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The rain didn't stop through the rest of the night and continued as the sky began to lighten outside the concrete box. Although I'm sure that most of us would prefer to be dry, that wasn't going to stop the dogs of the yard going out to meander and play outside and stretch our legs, even if it was wet and muddy... Well, I'm sure that was actually a plus for some of us.

As for myself, I wasn't so concerned about going out in the rain so much as eating out in the rain. I was fearful of my bowl being placed out in the rain and filling with water as I began to eat. Two of the dogs had already left the house for morning ministrations and more of the youngest dogs were yawning and scratching their ears. In a couple minutes, they would whir out of here to dance in the falling rain. I turned to Fat Gut who was licking his forepaws busily while the other members of the Talkie were still napping. "How do you think they are going to feed us with the rain?" I asked.

He lifted his head from his paws, neck still sagging down to rest over most of them. He tossed his head nonchalantly as he responded, "They'll just put the bowls under the canopy. It's not raining so hard."

My ears relaxed with the thought that I wouldn't have to eat soggy kibble. "That's good," I sighed, "I'm getting really hungry." And indeed, last night's dinner seemed a distant memory right then. The huge volume of my stomach seemed to yawn empty inside of me.

"I've been hungry..." growled Fat Gut. And then suddenly his paw licking took on a new, slightly plaintive meaning. I almost expected to hear his gut growl, but it didn't. Only I knew too well that Hunger came with or without the amusing, noisy belly grumbles.

The next few hours in between dawn and breakfast seemed to yawn ahead of me. My gut twisted inside of me, already feeling as vacant as a costume store parking lot after New Years. To forestall the pain, I asked fervently, "So how does the feeding work when the rain's really bad... or when it's snowing?"

Fat Gut spent a few moments pawing at the fleshy sac which filled most of the space under his throat. Then he nosed to the back of the house which was still dimly lit for the slanting light. "We go in there." he said.

I lifted my head, peering at the wall, sure I saw the indentation that had always been there, but otherwise it was as solid looking as the rest of the concrete. "I don't see anything." I said.

Fat Gut just rolled his eyes at me. I wondered if my ignorance was just increasing his pangs. He tossed his head back carelessly, the neck fat hanging from it swinging and shaking mightily. "Go hit it." he said.

"What?" I asked, even more confused.

"Just go hit the damn wall." He cursed and lowered his head to lick at his paw again.

I cocked my head. I didn't like seeing Fat Gut like this and I didn't know if it was just his hunger that put him in this foul mood, or something else I couldn't see. But I didn't test him by ignoring what he said and demand a straight answer. I got up, carefully minding the piles of furred canine surrounding me. Again, I was struck by my unusual height and size, even greater now than during my last fight with Fat Gut. I didn't know it, but I was actually approaching record height for any breed of dog, let alone a golden retriever.

I went over to the recessed portion of wall. I could see immediately that it was not concrete, but instead green shaded metal; which naturally appeared grey to my eyes. Nevertheless, I had never suspected anything unusual about this section of wall. It had always been like that. I looked back at Fat Gut and saw he was now watching me. I cocked my head questioningly, and he raised a paw feebly in the air for the amount of chest fat pressing against it. He made a scratching motion in the air. Shrugging mentally, I raised my paw and then banged my wrist against the wall with a good amount of force.

There was a hollow boom. My ears perked in surprise. The sound would have told a human that there was an empty space beyond, but my ears told me more. I actually got a sense of the size of the empty space that lay beyond and I knew that it was many times larger than our heated, concrete dog house. "What is that..." I asked, amazed and mystified.

"That's the place where we will spend the winter." said Fat Gut, now rising. I had many questions burning inside me for the older dog, but as the huge canine was ratcheting his upper body up stiffly, he continued. "Think I'm going to take a whizz and go chew on some grass for a while..." Then he groaned as he forced his still scarred hind feet to lift the massive burden of his gut and hindquarters.

The questions died in my throat. It had been a couple weeks since the magnificently obese dog had returned from his inexplicable absence, but he was still showing signs of pain in his feet. I couldn't watch him walk without feeling a stab of guilt, no matter the circumstances of how I'd injured him or the many long months I'd spent thinking of laying him low. I let him go and really hoped that he would pick a student who could help him because at this point it seemed like a helper for Fat Gut was more a necessity than a perk for being a tutor.

