheba's legs bent backwards with a sick popping sound until they were pointing completely outwards from her rear instead of fixed down, pushing her rump and her tail up along her back. And then, they started growing. The began to elongate, stretching out behind her and getting longer and longer. No sooner had that started that her torso began to stretch out too as she whimpered and yelped. Her whole body, I realized, was getting bigger and bigger.

The fur on her head began to thicken, growing out of her scalp and becoming longer than the fur on the rest of her body.

I fell back against the couch, not believing what I was seeing. My dog was changing right before my eyes, changing and growing. As her neck swelled up I heard and snap on her collar, which was designed to break away if it got caught on anything, split open and fell away with a jangle of her ID tags. Her body continued growing until she was almost as big as me.

The fur on her head now looked like a chia pet.

The growing finally stopped but her rear paws began to expand, getting bigger and wider as they swelled up. This change began to rise from her paws up her legs which started to inflate like a balloon, thickening and rounding as the changes ran up and up her legs. I blinked, stupefied by what was taking place. From her paws to the middle part of her lower legs, she was still shaped like a dog, but above the middle part her legs were taking on the appearance of human legs, if still covered with fur.

The fur on her head was now falling past her ears and down the sides of her face, starting to get slightly curled.

As the changes reached her hips, leaving her with two shapely human legs jutting out behind her, her hips and butt began to swell. I could hear bones crack as her pelvis rearranged itself, her hips curving and her butt rounding until it gave her a very human like crack running over her back, a nicely rounded heart shaped ass, although at the time I was far to panicked and dumbfounded to realize what I was looking at. Her tail began to lengthen as well, thickening and lengthening until it was almost down to her very human knees.

"What the fuck?" I shrieked, "Oh my god, what the fuck?"

Sheba replied with a shrill whine.

Her head fur hand now reached her neck and it was distinctly wavy. Fuck, it wasn't fur anymore: It was hair. As in human hair.

The barrel of her body began to sink in above her hips, narrowing down the middle as her stomach shriveled and flattened against her body. Her tail thumped against the floor as her body shuddered and shook, her eyes looking frantically to me for help but finding that I had none to offer. I could see muscles moving in her cheat under her fur as her physiology reorganized itself. From her chest down her body was like that of a human woman's, but my mind rebelled at recognizing that.

The hair had now reached past her neck.

With sharp cracks that made me wince, her front legs rotated up and to the edges so that they were attached to her sides instead of strait down, giving her shoulders beneath her neck. She yipped as her front legs began to grow as well, lengthening and thickening at the same time, expanding down from her new shoulders as the swelled into long rounded shapes. Very quickly, they were no longer legs. They were arms.

"Hrew! Hrew!" Sheba whimpered.

Her hair moved past her new shoulders. It was thick and luxuriously wavy.

"This isn't happening!" I moaned, "This can't be happening!"

Her paws swelled up and grew, the toes lengthening and actually narrowing as they got bigger and longer. The dewclaw had begun to lengthen as well, growing out of the side of her paw. The more it went on, the more I had to accept that they weren't paws anymore, they were becoming hands.

"Hmmrrrrr." Sheba whined.

Tears streamed down my face. I had no idea how to help her.

The skin beneath her nipples began to rise, swelling up around them.

Her tail thumped against the ground as her neck began to narrow. There were more cracking noises as her head rotated to be facing forward instead of out from her body. I could almost hear her spine moving to be attached to the bottom of her skull instead of the back.

I winced as I felt a sudden sharp pain in my head, and a strange tingling feeling ran under my scalp for a few seconds before it all disappeared. I had no idea what it was or what to make of it, but I was more concerned with what was happening to Sheba.

She now had six large breasts growing out of her chest, getting bigger and bigger and expanding by cup size rapidly.

The hair now spilled down in waves past her shoulders but had seemed to stop growing. Her muzzle started to shrink, pulling back into her face little by little until it was about half of her former size. All over her body small little changes seemed to be happening, putting the final touches on this bizarre transformation happening in front of me.

The six breast were now d-cups at least, seeming to defy gravity the way they jutted out from her furry chest.

"Hrrrmmmm! Hrrrmmmm!" Sheba panted and then cried, "Hrrrmmmm! Hr . . . ahhhhhhhhhh!"

That last big came out in a deliriously human sounding voice, high pitched and soft, and very feminine. We were definitely deep into the proverbial uncanny valley.

The changes seemed to have stopped. Sheba's chest rose and fell as she panted from the exertion. With her transformation complete, her body was completely that of a human woman, except for her face, her ears, her tail, and the fact that she was still covered head to toe in smooth black fur. The hair on her head was wavy and spilled down her back to her shoulder blades. Her ears flopped down the side of her head, hanging down like they always had. Although there were six of them, her breasts would have been the envy of any human woman I knew of. The fur didn't cover her nipples and they now looked so human that I blushed. Her stomach was flat and her hips were nicely curved. Any woman would have been jealous of that curvy body, if it weren't for the black fur that still covered her from head to toe.

Sheba sat up, and held her newly formed hands in front of her face, staring at them with disbelief and alarm in her wide brown eyes.

What happened next almost made me pass out.

"Ahhhhhh!" Sheba squealed, "What happened to my paws?"

It took me a second to wrap my brain around the fact that my dog had just spoken. When I got it, the floor seemed to fall away beneath me. The whole world simply stopped making sense for a few seconds as I stared at her in utter astonishment. This was it, all the shitty stuff that happened to me in my life had finally driven me completely batshit crazy. It was the only explanation that made any sense.

