FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Dude, what the hell is a 'TBM'?" Jake asked curiously, his back turned while he scanned the neat line of sockets in the open drawer of the tool chest.

"I have no idea, that's why it's 'homework', Jake." Ham, bent under the open hood of a very recalcitrant Chevrolet, waited for the size he had asked for almost half a minute before. "And, can't you read? I said nine-sixteenths." He waved his extended hand behind him. All he had to do was get the bolts on the water pump tightened and he could go home for the weekend.

Ahh, blessed two day reprieve from school! No more history, social studies, or hard-eyed shop instructor making sure every bit of the car he disassembled was put back on and properly. Not, of course, that Ham was that careless. The heavy slap of a ratchet landed in his palm allowing him to get his task completed. Since his father owned the biggest salvage lot for almost a hundred miles in any direction, and a garage, Ham had been working on cars in some fashion or another since he could toddle. The class was, for him, an easy A.

He didn't even need a torque wrench to snug the bolts down; he could do it by feel. Ten minutes later, work inspected, tools cleaned and stowed away, he ambled from the shop with Jake at his side. School had officially let out forty-five minutes earlier so the hustle was out of their steps. Both of them could drive, and did, after all.

"At least Davison's the only one who wanted us to do any work this weekend." Ham shouldered his book bag and peered up at the blinding autumn sun still well above the horizon. "Sometimes it's good stuff, sometimes some dry ass reading."

Jake sighed, "Well, bully you, dude. I got stuff from Math, Science, and English lit." The shorter youth sighed, kicking a discarded Coke can. Spying the word 'New' as the can rolled Ham stomped it flat. "I fucking hate lit." Jake stopped when they came around the corner of the concession stand. "Hey, check it out."

A small knot of people, most of them wearing school colors and jackets sprinkled with overpriced fashion acceptable grunge had gathered a short distance away near the football field gate. Their catcalls and jeers floated above the whistle and crash of ball and band practice beyond the stands. The Jocks, Preps, and generally 'popular' kids that associated with the sports teams had some poor sap cornered in their ring of shame and humiliation. Ham's jaw tightened and he shifted his course.

"Dude," Jake muttered, "I don't want none of that."

"Figured, twerp." Ham replied, though with humor in his voice. "Roll, I'll catch you tomorrow. The new_Trek_, or catch Stargate at the dollar theater?"

"Either. Catch ya, dude." With a quick wave Jake angled away in the opposite direction. He was not small, but he was not large either, caught in the gangly arms-and-legs phase of adolescent spurts. Smart, a little soft in the middle, and sporting glasses he was classic bully bait.

Ham, on the other hand, was no slouch. Having been working on cars and slinging parts since he was five he had always been a reedy, whip-thin cord of a kid. Grade school bullies quickly learned his scrawny frame had power to spare and both the will and ability to scrap. His father had also made it very abundantly clear that Ham would not bully the weaker kids.

The bullies themselves, however, were fair game.

So Ham had grown up as the champion of the geeks and nerds, stepping in to tip the odds when things got physical. Puberty saw him shoot up like an April weed. Now he no longer needed to act against the bullies; all he had to do was show up and loom.

Ham especially hated the sports-jock outside-the-rules elitist mentality of the socially well positioned. The spoiled brats with muscle or money who treated everyone who didn't kiss their ass as little more than bugs under the scrutiny of a particularly sadistic 6-year-old.

Shoving past a couple of sycophant girls hanging on their jock-of-the day Ham moved to the front of the crowd. Irritated muttering was quickly quashed when the victims of his bullish entry saw him.

"Uh, oh." Someone quipped from behind after he pushed through the crowd. "It's Hammer Time!" An uneasy susurrus rippled outward as people sensed the balance shift. In the center of the crowd four or five of the track and football team were tossing about a book bag while its owner, a deep mahogany hued bipedal canine wearing a pastel blue dress, tried in vain to retrieve it.

"Fetch, doggie!" one of the jocks laughed, tossing the bag to another teen nearby while the dog scrambled after it. She turned and tried to grab it but the teen snatched it out of reach.