Having nothing better to do, I wandered out of the house as well and into the brightening light. I spent some time chewing on some of the long grass that managed to thrive at the edge of the yard, but not with Fat Gut because I wanted to give him some space to relax and perhaps attract another dog he was compatible with. I saw Pink Nose emerge and then with energy belying the size of his furry brown waistline, began sniffing out a student of his own like I'd commanded last night.

Terrier-face and Fatty got up soon after. Those two went directly to our group's stash of kibble we'd buried on the far side of the yard. After Pink Nose's revelation when it came to tutoring Spinner and Dizzy, we started to collect our stash for teaching purposes, one mouthful after each meal at a time. I myself had a bad tendency to forget to save a last mouthful in the heat of the moment, as did Fat Gut, I noticed, but the other three were able to do it faithfully and so our hidden stockpile had grown. Terrier-face dug up some kibbles and held them on his tongue as he went off to find Spinner. Fatty did the same and covered up the hole before heading off after Dizzy. It was best to train/teach before meals when the hyperactive dogs were at their hungriest. I forced my eyes away from the hole after I found myself licking my chops while staring at it.

Inside my wide, furry abdomen, my stomach tightened again and I sighed longingly. Unhappily, I got to my feet again, not sure of a destination this time. I would never do anything to set back my dream of having all the dogs here talking in one big Talkie, but neither could I subject myself to needless torment. I set myself on finding Lopside after deciding that I needed another distraction.

If my behavior before the meal strikes you as odd, it really wasn't. I was always like that in the hours before meals. If anything, I was worse after I'd slackened my intake a bit and stopped filling myself with water. It was just part of living with the Hunger constantly stalking me. I was used to it by then, but it really did hold me in a tight grasp and in more ways than I was willing to admit to myself at the time.

It wasn't hard finding Lopside. Now that it was daylight, he was free to explore his artistic tendencies anywhere there was a smooth patch of moist soil; although the rain kept pouring down, eventually spoiling anything he made. I found him pawing at the ground on the far side of the canopy, near the gate. He was making another representation with lines and circles, but this one was harder for me to identify. However, a smaller diagram with a spiral pattern behind it made me think of a squirrel. Lopside looked at me as I sidled up along side him, then went back to his work without a second glance.

I looked down at his picture in progress, still stumped. Then back at Lopside who was ignoring me, his Alpha. The bristles rose on my neck a little involuntarily. After a deep breath, I rose a paw and moved it over the diagram I thought I recognized. "Is that a squirrel?" I asked.

He looked back up at me

I repeated the last word drawing it out, "Squirrel?" I kept my paw over the little rough drawing. "Squirrel?"

He looked at me in confusion and cocked his head to the side, whining a little.

"That's a squi-" I started before I shifted my weight and inadvertently lost my balance. It wasn't bad, but I had to put my paw down to catch myself. The maybe-squirrel disappeared into a damp paw print. Lopside snarled at me and growled angrily.

"Sorry." I said, but of course he couldn't understand me. I didn't back up, however because an Alpha never backed up from another dog; if I did, then I wouldn't be Alpha anymore. My only choice was to cool him down, by force if necessary. I matched his intensity with a growl of my own, but I didn't want things to escalate.

The bristles rose on my neck as we stared down each other. Lopside was one of the fatter dogs on the list of those technically more obese than I was; even if he carried more of his weight in his forequarters than in a nice looking, fatty paunch. Despite that fact, however, my intimidating size was having some effect. Slowly, his ears came up from where they'd flattened against his head. Then he looked away suddenly and cast his eyes down. I walked forward and bumped chests against him, asserting myself over him. But inside, I couldn't help but feel that this was not at all the start I'd desired for our new relationship.

Lopside walked off behind me and I sighed, feeling defeated. I thought that this might actually be harder than I thought. I couldn't go right back to Lopside, so instead, I went on patrol of the other members of the Talkie. My brother Dizzy was sitting patiently in front of Fatty, mimicking the words and gestures spoken to him. I paused and sat down near them.

"Hi, Topsy!" shouted my brother, his voice sounding high pitched to my ears as I was used to the other yearlings. Despite us being the same age, I couldn't help but think of him as very young. But also what a fine thing it was for him to be growing up with this gift.