"Alpha Doug! What happened to my paws?" She held her hands out to me and then clapped them to her mouth with a gasp.

"I . . . I'm barking like you do!" She whispered in surprise.

She looked down at her body and whimpered softly as she took in the changes. She brought her legs up somewhat and looked herself over, seeing the human torso and long human shaped legs. She looked back at me, her eyes wide.

"Alpha?" She asked meekly, "What's happening?"

It took my poor beleaguered brain a few seconds to realize she was directing the question at me, seeing as I was still back on the fact THAT MY FUCK'N DOG WAS TALKING.

When that clicked, all I had to say was, "I don't have a fuck'n clue."

"But how did I change?" She continued insistently, "Alpha? How did I become like you? How am I speaking your bark?"

"I don't know." I protested, "Sheba, I'm as completely lost as you are."

Why did she keep calling me Alpha, I wondered?

"Please!" She insisted, "I'm so scared and I really need to know what to do. What are we gonna do, Alpha Doug?"

"I don't know." I shook my head, "I don't even know where to start."

"But you always know what to do!" Sheba pounded her hands on the floor in frustration, "You're the Alpha."

Oh, right. Dogs perceive their owners as their pack leaders. That's why she kept calling me Alpha. How she knew the word, or any words at all other 'sit' and 'stay' I had no idea. I appreciated her confidence in me, but in this situation it was sorely misplaced.

"Sheba . . . I really don't know what happened." I told her.

She whimpered, and her face dropped a little. I actually felt a little guilty for letting her down.

"I . . . I think it might have something to do with those green things in the sky before." Was the only thing I had to offer.

Her ears went up and her eyes narrowed, "Oh yeah. I knew those fuck'n things were trouble the minute I heard them."

My dog just dropped and F-bomb. We were officially down the rabbit hole. Or puppy hole as it were. Sheba put her feet on the ground spread apart with her arms on her knees and looked over her knew body. I realized with a hot flash on my face that in that position, I could clearly see that her fur didn't cover her vagina either, and it now looked very human just like the rest of her. I blushed and tore my eyes away from it, feeling an unwelcome stir in my dick at the sight of it. My reactions to her were starting to scare me.

"I guess this isn't so bad." She mused, "I kinda look like the girls you're always looking at on the internet."

"That's . . . wait . . . you know what the internet is?" I stammered.

"Sure, you're on your computer all the time."

"And you know what a computer is?"

"Yeah, of course."

"How do you know that?"

She narrowed her eyes and thought about it, her ears raising, "I . . . I don't know. I just do, like how I know how to bark like you."

She leaned forward putting her hands on the floor and then crawled towards me on her hands and knees, her tail drooping between her legs. She whimpered softly, her eyes taking on that sad puppy dog look that they did so well.

"Alpha?" She pleaded, "You won't kick me out now that I'm different, will you?"

"No! Of course not!" I exclaimed, and then softened my voice, "You have no idea how important you are to me, Sheba. I'd be completely alone and lost without you. And you don't have to call me 'Alpha'. Call me 'Doug'."

Sheba brightened up at that, her ears raising and her tail wagging happily, "Okay, Doug."

Not knowing what else to do, I patted her on the head, "Good girl."

Her tail wagged even faster and she jumped forward. Before I even knew what she was doing, she planted a big lick on my face. No sooner had I recovered from that then she gave me a very human kiss on the cheek as well and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly, her tail bouncing back and forth. My cock stirred involuntarily at having her naked furry body pressed up so close to me, but I hugged her back just the same. She was the only living thing I really cared about anymore.

When she finally let go, I stood up and Sheba, looking at how I rose, attempted it herself, pushing herself up and two shaky legs, wobbling as she attempted to stand. I grabbed her by the shoulders and steadied her, again feeling that unwanted tug of desire as her breasts brushed against while she clung to me for support. Was she doing that deliberately, I wondered? She steadied herself and seemed to get the hang of it.

"It feels so weird being this high." She giggled.

She actually giggled. It was such a human sound I felt the room spin again. All of a sudden I realized that She was bending over, reaching for her collar, I was getting a very explicit view of her pussy again. Again I felt my face get hot.

She tried to put it back around her neck but found it too tight now. She fumbled with it, loosening the collar like she had always been doing it.

"You probably don't need to wear that anymore," I told her, "Just leave it."

"No!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide and her ears up in surprise, "You gave this to me!"

It was a reaction I hadn't expected. It hadn't occurred to me that Sheba might have regarded her collar as a form of jewellery or a gift. I had just assumed it was something she tolerated but wanted to be rid of. I had no idea it was so important to her, or that she regarded it with any affection.

I took the collar and adjusted it a little bit. Then I went behind her and slipped it around her neck like you would a necklace. She reached around and pushed her long hair out of the way and I fastened the collar at the back of her neck. She made a satisfied cooing sound and I clicked the collar in place. Than she turned around and hugged me again, her tail wagging happily.

I untangled myself from her, feeling that embarrassing twinge in my dick again. What was wrong with me? She was a dog. I mean, she was, wasn't she? Still she seemed so human now, with speech and everything, I started to wonder if it would be alright. I quickly checked the thought, even as I began to think about what it would be like to play with all six of those boobs. Her fur was so soft and silky . . . no! Stop it! I thought it would be best if we got her covered up.