"No, doggie! Bad dog!" The bully sneered to the laughter of his cronies. "What're you gonna do, doggie? Bite me?" Holding the bag in the air he shook it at her. The hapless half-human canine could reach the bag, if she jumped slightly, but that would put her much too close to the boy teasing her. "C'mon, doggie! Bite me!"

The poor canine student seemed more at the verge of tears than rage because she could not do just that; bite the annoying ass. That would get her in more trouble than Ham would be in if he beat the kid so bad he ended up in the hospital. The dogs had a stack of rules they had to follow that was daunting. Rules from the company that developed them. Rules from the State on their behavior, the Federal government as well. And then the rules established by the school.

James Delanay High was the only school that would accept the scientifically engineered sentient dogs, but the school was not about to leave itself open for a libel suit if any of their unpopular new students - there were only three - bit or clawed someone.

When the book bag once more took flight Ham intercepted it. Despite the weight of books within the bag simply stopped when it arrived at his outstretched hand. The dog quickly grabbed it a moment later. Ears back and panting tongue lolling she clutched the bag to her rather featureless breast and slouched, expecting the end of one type of teasing would only begin another type; often more brutal.

"Hamster, dude!" Darryl Harrington snapped from across the crowd, angry at the interruption of his sport. Someone was beat-boxing MC Hammer behind Ham like some very strange sound-track to the scene. "Step off, man." Of a height with Ham and considerably more muscular - between the ears especially - Darryl had for years been the bane of pretty much every student who could be picked on.

Puberty put Ham out of Darryl's direct bullying, however. He had no interest in anyone who could come remotely close to offering him a fair fight.

But Darryl continued the childish 'hamster' taunt that had gotten old when they were twelve. The two of them were equitable in a fight and, like a couple of lions sizing each other up, neither of them relished going to blows because neither would get out unscathed. "Are you people whacked?" Ham asked with a wave at the crowd. "Those damn mutts are the principal's favorite 'pets'! He sees you razzing 'em and it'll be hasta'la'vista, baby."

"So?" Darryl snorted with a shrug. "Why? You got a thing for dogs, now, Hamster boy?" Darryl challenged, flexing his beefy biceps when he crossed his arms awkwardly over the barrel of his chest.

"Those 'roids shrinking your balls, Dorkle?" Ham rolled his eyes in feigned exasperation, "You're starting to sound like Tyson." Someone in the crowd whooped at the barb making Darryl scowl. "But no, I really don't want to add fleas to the crabs I got walking too close to your locker." He pointedly, and vigorously, scratched the crotch of his work-stained jeans before crossing his arms. Another ripple of laughter worked through the spectators. Ham felt some space opening around him as the bully's face darkened in growing anger. Like a lone thunderhead on a clear summer day, the prospect of a brief but intense storm was looming.

"Like you said, Darryl." Ham cocked his head and tried to appear unfazed by the loutish thug's percolating anger. "Step off, yah? There's a football game in two hours, where do you think Emily is?"

"Emily? What do I care where that stuck up cunt is?" Darryl paused, however, taken off guard by the sudden shift in Ham's taunting. The dog, ignored now as the crowd shifted its focus waiting to see if the two bulls would start swinging, cast about for a way to escape.

Ham, arms still crossed, merely lifted one finger to point up. "She's right there, dimbulb."

Darryl's focus fell to the finger and, after a moment of scrutiny, he turned and looked up. High above them, at the lip of the stands, a shadow was leaning over the safety rail. The glint at the apex of the shadow would be, Ham new, a camera. Emily, stuck-up moneyed snob that she was, had no more love for the bully brigade than anyone else made a target of their sadism. She was also one of the best photogs for the school paper.

Ham jerked his chin toward the dog who was fearfully looking for an opening to escape the crowd. "So, go ahead. Shove her in the mud, see if I move."

After a long minute processing the shadow above and realizing it had a camera, Darryl flipped Ham off. Looking to the dog he shrugged, "You ain't worth the shit on my shoe, bitch. Step it, or I'll call the fuckin' pound." Spinning around he stalked angrily away with that swagger that only came with thinking it looked good but, in reality, only made him look like a stroke victim. With various sounds of disappointment the crowd finally began to disperse, but Ham remained where he was, staring after the backs of the largest throng.