"Hi Dizzy," I said, trying not to let my disappointment with Lopside show too much. Dizzy jumped on my chest, oblivious as always. "I'm hungry! Are you hungry? Fatty's got the kibble. Let's tackle him!"

I looked at Fatty and the small pile of dirty kibbles between in front of his paws, inches away from his protruding, off white colored tummy. I said to him sarcastically. "Are you starving my poor brother?"

He laughed a dog's laugh and rolled his eyes. "If he'd sit down and listen, he'd have gotten all the treats already."

Dizzy's eyes were bright. "Let's tackle him!" he said again, tapping his paw against my broad round chest.

I pushed him back onto all fours, though his tail was still wagging fiercely. "It's not nice to tackle our friends, Dizzy." I said. His furiously pumping tail paused for a moment, and again, I felt an unpleasant twinge in my heart. Surely, he'll thank me for this later, I thought. I was about to tell him to listen to Fatty, then an idea struck me. I put my paw on his shoulder and dear lord, it was almost as big as the side of his body! Ignoring this, I said, "Why don't you show me what you've learned so far, then you can have the rest of your kibble."

His tail running like a dynamo, Dizzy replied, "Yes!" Then he began to recite his vocabulary list from heart, filling my own with pride. Dizzy had brains, when he cared to sit down and actually use them. Fatty wore a shocked expression on his face.

"Well... I'll be damned. I just told him those words when I sat down with him a little while ago."

With a paw, I leaned down and stroked the top of Dizzy's golden furred neck. "He takes after his brother."

Fatty snorted, but kept his thoughts to himself.

"Now gimme those kibbles!" Dizzy demanded, leaping to all four feet.

I got up as Fatty sighed and shoved over his small pile to the hungry ten month old puppy. I waved goodbye with my tail as Dizzy began to gobble down his winnings.

The two leanest dogs of the Talkie, Spinner and Terrier-face were trying something a little different. "Spring!" barked Spinner as he launched himself at Terrier-face.

The older dog met the collie mix head on with his teeth, shouting, "Snap!"

Spinner aborted, crying "Dodge!"

Terrier-face went after him, teeth showing and yapped, "Bite!"

I had to give it to them, it looked like a fun way to learn more words and perhaps more suited to Spinner after all than the treats alone. It spoke a lot that Terrier-face had been able to think of a game like that as well. But it looked exhausting and I decided to move on without getting involved.

I stopped and moved to the center of the yard, shaking myself under the canopy before lapping at the fountain. The rain pattered overhead on the striped canvas. There were a couple dogs lying around here as well. Whether to get out of the rain or in anticipation for breakfast was impossible to say. I looked up and spotted Pink Nose. Over the brown swell of his abdomen, I saw that he had already grabbed himself a student.

I paced over and saw to my surprise that it wasn't one of the remaining yearlings. It was, in fact, a spring pup who was formerly one of my brother's gang once upon a time. He was muttish to the extreme with a long thin snout, large eyes and webbed toes. His tail fur was brushy, like a shepherd's and the rest of his coat was stiff as well, but he was piebald in pattern, predominately tan, but also white in large splotches. About a quarter of his face along with one eye was black and his paws were black as well. A dozen or more breeds must have contributed to his bloodline, but that didn't really matter to my eyes. He was heavyset for his age, showing in a round puppy belly that I imagined would only fill out and deepen into a full paunch when he was older. He looked like he had good potential to have a handsome gainer physique.

"I'm calling him Patch." said Pink Nose as I stood over the two.

"Good name." I commented, then thinking of Lopside, I asked, "How is he taking to talking?"

Pink Nose snorted. "Slowly, but he's interested in my food so he's sticking around." at that, Patch lifted his head and sniffed curiously in my direction. I blew down at him with my nose and he visibly recognized my scent. When he did, he willingly rolled over on his back for me. Pink Nose chuckled under his breath and rubbed his small pink belly with a not so rough paw of his own. "He's got a good personality, though."

"He's cute." I agreed. "I think you have a good eye." I said, looking down at Pink Nose.

Was it my imagination or did his nose get just a hint pinker. "He's gonna be a heavy dog for sure. He'll be looking good after winter."