I cleared my throat, "Let's get you some clothes, I'm sure I've got something you can wear."

She cocked her head at me, "Why? You see me naked all the time."

"Not with that sexy body." I told her, "I'm sure I've got on old t-shirt and an old pair of shorts or sweatpants somewhere."

The corners of her mouth curled up and I realized she was smiling, grinning from ear to ear. It was so completely human on her very canine face that I actually felt a shiver run up my spine.

"You called me 'sexy'." She cooed, her eyebrows raising.

I didn't even know how to respond to that. So I said nothing and decided to pretend that hadn't just happened. I went into the bedroom and Sheba followed me, tail wagging almost like normal when she'd follow me room to room. I pulled an old faded black Nirvana T-shirt out of a drawer and a pair of navy blue shorts and handed them to Sheba.

"Here, put these on." I told her.

She grimaced, "I'd rather go naked."

I sighed, "Come on, you look half human, you're gonna have to wear clothes like us. At the very least neither of us wants to get arrested."

She reluctantly took them, making an annoyed face. She stepped into the shorts and found she couldn't quite pull them up all the way because of her tail. She ended up rolling the top of the shorts so that they now rode low on her hips before pulling the shirt on, the material making an odd bunched up shape over her six breasts.

After she was dressed, I took her around the house getting an idea of what kind of knowledge her transformation might have given her, since it definitely had given her human knowledge somehow. Thankfully, she now knew how to use the toilet and the sink and shower (I was going to need to buy shampoo in bulk). And it seemed as if she had every bit of knowledge a human would have. I wondered if she just knew whatever I had known before her TF. The idea that something was reading my mind and giving it to my dog was unsettling to say the least. With nothing left to do, we went back into the living room and turned on the news.

I sat on the couch and Sheba plopped down awkwardly close, leaning up against me. I brought my laptop over and checked out the web at the same time.

At first, the news reports were more of the same, all about the mysterious lights and various experts revealed that they hadn't learned shit since the last time I'd had the TV on. After about an hour or so, at which point both me and Sheba had almost fallen asleep, the first reports of animals turning anthropomorphic began to filter in, which the reporters visibly scoffed at along with their various experts and emergency personal. It was a while before confirmation finally began, and videos of the transformations began to be aired. Again, everyone spouted off their nonsense. Politicians blamed each other and whatever the opposing party was. Scientists engaged in all kinds of guess work in white coats, religionists claimed it was a sign from whichever god they worshiped and none of it told me anything I didn't already know.

All it told me was that this seemed to be going on all over the world.

"At least I'm not the only one." Sheba offered.

On social media, it was a different story. Almost instantly, chatter of pets turning into furry people sprang up along with a ton of videos of transformations. As always internet idiots began to claim they knew the "truth" and started spouting retarded theories, always presenting them as 'facts' without any proof ranging from a deep state communist conspiracy, the work of the devil to test our faith, a conspiracy of fascist government agencies to a leaked Russian germ warfare weapon. People blamed both Muslims and Israel with equal vigor. There was talk of genetic experimentation in China and even alien visitors. All of which made me weep for the human species, and I could only imagine the impression of us that Sheba must have been getting from all of this. Wouldn't be the only one, people sucked as far as I was concerned.

Honestly, that alien one was the only theory that made any sense.

After a while, I decided I needed a drink. Unsurprisingly, Sheba knew how the computer operated so I left her to peruse the net while I walked back to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of vodka from under the sink. If there was ever a time for a good stiff drink now was the time.

I poured some into a glass and downed the tasteless but burning liquid. Standing at the sink, I looked out the window into the back yard.

When the glass was empty I filled it again.

All the houses behind me had the lights on and I could see figures moving rapidly back and forth. I could only imagine what was going on inside them. I glanced over at Alyssa's yard, I couldn't see the house from this angle, and wondered if she was in there dealing with an anthropomorphized Titan. The mind boggled.

I must have stood there for thirty minutes or more. Sighing, I drained the last of the glass and walked back into the dining room heading for the living room. Almost instantly I heard groaning and moaning sounds coming from my laptop. I almost tripped and fell over.

Wait, was she watching porn?

I walked into the living room. Sheba hand her legs folded up Indian style with her elbows on her knees, leaning forward and looking at the screen with her hands under her chin. On the screen, she was watching porn alright. Several windows were open displaying a variety of streams of various couples fucking like crazy in a variety of combinations. Her tail flopped back and forth against the couch, happily.

As I came in, Sheba looked up at me without a hint of embarrassment and grinned.

"You know," She said, "You humans are way more imaginative when you mate."

"Uh . . . thanks?" I stammered, not sure what to do here.

"Seriously," She jabbed a furry finger at the wholesale fucking going on on the screen, "All the stuff you guys do with your mouths and hands and the other opening. It's all really inventive. All those different positions. All the different mixes of genders. Dogs mate and we just fuck and that's it. You humans really make it into an art form."

I had no idea how to respond to that, which seemed to be my default setting for the day.

Instead I said, "Could you turn that off, I need to talk to you?"

Obediently, but with a slight frown, Sheba clicked off the windows and set the laptop aside. She then turned to look at me, eyes wide and ears up, as if everything I said was destined to be gold. I really hated to disappoint her. I picked up the TV remote and pressed mute.

"Tomorrow, unless something else happens, I think I'm going to have to take you to see someone." I told her.