In his mind he equated them to a pack of feral pigs; highly dangerous and destructive in numbers, but squealing cowards on their own. Once they filtered onto the stands Ham turned and headed for his car. The dog glared after them, and then at Ham, for a few moments before trotting quickly toward the corner of the lot where a city bus was pulling up.

Pausing at the door of the beat up looking old '69 Pontiac GTO he had spent three years getting back into working order, Ham watched the approaching bus. It stopped and the dog disappeared onto it before another pack of torture teens happened by. Not to say that the bus was all that much safer, to be sure, but Ham could not defend every victim everywhere.

The engine coughed sleepily a couple of times before awakening with a spitting roar un-baffled by the twin straight pipes that had replaced the rusted out muffler. The deafening roar of the repurposed, much modified, Corvette 427 echoed from the school buildings even at idle while he rolled to the exit. Barking the tires with each shift of the manual trans Ham roared down the road behind the football field, much to the dismay of every early arriving spectator and coach who could not be heard for a whopping twenty seconds.

In the CD player Def Leppard's Hysteria album throbbed the strains of_Pour Some Sugar on Me_ as he reached the on-ramp for the nearby highway. By the time the song ended he was four miles further down the road blazing past slower late-afternoon commuters heading out of the city. Dipping onto an exit ramp at ninety he slowed to a long right turn and, a quarter mile later, he was home.

On one side of the road cars covered a trio of rolling hills packed fender to fender in various states of disassembly. A huge, sprawling workshop sported a large sign on the roof;Capelli Co. Auto Salvage. Across the street was a four-bay garage; Capelli Co. Repairs (if we can't fix it, park it across the street). He swung toward the salvage yard and through the open gate. One of his dad's mechanics sketched a wave with one hand as Ham cruised slowly past.

Rather than cutting straight across the sprawling yard of cars Ham opted for the longer gravel drive, which was far less risky on his tires. Nestled in the hollow between two hills, on one side of the lot, was the old parts barn. Before Ham's father had built the new barn at the front it had served as the headquarters for the Capelli family business. Built as a hay-barn in the late 1800s, it was a huge, solidly framed building that had seen many uses since. Hay storage, livestock, bootleg distillery, abandonment, and finally repaired to store parts. In that time it had been changed and changed again.

Now, on three sides, open bays were framed by overburdened shelves of parts over thirty years old; the Classics Rack as Ham's father called it. The inside was Ham's, however, ceded to him when the new barn went up. He rumbled his car into an open slot between parts racks and shut it down, silencing Def Leppard's_Gods of War_. He checked his watch, pleased to see that he had not been late. His tutor did not appreciate waiting around some dingy old barn.

Inside, however, was far from dingy. Sure, the furniture was garage sale chic, and the back of the main room was an open garage bay complete with old lift, but it was his. There weren't many at school who could call much more than dad's old toolshed 'their' space. Ham dropped his heavy bag of books and regarded the garage's new occupant. It had not been there that morning when he left for school.

A grin spread across his face and he pumped his fists in the air at his unexpected windfall. "Score!" He yelped and danced a jig, forgetting that he needed to get his schoolwork ready for his tutor. Going to the car he reverently traced its prominent fender and the worn fabric of its convertible top. It would need a lot of tender-loving-care to get back on the road, but it was technically Ham's new project. He jumped when the phone rang and he quickly went to the kitchen and snatched it up. "Dad?"

"No, dear." His mom laughed softly, "I heard you come in, and from the way you answered I guess you found your father's early birthday present?"

"Oh, yeah, mom! She's a beauty! Where's dad??"

"Had a semi roll on the 119, he took the big wrecker out to get it upright. You find the groceries I left you?" Ham belatedly spotted the quartet of neglected sacks on the table.

"Oh, yeah, mom. Thanks." He added quickly, "Car kinda, well, you know." His voice trailed off self-consciously "Caught my eye." On the other end of the line his mother only chuckled.