After winter... I swallowed and then asked a bit sheepishly. "How are you getting him to stay around?"

Patch rolled back on his stomach and Pink Nose pushed a kibble bit towards him. The young puppy leapt on it and crunched it twice before swallowing, tail pumping. Pink Nose shrugged, "I dunno." he said happily, his own thick tail wagging and hitting my leg as it did. "He stays for the kibble, that's all I had to do."

I resisted sighing and just smiled down at him. "Keep it up." I said, "I want to hear him putting words together by the end of the week."

"He'll be saying whole sentences by then, Topsy!" said Pink Nose confidently and I gave him a friendly, excited bark. Patch barked too and we had ourselves a happy silly chant before I walked off back under the dark clouds filling the sky.

I saw Lopside back against the side of the research building, and hesitated. Before I could make myself go to him, I found myself walking back into the shelter of the concrete house. There, I found several damp dogs lying down in dark patches on the light surface of the floor. One of these was Fat Gut. Another was the fatty yearling whom I had been lying against the previous night. Fat gut was talking to him and nosing him kibbles. I grinned and ambled over to the pair.

Both of them lifted their heads, but Fat Gut was wearing a canny expression, at once pleased with himself, but also dissatisfied to have been found out actually following my orders. "Is this your new helper?" I asked him, hoping to keep the conversation positive.

Fat Gut grunted. "I guess. He's slim enough to get around, though he sure is dense. I've been talking to him since practically dawn and he still hasn't said anything."

The dog in question was a hefty lab mix, like a lot of the heaviest dogs in the yard. He seemed to be mixed with equal parts hound and shepherd, judging by the droop of his lower eyelids and the thick ruff over his shoulders. His broad back was brown and the rest of him was a creamy ivory, spotted brown on his legs like a fawn's. "Give him a couple days, Fat Gut." I said reassuringly, "He doesn't even know what talking is yet."

"I knew what you were getting at an hour after you started with me..." Fat Gut grumbled. The other dog cocked his head at the noises his partner was making and put a plaintive paw on Fat Gut's own, where I noticed he was keeping the goods.

"Well, we all can't hope to be as smart as you, Fat Gut." I said sarcastically, swishing my tail widely.

Fat Gut growled a bit more and I saw the hefty lab mix look at him a little anxiously, but his weight probably was discouraging him from leaving immediately. I tried to steer the conversation back towards his work. "Have you decided to give him a name?"

The look on his fleshy face said no, but he lifted it and looked over the lab-mix a couple times. He eventually said, "I'll call him Slim."

A laugh caught in my throat and both fattened canines looked at me strangely. When I caught my breath, I looked at Fat Gut. "Are you sure that name fits him?"

Fat Gut huffed a breath that lifted his chops. "What? Doesn't he look slim to you?" Then he pushed over a few kibbles with his paw and "Slim" took them earnestly, not bothering to chew. His off yellow eyes looked hungrily to Fat Gut as soon as they were down his thick neck, and he whined softly for more.

I looked at both of them, "Slim" was hardly half the weight of the shepherd-lab next to him and among the remaining yearlings, was not even the heaviest. I supposed there were worse names for him, though I'd let him change it once he learned more about how to think critically and speak, of course. "Next to you, a slug would look slim." I said teasingly.

"Damn right!" barked Fat Gut enthusiastically. Slim copied his vocals and made me think that perhaps the two were, in fact, similarly matched. Fat Gut pushed another couple kibbles to his partner then snagged one for himself. I shot him a warning glance, but he ignored me. Sighing, I turned around and walked out of the house, but I felt good. I thought that each of the members of the Talkie had a good partner to work with...

Well everyone except me. With the rain again falling on my face, I took a deep breath and walked around to corner to confront Lopside. I got more than halfway to him before I remembered the kibbles. I stopped and then turned around, thinking that I didn't want another episode like earlier this morning. I walked to the far side of the yard and began digging. The moist dirt felt nice under my paws, but I was sure the water wasn't doing anything good for our stockpile. If only there was a better place to hide the stuff...

All of a sudden, there was another pair of paws beside mine. I looked up and saw Lopside next to me. I was surprised because I'd thought he was entirely engrossed in his work. Apparently not. I paused and so his paws struck the cache first. He smelled the damp kibble and stuck his nose right into the hole.