"Like who?" She asked innocently.

I sat down next to her. "Christ I don't know. I don't even know if I should take you to a regular doctor or the vet."

"The vet?!?" She cried aghast, "No! They're mean to me in that place . . ."

She trailed off as she looked to the floor, her brow knitted and her eyes moving back and forth as something occurred to her. Her tail slowly tapped the couch behind her.

She looked back at me, her eyes full of realization, "You take me there to help me, don't you? You take me there to make sure I don't get sick?"

I nodded, "That's the general idea."

"I'm sorry," She said her tail drooping, "I never realized that. I've been such a pain when we had to go."

I had to laugh, "Yeah, pretty much all dogs are."

Sheba shrugged, "Sorry."

I thought a second, "Let's not worry about that now. Maybe by tomorrow they'll have their shit together and they can tell us what we're supposed to do."

Sheba looked at the TV which was still on, "It doesn't look like they've ever got their shit together."

"No, they usually don't." I admitted.

I sighed and fell back on the couch. I supposed I should have at least tried calling Alyssa, but asking for help from other people just wasn't in my makeup anymore. Too much betrayal, too much grief. I was a ruined social outcast and people like me couldn't risk asking for help unless they really needed it. Unless I absolutely had no choice. Fuck, I hated people.

As I sat there with my dark thoughts, Sheba reached over to the laptop again, "Enough of this dreary shit. I've seen you play music on this, let's have some tunes."

She brought up my Spotify app and logged in with my password, which pretty much confirmed my creepy suspicion that everything she had "learned" since her transformation had been copied (for lack of a better term) from me, somehow. It was a really disturbing thought. I really hoped she didn't have any of my horrible memories stored in her head.

She brought up my jazz playlist and hit play. Soon, classical jazz began flowing out of the laptop.

She jumped up off the couch, moving her body slowly, almost sensually as she danced a little to the music, "Oh yeah, that's the stuff."

Again, it was uncanny and surreal how human her dancing was. She moved around, raising her arms over her head and swaying her hips to the music, like any girl on a dance floor. She shimmied and moved and really seemed to have good rhythm as she enjoyed herself and the music.

"Wooooo, dancing is fun." She declared, gyrating her hips with her hands outward.

She spun around and moved around the room, before turning towards me. She grinned and shimmied towards me. I held up a hand in protest, but she grabbed both my hands and pulled me too my feet, her tail wagging happily. I don't know why I let her pull me up but the vodka probably had something to do with it.

Instead of wanting to do regular dancing, it seemed she wanted something a little more intimate as she put her arms around my neck, moving back and forth in slow time to the music. Almost instinctively, I put my hands on her hips and soon we were gently rocking back and forth, slow dancing in a way I hadn't in years. I had completely forgotten the simple pleasure of a slow dance with a girl. It was the first time since Kristen that I had ever let anyone who even remotely looked like a woman this close to me. It felt disorientating and part of me wanted to run.

"Am I doing good?" Sheba asked, surprising me.

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure." I replied.

"I just want to please you." She said, "I don't want you to look so sad anymore. I want to make you happy."

That made sense. Dogs, Labradors in particular, always wanted to please their humans. But actually hearing that out loud was a little disconcerting. I felt like maybe I'd been letting her down, all these dark and dreary years.

I brushed a bit of her hair out of her eyes, "You do make me happy, Sheba. You're the only thing that ever does anymore."

She looked a little alarmed, "Why?"

Well, at least that confirmed she had my knowledge but not any of my actual memories. That was something. I didn't know how to explain this to her, however. It wasn't something I ever talked about. I'd tried going to shrinks but they had always tried to make me into the villain just like everyone else.

"I've, been lied to a lot." I said simply, "Too many people have betrayed me. Almost every person, really."

"Alp . . . Doug, I would never betray you." Sheba answered softly.

I had been told that before. Plenty of times and every single time it had been a lie. But now, looking into Sheba's wide brown eyes, I actually believed her. For the first time in so many years, I believed someone.

"I know you wouldn't." I replied quietly.

She moved closer to me, and I realized I could feel all six of her breasts pressing up close to me. By stepping forward, she'd caused my hands to drop a little lower on her hips in softer, sexier area near her butt. Suddenly, the dance felt . . . steamier than it had before. I felt that same unwelcome stirring in my cock from her closeness. Her fur was so soft and silky, but now encasing her new curvy and sexy body, it felt better than it ever had before.

"There's nothing I wouldn't do for you." Sheba said earnestly, "You rescued me. My old humans . . . they didn't love me like you do. I . . . don't know what I did to make them so mad at me. To make them hate me so much."

She looked down, and seemed almost about to cry. Labs were notorious for inherently thinking that there were no bad people. A flare of anger stirred in my chest, remembering that piece of shit I'd bought Sheba from. Part of me regretted that I hadn't slugged him when I'd had the chance. And it sounded like his ex-wife was no better.

"You didn't do anything." I assured her, "I met your old human. He was an asshole. A rotten little shit stain."

Sheba pulled up close to me. We had stopped dancing and she was now hugging me close, wrapping her arms around me and holding me.

"I'm afraid I'll make you mad at me, and you'll make me go away." She sniffed.

"No." How could she think that? "I'd never get rid of you, Sheba. You have always been there for me when I needed you the most. When absolutely no one else was. Don't worry, girl, I love you."