"I did the same thing when your father rolled up in the Fairlane my dad sold twenty years before, so I know how you feel. Your tutor show up yet?"

"Not yet, no."

"Then quit drooling on the paint and go wash up!" She quipped with a laugh. "You're as bad as your father."

"Yes, mom." Ham muttered, abashed at his distraction, and hung up the phone. He did not, however, do as she ordered. He glanced once more at the car before going to the HiFi near the television and turning the CD player on. Led Zepplin's_Stairway to Heaven_ drifted through the room while he put away the groceries. By the time he was done and sitting down to his weekend homework, the changer had cycled to the latest Enigma CD.

But he ended up simply sitting there, staring at the car.

"Really?" A short, sharp voice cut into Ham's reverie some minutes later, snapping him out of his daydreams. He half turned in his chair to find the owner of the voice standing a pace away, dark arms folded over the thin material of a pale blue dress. Looking up, he found himself staring into a hard glare from eyes somewhere between the shade of gold and brass. "Fleas??" the dog growled irritably.

"Like you have fleas." Ham scoffed with a helpless lift of his arms, smiling up at the bipedal canine standing in the middle of his home-slash-workshop. "It was all I could dream up on the spot, hon."

The dog shook her head, tall angular ears backed, and let out a huff that rippled her lips. Beneath them dangerous white teeth glistened. "I swear, I'm going to go all postal on those assholes someday." Stepping forward a pace she turned slightly and dropped into Ham's lap. He caught her quickly with one arm to let her lean back against his chest.

Rubbing a hand on the front of her dress Ham made comforting noises, "It's okay, hon. Just chill a little and let it slide. Next year -"

"We'll still be in that school, and there may be more of us. And still the bullies will be yankin' our tails and tellin' us to go fetch." She growled angrily, then let out a huff and turned to brush the side of her muzzle against his cheek before lightly nipping at his ear. "You don't help things, either." Her soft growl admonished, "Acting like you don't like us either."

Ham frowned and sighed into the deep, soft, mahogany fur of her heavy cheek ruff. "I know, hon, but - I'm not sure how they'll react if anyone says they're on your side. Much less anyone being closer than that." He tried to smile, but her continued frown stilled it on his face. "Tia, come on, don't look at me like that."

"Then don't be such a fucking coward!" She pushed herself out of his arm and stood to pace away, claws clicking quietly on the concrete floor between throw rugs. "They're not about to bully_you_, Ham! They're afraid of you!"

"I know, I know." Ham found his gaze dropping to the elegant downward sweep of her tail, the long fur hanging in curtains more like that of a setter than the typical bush of a breed like German Shepherds. Along the underside near the root the mahogany paled to a dark cream. "I just - don't know how to just come out and tell them I'm going to put you under my wing like I have the other nerds and geeks."

Tia leaned back against the countertop and glowered at him, long whiskers twitching while she worried the inside of her lip with long canine teeth. "It only takes one, Ham." She said in a sigh and dropped her arms.

"Sorry, love."

One ear twitched up and her head tilted sardonically. "Really. Fleas, and now 'love'... you are a study in contradictions, Hammond Capelli." But at least she smiled. "Now, what'd you get this weekend for snooze-work? First semester calculus and biology II tests next week, too. You feel comfortable, there?"

Ham grinned hugely, "Calculus I think I'm good with, but biology I might -"

"Uh huh, you." Tia's teeth flashed in a brilliant white grin. It was odd, Ham thought, that three months before he was no better than Darryl and his cronies. He threw jibes and teases at the three dogs attending JDHS until, one day, he encountered one of them away from school. Coming upon a dead car on the side of the road he stopped to try helping, only to find a dog sitting in the drivers' seat in a state of near panic.

A dog, alone, on the side of a road she did not know, with a dead car and nowhere near a phone in an area where dogs were treated worse than post-civil-war blacks in the deep south. When Ham had pulled over she thought a beating, or worse, was soon to come. Or she would have to defend herself in ways that the Genesis facility strictly forbade. Doing that could very well earn the dog a swift trip through the Green Door from which no dog ever returned. At first Ham had been tempted to simply turn and walk away. But he was a mechanic, from a family of mechanics.