I growled, but Lopside pushed his way past me. How dare he?! Who did this dog think he was crossing me so many times?! Surely if he'd been so bold in the past, he would have challenged the shepherd-lab for Alpha. Or was it that he was reading my body language better than I thought... perhaps he could sense my hesitancy to strike him. Still, I couldn't let him devour our entire hard-earned stockpile, damp and dirty as it was. I pushed him, my brisket squishing against his shoulder. I was both stronger and heavier than he was so he couldn't resist me, but stubbornly, he sought to get around me, like I was nothing so much as a moving boulder.

"Stay!" I barked at him and gave him a good hard shove that pushed him down on to his butt. He sat and looked at me with intense blue eyes. I was still heated. "Stay!" I barked, "Bad puppy!" It was meaningless to him, I knew, but it made me feel better.

Reluctantly, Lopside looked away. He looked ready to rise, but before he could, I darted my nose into the hole and grabbed a few kibbles. He watched me and then I spat them out in front of him. "Take them." I breathed, calming down, though my heart was still beating fast in my chest.

Lopside took the offering, still looking at me suspiciously the whole time as he lapped them up from the ground one by one. Then he sat and looked up at me, a mildly inquisitive look on his face as his tail rocked back and forth slowly. I let mine match his pace. I reached down into the hole again and spat out a few more kibbles. "Food." I said as he took each one. "Food."

Lopside said nothing, naturally. He just sat down again, his belly resting on the ground, but not yet so big as to fill the space under his chest and behind his forepaws. His eyes met mine as if he were wondering if I had something to offer him. I disliked his impertinence immediately, but resisted the urge to suppress him as perhaps Fat Gut would have done in my position. I wasn't about dominating people, I wanted all the dogs to be everything they could be... I was just realizing now that this might mean that I wouldn't necessarily like who they would become. Forcing myself to see the potential I had seen the previous evening, I reached for more kibbles from the hole. "Food." I tried again, and prepared myself for doing this for a long time. To acclimate him to being around me if nothing more.

But Lopside had different things on his mind. Ignoring the food altogether this time, he got up and began walking back to his unfinished drawing.

"Wait!" I yapped and the sound of my voice and my paws as I rose caused him to pause. Hardly believing that the food hadn't kept his attention, I was grasping at straws for anything to keep him focused on me. When I thought of it, it seemed like the most natural thing, but I wasn't sure if I could do it. Looking down at the ground between us and knowing that I had precious few seconds before he'd turn away, I raised a large paw and angled it down at the soft soil. I had intended to do this with one claw, but the two middle ones were the closest to the ground and they ended up making wide sloppy lines in the dark ground. My paw was not exactly used to doing this either, so while it was easy making the large straight line towards me, it was harder making the four angled ones and my circle came out looking more like a decomposed squash. But I drew a man stick figure for Lopside and furthermore, he waited and watched while I did so.

Lopside came over and gently pressed himself against me. I relented and gave way, moving to the side to give him some room. To my stick figure, he added two dog figures. Strangely, he drew one dog directly on top of my human stick figure, destroying some of it in the process. I might have been mad, but the pictures were as yet largely meaningless to me, I had only been copying what I'd seen him do in my desperation. Lopside drew another man figure on top of the second dog and then I saw that one of these dogs was digging a crude picture of a hole. He finished this rough image drawing a circle around the two figures.

He looked at me expectantly, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, and his ears making for a ridiculously hopeful expression. Unfortunately, I had nothing to offer him but confusion. Slowly, his shoulders slumped. I huffed a resigned breath and he copied me. Two languages and no one to translate for us. I think that we both could sense the gap between us, however desperately we both sought to cross it.

But... I think Lopside realized by now that there was at least something on the other side of that gap. "Lopside." I said gently as I took a step forward and put my chin on the top of his head. He took a hesitant half step back, and then stepped into my embrace, pushing his head into the hollow of my neck. This, at least didn't require translation. We separated and I was spared an awkward silence between us as the sound of squelching footsteps came from around the corner. Soon the gate was clanging as the humans came loaded down with the weight of our breakfast. Both of us and all the rest of the dogs crowded around them. "Not a moment too soon!" cried my stomach, but I found that I still had other things on my mind. How to get through to Lopside being the foremost of them.