Sheba looked up, her face was inches from mine, "I love you too. So much."

And then, we were kissing. I don't even know how it happened, but suddenly we were making out, our mouths pressed against each other as kissed deeply, our arms pulling each other's bodies close against one another. I could feel the warmth of her furry body close to mine. The kiss was deep and passionate, and I pulled her to me as our mouths moved. Her tail wagged rapidly behind her, and her hands reached across my shoulders and held me tight.

For a second, just a second, I forgot the whole fucked up, lousy shitty world around me, and just lost myself in her affection. For just a moment, I felt a warm feeling of pure joy.

I realized with a sudden feeling of guilt that I was getting an erection. I felt a confusing pinwheel of emotions. On one level I wanted this, I wanted her in such a bad way it was frightening. On the other, I was feeling blameworthy and freaked out. I didn't know how to regard Sheba: She was almost human now, but on the other hand she was still like a dog. You didn't get intimate with dogs, unless you were a hentai character in some weird Japanese comic book. I didn't know how to react. Was Sheba still a dog, or was she a person now?

I got a hold of myself and pushed her away, "No. Sheba, we can't do this. We shouldn't."

She looked hurt, "Why not? What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing," I tried to assure her, "It's just . . . illegal in every state."

She looked down at herself, "But I'm like you now. Shouldn't this be alright?"

"I don't know. That's the problem. There are so many things we don't understand about what just happened. I don't even know if you're a dog or a person now. Or a dog-person, hell, I don't know."

"But I want this." She said quietly, sitting back down on the couch.

"Yeah, so do I." I admitted, sitting next to her, "But we don't always get what we want."

"I want you to love me." She mumbled, "So badly."

"I do love you, Sheba." I put an arm around her and pulled her closer, "I've loved you since I first took you home. But we need to figure out what's going on before anything else. Besides, I don't need any more . . . legal problems."

"What . . .?" She looked up at me.

And it all came pouring out of me. The whole miserable story of Kristen and Anna and all the nightmarish trouble they'd caused me. All my rejection and isolation, and how I'd finally set aside all human contact and gotten her instead. Sheba put both arms around my shoulders and leaned against me. By the time I was done I had tears in my eyes. I had never really told that story out loud completely. Not to anyone. Finally getting it out actually felt like a relief.

I looked down at Sheba.

She bared her teeth and growled, "Where is this Kristen and Anna? I'll bite them!"

"No, no." I told her, "Don't get yourself into trouble like that. They're not worth it."

"Doug, I would never betray you like that." Sheba assured me, putting her head back on my shoulder, "You're my Alpha. As long as you take care of me, I'll do my best to take care of you and make you happy. That's what a pack does."

We spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Eventually, I felt myself starting to nod off. It was unsurprising that I was tired, it had been one hell of a day. I pulled some blankets out of the closet and made a bed for Sheba on the couch. I told her I'd get her a proper bed and she could have one of the two empty rooms once we got all this shit together. I shut off the lights, and petted Sheba on the head a little bit as she got under the covers.

"Good night, Sheba." I said, and then kissed the top of her head on impulse.

"Good night, Doug." She replied, yawning a bit.

I headed back through the hall and headed to the rear bedroom. It had been a crazy day, and as tired as I was, I wasn't sure I could even sleep. I had no idea what would await me when I woke up the next morning. Would Sheba still be the same? Or would she have changed even more? Would she have become completely human? Or would the change have worn off and I'd find the same old dog from before?

I hoped in the back of my mind that the last part didn't happen. Being able to interact with my loyal canine friend the way I would with another person had been a breath of fresh air. Sheba was now everything I could have ever wanted in a companion: Fun, friendly, and completely loyal and dedicated. To tell the honest truth, she was so much better than any human.

I got changed into a comfortable pair of shorts to sleep in, shut the light off except for the reading light on the nightstand and then sat on the end of the bed, still thinking. Mostly of Sheba. She was so human and yet, still a dog in some ways. I had to admit, being able to talk to her and have her understand me, and to be able to understand and communicate with her had been a really good feeling. Sheba's staunch loyalty and eagerness to please were the antithesis of every single human person who tried to push their way into my life. People lied to me, tried to take from me, and tried to run me into the ground. That meme I'd found had been correct, people are stupid. Sheba was exactly what a companion should be: Someone who appreciated what you did for her and tried to give back just as well. People didn't appreciate anything you ever did for them and just expected you to keep doing more for them. Like leaches they drained you for all you were worth.

I swung my feet over onto the bed and pushed myself back to the headboard. I picked up my tablet and booted up the Nook app to start reading a bit. My head was still swimming from the vodka, so I couldn't quite focus on it. My mind drifted back to Sheba. I realized with some consternation that the kiss had been my first kiss since Kristen. And, in fact, it had been the first time I had even touched anyone since my exile from the mainstream of society. Still, it had been good, and Sheba's silky soft fur always felt so good to the touch.

I suddenly heard the sound of Sheba's collar clinking as her tags moved. I lowered the tablet and saw that she was standing in the doorway, her hands on both sides and her hip stuck out seductively. I said nothing and she entered the room, slinking towards me with her hips moving back and forth sexily. She reached the bed and got on it, crawling towards me on all fours, her body moving erotically with almost cat like motions (A big deal, I suppose, for a dog woman).