Turning away from someone with car trouble was akin to a Bishop turning away from a parishioner with a theological problem. So Ham took a few minutes to calm her down and ascertain the problem which proved to be a dead battery and bad alternator. Convincing her he couldn't get the spare parts without leaving her in that situation - alone on an unfamiliar rural road where no busses went - he managed to get her into his car.

Leaving her under the dubious scrutiny of his mother, who operated the entire Capelli business, he retrieved the car and went about getting it running. While Ham fixed the car his mother came to find the very inhuman girl quite charming and smart. Rather than charge her for the work, asked that she tutor her son on subjects that he was falling behind on.

A month into that tutelage, as they got familiar with each other, the role of instructor and pupil began to fade until they were, quite unexpectedly, acting like friends. And, soon after, more than that.

"Schoolwork, Hammy." Tia growled softly, batting her canine eyelashes at him coquettishly. "If you do well with them... well, that'll leave us more time for biology studies."

With a laugh Ham got up and retrieved his books. "Maybe if I ace your mental gymnastics today I can peek under your dress?" He joked, again. The one thing that confused him about her was that unflinching refusal to reveal herself entirely, despite the level of intimacy they had shared.

A polished, blunt black claw tapped his nose, "You can't score enough aces, hon, you know that." She sat down on the arm of the chair and leaned over, the soft material of her second-hand dress brushing his cheek. She had no breasts at all. Apparently dogs had no use for them until they were having puppies. But she did have nipples and those had proven to be surprisingly sensitive. She let Ham touch there, but no further south. "I'm not human... so all that stuff I have is not human."

"Yes, but -"

"You don't need to see an ugly bitch spade, Ham." She admonished gently, looking down to read the paper on top of his books. "'What is a TBM', hmmm." She rubbed her chin and whiskers with the fingers and thumb of one hand. "'And how has it changed civil engineering.' Ahh, that's an easy one."

"Oh?" Ham raised an eyebrow, distracted from trying to find some other approach to achieve his goal. "What is it?"

"Tunnel Boring Machine. They used a couple of them to build the Chunnel."

"The what?"

"Chunnel. Channel Tunnel, between England and France." Tia explained with a smile, slightly showing her sharp teeth. "They opened it for business back in June, I think. I saw it on The Discovery Channel last week."

"And this Tunnel Boring Machine did that?"

"Two or three of them did if I remember right." Tia shrugged and set the paper back down. One arm slipped around the back of the chair so she could lean further over, her muzzle dipping close to Ham's ear. She sniffed with a few quiet chuffs, the alternating cool and warmth of her inquisitive breaths stirring his hair. "I'm sure the library will have something on it, or I could get on the internet when I get home and see if I can find something there."

"I have a modem in my computer." He nodded toward the tower sitting, somewhat neglected, on desk stacked high with car repair manuals and magazines. "But it's only a 9600." Giving the hollow of Ham's neck a last whuffling sniff Tia pushed herself back up and stood to pace over to the machine.

"Ugh, a 286? This thing is going to be a snail." With her back to Ham her scrutiny of the computer only showed off the shapely curves of her canine rump under the pale blue of the dress, the upsweeping curve of her tail acting as something of a veil. Ham stared, nonetheless. Somehow the tail did something that made the view only that much more fetching. "I'll use Rory's setup tomorrow. I doubt she'll mind, she's started disappearing off to somewhere on the weekends, and many days after school. I haven't quite sniffed it out yet."

"Yeah, well, I've got something you can sniff out." Ham remarked laconically, leaning back in his chair and crossing his ankles. Tia cast a look back over her shoulder with a gleam of teeth, her eyes catching his gaze and then pointedly shifting downward.