I did nothing except watch her, transfixed by her movements. Her tail swished back and forth behind her and her eyes were locked with mine. Her ears were up excitedly and her face aimed in my direction. I knew I should stop this, it felt so weird, but I couldn't. I dropped the tablet on the bed as Sheba crawled up my body, her eyes focused on mine and her hands and legs on either side. As she moved over me, she lowered her body and let her breasts rub against my crotch briefly before moving forward until her snout was right in front of my face. I could feel the heat from her body above mine, and my dick stirred in my shorts at her proximity.

"Sheba," I started halfheartedly, "I told you we can't do this."

"I decided that you were wrong." She said quietly.

And then she kissed me, full on the mouth like she had before. I did absolutely nothing to stop her.

She had her hands on my shoulders and she moved her six breasts across my chest as she kissed me. Before I knew it, I was kissing her back. At first, I didn't move my body at all, but as our lips moved I reached up and put my hands on her hips. As I touched her, she started to move her hips slowly back and forth, her tail swinging back and forth. Whatever hesitation I was feeling before was quickly evaporating as I found that I was now starting to get hard. Her furry body felt surprisingly erotic, and I found myself responding to her more intensely than any normal woman.

And she was a woman. I could feel that now, despite all her canine attributes, she was a woman and not a simple animal anymore.

Breaking the kiss and rising up, she crossed her hand and gripped the bottom of the shirt, pulling it up and over her head and completely off, tossing it away and exposing her breasts again with a slight jangle of her tags. Now completely topless, I could see that all six of her nipples were hard. I reached up and ran my hands across her breasts, finding myself at a loss for where to start with so many to choose from. Sheba didn't seem to mind and rolled her head in arousal.

She leaned back down and kissed my lips. Her hand ran over my chest, her fingers running through my chest hair. I ran my own hands over her soft, furry back and down to her butt, squeezing her behind through her shorts as her tail flopped back and forth against my wrists.

Her hand moved down and across my stomach, moving sensually as we kissed. She moved it down even further and ran it across my now fully hard cock, running over it through my shorts. She traced the outline of it with her fingers, causing me to move my hips slightly.

"Mmmmmmm." She smiled.

She gripped my shorts and moved down my body, pulling my shorts off as she did. She got them down to my feet and then easily slipped them off me. She licked her lips as she looked over my cock.

"No sheath. Kinky." She breathed.

I wasn't sure if she meant I was circumcised or if she was commenting that I didn't have a sheath like a dog. Either one was possible, I suppose.

All those thoughts scattered as she leaned down and ran her wide, flat tongue over the underside of my dick, running up and down and lapping at it rapidly. I let out a moan and twisted my body. She wrapped her tongue around my shaft and moved it up and down, stimulating it all over on all sides. Her hand gripped the base and she started jerking me off slowly as she licked the tip of my penis with undisguised enthusiasm.

She slipped my dick into her mouth, running her tongue over it while her hand jerked the base. I rolled my head and moaned as she started sucking me, bobbing her head up and down on my manhood as her tail wagged rapidly behind her. She was surprisingly good at this considering that it was most definitely her first time giving head. I reached down and ran my hands through her hair and over her big floppy ears as she moved her head up and down and her lips over my cock.

"Ohhhhh. Oh shit, oh Sheba." I groaned.

The world, as far as I was concerned, was always crazy, but now it had gone completely fuck'n insane. Sheba had been a dog yesterday, hell, this morning. But now she was almost a human woman. Fur, tail, ears, and everything aside, she was very much a person like any other. More human, actually, than most of the pieces of shit walking around claiming to be. With all the lousy people in the world, the universe seemed to have come up with a perfect companion for me.

She stopped sucking me and crawled up my body again, our lips meeting in another long passionate kiss, my hands running all over her back and butt as we made out, our tongues wriggling around in each other's mouths.

I rolled her over onto her back without breaking the kiss and then moved my mouth down to her neck. She giggled, running her hands through my hair as I moved down to her breasts, my tongue flicking out and lapping at her hard nipples. She moved on the bed, small moans escaping her mouth and her hand running through her own hair. I gave all six of her nipples attention before sliding down even further.

I gripped the sides of her shorts and pulled them down her legs. All the way down and then off of her wide paws, stripping her naked once more.

"Mmmmm, that's more like it." Sheba cooed, letting her legs drift apart.

I saw to my delight that her pussy was absolutely dripping. She was just as turned on as I was. She spread her legs wide and I got down between them, inhaling her scent. It had been so long since I'd eaten pussy, so many years of the celibacy forced on me by an uncaring and judgmental society, and now at last here I was at the holy hole once more. I gave her a long lick starting from the bottom and running my tongue along her folds to her clit.

"Ahhhhhh." She moaned and arched her back slightly.

She began to run her hands over her breasts as I ran my tongue in patterns over her slit, teasing the tissues and her nub with my tongue. After a bit of that, I slid one of my fingers into her hole. She gasped and opened her legs wider and I began to finger fuck her, moving my digit in and out of her wet pussy, feeling the juices pour over my mouth and hand. She was moving her hips and letting out small moans as she bit finger lightly.

I slipped another finger into her and moved my hand back and forth, sliding my fingers deep into her pussy. I might have been way out of practice but it was good enough for Sheba who groaned and twisted her body on the sheets.

"Ah! Ohhhhh! Ruf! That's so good." Sheba exclaimed.

I moved the two fingers back and forth as I sucked on her clit, waggling my tongue over it. Just hearing her reactions made my dick twitch with excitement. I slid a hand up her stomach and ran it over one of her lower boobs. Her fur was so soft and smooth it was like stroking pure velvet. There was something to be said for a luxurious coat like that.

I crawled back over her, kissing her again. One hand gripped the base of my cock and pointed it at her pussy. I looked her in the face, looking for consent. She licked her lips and reached up to grip my shoulders, pulled me forward. My cock touched the rim of her lips and she closed her eyes as I slid into her.

"Ohhhhhhhhh." She moaned.

I started to fuck her, moving my hips and thrusting my cock into her waiting slit. Sheba started bucking her hips at me, writhing under me with eel like motions as she gripped my shoulders, her eyes locking with mine. Her legs rose up, her paws pointed down as her hands ran up to my head, running through my hair. She pulled me down to her and our lips met again, our passion uncontrollable. Her six breasts rubbed against my chest and her arms wrapped around my back, pressing me down on her. Her legs crossed behind me as I thrust my cock in and out of her wet, warm hole.

"Oh yes! Fuck me! Mate me! Woof!" Sheba cried.

"Oh god. Oh you're so good Sheba." I groaned.

There was no turning back now. I really had no idea if what I was doing would be considered bestiality or not, but at the moment I felt like fuck it. The sheer isolation of my existence, my enforced transformation from a living human being to a ghost of man by the selfish and easily led herd of humanity had already left me a tumor on their society. Why not indulge this one chance at companionship and sexual satisfaction? There was more humanity in my new furry lover then there was in any of the miserable fuckers in the world who would turn on me at the slightest excuse. Fuck them. Fuck them all.

Sheba rolled me over so that she was now on top without letting me slip out of her. She rose up her head looking down at me as she began to bounce up and down on my cock, her fingers intertwining with mine as I thrust my hip upwards and drove my dick into her. Her multiple tits bounced up and down as she rode me, our bodies moving like snakes as we fucked.

"Oh! Hunnnrrrggg!" Sheba wailed, "You're human cock feels so good. Woof! Ruf!"

I lifted myself and pulled her close to me, so I was now in a sitting position as we screwed. Our lips met and we kissed deeply and wetly. The feeling was incredible, her fur adding a level of softness that was stunningly erotic. We wrapped our arms around each other, rocking back and forth and up and down as we made love, Sheba's tail sweeping left to right in enjoyment as she moaned against my mouth.

This was the kind of sex that could almost swallow you whole. Like anything could happen and you'd keep right on going.

"Am I doing good?" She panted, "Do you like it?"

"I love it so much." I returned.

Sheba rolled her hips, moving herself in circular motions on my lap as my hard cock thrust up into her.

It was funny, the more civilized humans got, the more they were afraid of enjoying themselves. Civilization was built on misery and despair, of that I was certain. How else to explain the rotten world around us, full of lies and hate. To even think of having sex with a woman was considered by a growing number of people to be a form of rape. We were in danger of becoming a sexually inert society. A species to whom not only sex, but basic companionship was to be regarded with suspicion and avoidance. Perhaps there was much we could learn from the furry people who were now in our midst.

Lifting herself off of me, Sheba turned over and got on all fours facing away from me. She spread her knees wide, exposing herself to me explicitly, her tail held out of the way, and looked back at me over her shoulder.

"Come take me stud." She cooed, winking.

I didn't have to be told twice at this point. I got up behind her and entered her from behind. She groaned lifted her head up, arching her back as I started to fuck her again, thrusting in and out as we both filled the air with the sounds of our exertion. She rocked back and forth as I thrust my hips, driving me deep inside of her waiting and eager pussy.

I had never had a human woman want it so much. For regular women it had always been something they did to get something else that they wanted. Sheba was enjoying it, she was a fully sexual creature, full of desire and lust and possessed of no shame to curtail her. She was pure bliss, pure indulgence and with no restrictive social conventions pulverizing her libido the way we humans had.

Sheba raised her head and let out a long howl, her body tensing up and shuddering. She was having an orgasm, I realized, her body twisting and shaking as she climaxed.

"Ohhhhhh! Cuming! I'm cumming! Ruf! Ruf!" She howled.

I kept fucking her as her whole body shook with the strength of her orgasm. She filled the air with cries as her body wriggled in pleasure, her arms and legs shaking until her climax was finished.

Panting and looking over her shoulder, Sheba said, "Put it in my butt. I wanna try that."

"What?" I asked, surprised, "Are you sure."

"Hell, yeah." She whimpered, "I've been wanting to try that ever since I found out about. Don't tease me, fuck me in the ass."

I reached down and slipped a finger into her waiting ass, pushing it in slowly and then moving it in and out of her. She seemed to like just that alone well enough so I added another finger as soon as she felt relaxed enough. Another finger soon joined and soon I was finger banging her ass easily. I pulled my dick out of her slit and pressed it against the rim of her puckered ass. Her tail stood strait up as I pressed it in slowly and gently.

"Hurrrrgghhhh!" Sheba grunted, clutching the sheets.

But she made no move to stop it, nor made any word of complaint. I started to fuck her ass faster and faster, and the only sounds Sheba made were those of enjoyment. Her hand reached between her legs and started to rub her clit. Her tight ass gripped my cock as I moved my staff in and out, picking up speed and going deeper. She seemed to be taking in up the ass surprisingly easily.

"Oh yeah! Woof! Oh yeah! Oh I love it in the ass!" She wailed.