"Inchworm, inchworm, measuring a tree." She drawled in a lilting sing-song, prompting Ham to snort and throw a book toward her. Barking a laugh she scooped it off the floor and padded back. "You have your studies, little worm." Settling back down on the arm of the chair she tapped his nose with the bridge of the book before setting it down in his lap, letting her hand dip a little lower, sliding along his upper thigh for a moment before coming to a rest at his hip. "At least we know what that machine is, so that's one thing out of the way."

"Unlike your dress."

"That's a whole different class, dear."

Despite his earnest, rather blunt flirting Tia was not to be dissuaded from her duties, dragging him through the complexities of his latest calculus chapter as willing as a mule facing mud. By the time that was completed an hour had passed so he started putting together a dinner. Being Friday she would not be missed at home, from all she ever explained. The adoptive family that took in the dogs was in it only for the - rather substantial - stipend they got from the Company to foster them. Another check came from the government.

They seldom saw any of it.

If Tia stayed out late the only ones who took note were the other two dogs in the foster house. They were not direct siblings - all shared different genetic sire mixtures and mothers. Each was a different puree of pedigrees. Tia, for instance, was mostly Irish setter which showed in her satin smooth mahogany coat. There was enough German shepherd to define her muzzle and upright ears, and just enough Border collie to give her a pretty surprising degree of intelligence. Her 'sisters' Rory and Britany were different mixes entirely.

"That's a barracuda, isn't it?" Tia asked while they sat at the table and nibbled the flat iron steaks that Ham had quickly seared. Golden corn and mashed potatoes rounded out the sides, all of which Tia could eat without problems due to her modified digestive system. Ham glanced over at the car and smiled.

"Yeah. A beauty, isn't she?"

"Old thing's showing its age."

"She just needs a little TLC to bring her around. Looks like a '73 or '74. Soft-top convertibles are getting pretty rare, so my dad struck gold with her. The ram-air intake on her hood has been built up after market, so I'm hoping she's got some muscle under her skirts, but I haven't opened her up yet."

"Her." Tia snorted with a shake of her head, slipping out of her chair and crossing to the car. The garage workshop was on the opposite side of the kitchen from the living room. "You guys always call your cars 'she'." The dark satin of her fur shone softly in contrast to the faded deep green of the car's paint. "I mean, that goat of yours outside is so... macho. And you call 'him' Leo."

"Because that's what he sounds like... a big ass male lion."

Tia rapped her knuckle lightly on the front of the hood, "These old muscle cars all rumble like that. I don't know any woman who purrs like a big cat." Turning to face Ham she scooted up to sit on the front of the hood with a quiet squeak of suspension. "Bet this boy'll give 'Leo' a run for his money." Resting her hands on the hood she leaned back and smiled, tail thumping lightly on the faded green paint. Ham walked up to stand between her knees and rested his hands atop the canine-like, claw-tipped fingers of her hands.

"She, love." He said softly as he leaned in and gave the dog a light kiss on the nose. "'Cuda is a 'she'. Maybe when we get her running and find her Name we'll think different."

Tia growled softly, the only sort of purr she could offer his teasing kiss, and gave his chin a slow stroke with her broad tongue. "Look at you, starting with a girl all broke down and wore out. Polish her up and get her heart pumping again, and suddenly she's a He."

Capturing the tip of her tongue when it drew across his lips, Ham lowered his head closer to press a warm kiss against the soft fur of her thin canine lips. For a moment words were lost but for the refrains of Rush's_Tom Sawyer_ belted from the HiFi. The first time Ham had kissed the dog had been a distinctly strange experience, though it was little more than a peck.

Having the thin, flexible tongue brushing across his lips was still very unusual, but he had come to find that strangeness profoundly arousing. Releasing the dog's hands he reached up to delve his fingers into the deep, lush fur of her neck and upward beneath her tall ears. Opening his mouth further he let the warm, muscular length of her tongue fold past his lips, his fingers gently drawing her head closer. The hard edges of her long canine fangs pressed against his lips, his own questing tongue tracing the narrow, sharp tips of the teeth between her lower canines.