Appropriately, the longer we went, the wilder and more animalistic the sex got. Human sex always seemed to be hampered by the guilt. By and large almost humans felt that sex was something wrong, even vile and evil. They wanted it, occasionally they gave in and did it, but not without remorse. We had built a world in which the ideal was inertness and frigidity. A world in which the crushing pressure to reject the sexual nature of our bodies led to unproductive and destructive feelings of guilt and shame. A world where consent was all but impossible because sooner or later, the guilt would come up to plague one participant or the other.

But it wasn't like that with Sheba. She had no hang up, all she cared about was pleasing and getting pleased. To her, like it should be, it was all fun and enjoyment. Pleasure, to be had and to be given.

I rolled her onto her back and entered her ass again, spreading her hole wide as I moved my dick in and out of her. She undulated, snake like, and wriggled on the sheets, one hands working her pussy, the other gripping the sheets above her head. With those huge brown eyes she looked me right in the face. She felt incredible as she thrust her hips up to meet mine, her six breasts shaking up and back.

"Hah! Hah! Hurrggghhh! Ruf!" She wailed.

Once again, she wrapped her legs around me and pulled me close to her, the soft feeling of her fur and flesh running across my body. Our lips met and we kissed deeply, pressed against each other like we couldn't get close enough to each other. Her hands ran over my back, her fingers tracing patterns on my skin. The bed squeaked as we rocked back and forth.

Sheba began moving and undulating her body again, rubbing her clit faster and faster, her head leaning back. I rose up and gripped her legs as I fucked her harder. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her tongue hung out of the side of her mouth. Her panting and moaning got faster and louder and finally she arched her back, writhing in pleasure as another powerful orgasm hit her, causing her body to wriggle and her tits to jiggle.

"Ruf! Cumming again! Woof! I'm cumming agaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnn!!!!!!!" She howled deliriously.

I couldn't hold back any longer. I shoved my cock as far as I could inside of her and came hard, my body thrashing as my orgasm exploded through me. I squirted my seed into her, causing Sheba to squeal with delight as I emptied my balls. I didn't try to pull out and cum on her tits or anything as I was pretty sure that would be pretty hard to get out of her fur.

Exhausted and spent, I fell onto her and she wrapped herself around me again, out lips mashed together. We rolled over on our sides and held each other, making out lightly as both our chests heaved and my heart hammered from the exertion. We took deep breaths in between kisses, letting ourselves cool down as we settled into a dreamy post coital bliss.

"Did I do good?" Sheba finally asked me quietly.

"You did very good." I told her, "What about me? Was I good for you?"

"That was incredible." She grinned sleepily, "I was right, you humans are so much more creative when it comes to mating."

She reached down and touched my penis playfully, "It's just too bad you don't knot."

I grinned and held her.

"I love you, Doug." She said, looking at me with wide affectionate eyes.

"I love you, too, Sheba." I said, "You've no idea how much."

She was the perfect companion to me. Humanity had rejected me based on lies and falsehoods. But Sheba was there for me, always ready and waiting for me to interact with her, always my good friend and constant comrade. Perhaps with this new breed of human/animal hybrid that had popped up, I could finally find a way out of the dark world of isolation and loneliness that I had been cast into. I could no longer trust any human, but maybe I could trust Sheba.

Maybe, just maybe, there were a lot of people who could. But then I realized that the world out there would more then likely condemn this union. Other humans would probably continue to try to rob me of any feeling of happiness.

Eventually, we separated. I got off the bed and went to the bathroom. When I returned I found that Sheba sat on the edge of the bed on the opposite side with her legs dangling over it playfully, her hands bracing herself behind her. I realized with a small bit of panic that I had left the curtain on the window that looked to the side of the yard open slightly. I didn't think anyone could see in from out there, but it wasn't worth the risk. I would have to be more careful.

"Listen, Sheba." I started cautiously, "We're going to have to keep this quiet. Just between the two of us. No one can know."

"I get it," Sheba sighed, "People would probably act stupid if they knew."

"Not just stupid, vicious and violent." I said, "People aren't going to understand or accept this."

Sheba cocked her head, looking out the window with her ears up, "Some people will."

She looked back at me over her shoulder, grinning and gestured excitedly for me to come over with her tail thumping the couch rapidly. She held a finger to her mouth but continued beckoning me. Raising my eyebrows, I crawled over the bed and sat down next to her, looking out the window to see what she was looking at. She pointed across the side yard and to Alyssa's house.

From here, we could see a light on in her bedroom window, and that her curtains were slightly ajar. Behind the curtains was Alyssa, on the bed completely naked and on all fours. Behind her, a transformed Titan, now anthropomorphized, six feet tall and covered in taunt muscles, was mounting her and fucking her rapidly. Alyssa's face was a mask of ecstasy as her body rocked and writhed with pleasure.

"Look at her," Sheba grinned giddily, "She loves it."

I couldn't believe it. Alyssa was fucking Titan. I wasn't the only one breaking this taboo after only a few hours. It made me wonder how many other people out there were now finding a better form of companionship in the arms of the new furry people.

As the days went by, no explanation for what had happened seemed to come to light. Politicians and legislatures raged back and forth over the furies (as they came to called) and what their rights, if any, should be, and whether they counted as people or not. Various groups fought back and forth with endless arguments and the media covered it all with ghoulish attention.

It was truly a completely new world now.