A hand brushed his chest, fisting the fabric of his shirt to push upward and another hand quested briefly against his hip before sliding inward to the buckle of his belt. Roughly tugging his shirt up, holding the kiss by surfeit of his hands holding her head, Tia worked entirely by feel to work his belt loose and from there the buttons of his Levi's. Ham sucked in his gut, a soft grunt escaping his lips when claw tipped fingers delved into the open fly of his jeans to cup a handful of his rapidly thickening length through the thin material of his briefs.

Breaking her kiss Tia leaned back slightly, long teeth gleaming behind saliva dampened lips. She smiled up at him and squeezed his cock gently through his briefs. Pushing against his chest with her other hand she prompted him to stand a little straighter so that she could push his shirt up further. Releasing the dog's thick neck ruff Ham stood, resting his knees against the bumper of the old 'cuda for support. With an easy motion he caught the hem of his shirt and whipped it off, tossing it aside. Tia rewarded the view of his naked, toned torso with a pleased growl and, dipping her head, a slow lick from his navel to his chest. That broad tongue sent thrills racing up his spine; familiar in act but alien in sensation.

Giving each of his nipples a teasing caress of her tongue Tia leaned down again, the thumb of the hand in his pants catching the waist of his briefs and drawing them down a few inches. Her broad, powerful muzzle dipped into that opening and she noisily snuffled at the short-cut hair of his groin.

Despite his mother having told him to shower, Ham knew that Tia would not have appreciated that. The dog was absolutely fascinated by the mélange of scents his body produced throughout the day, that heady musk of sweat and masculinity that clung to him. For that reason, as well, he eschewed perfumed soaps and deodorants despite often being acutely aware of his own often potent odor. Tia enjoyed it to no end, however, so he was more than willing to suffer a little personal aroma.

The cool touch of the dog's nose exploring his crotch made him squirm. Snuffling, growling, tail brushing back and forth across the faded green paint of the old car's hood, Tia's eager exploration of his crotch was a strangely unique, intense experience. Soft sucking, chuffing noises accentuated her sniffing; the noise of those small, wet biting motions of her jaw that she could not control. Warm trickles of saliva and nasal wetness traced slowly down either side of his balls and inner thighs. Whiskers tickled lightly at one side of his erect length and then the other, making it bob and bump against his groin.

Strong, fur softened canine hands grasped his jeans and shucked them down to his knees along with his briefs, making him stagger and grasp her shoulders. "Tia, love, go easy a bit." He laughed when she leaned forward even further and drove her nose between his thighs to lift his balls upon it. "You're going to knock me on my ass!" Drawing her muzzle back she growled as she lifted his balls with her tongue, letting them slowly drop free when she pinned his cock flat against his groin to look up at him.

Despite the awkwardness of the pose, the view was far from as comical as it seemed, narrow rings of brass around hugely dilated pupils. Holding his gaze she watched the muscles of his chest and face twitch while her tongue slowly drew upward, muzzle gaping open to show those powerful, pearly white canine fangs. "Mmmhhh," a low, hungry growl rumbled from her breast, the width of her tongue molding around the girth of his twitching erection. A gleam of leaking pre momentarily glistened at the tip of his glans only to disappear upon her tongue when she completed that lick. "You smell so good." Reaching around his hips, Tia grabbed his naked ass, her fingers spread wide, claw tips dimpling the flesh of his rump. "I want to just... eat you up!"

Taking that moment of respite in the torture of her eager examination of his scent and taste Ham kicked off his shoes and shifted his legs to let his pants fall to the floor. Awkwardly balancing, one hand on her shoulder, he stomped his pants and briefs off, kicking them away. "I'm not dinner, love."

"No." She agreed, casting her eyes down to the length of his arousal standing forth from his loins. "You're dessert." Still holding his ass she dipped her muzzle once more, sliding his cock along one side of it with a satin caress of whiskers and short fur. The cool touch of her damp nose dove into the hollow beneath his cock to one side, between his balls and thighs, to inhale deeply again. "Always have dessert first!"

Ruffling the fur beneath her ears just where he knew she liked it most, Ham let her explore him at her own pace. "When do I get to enjoy your dessert, pretty girl?" He asked with a low groan when that long, thin and wide canine tongue hooked behind his balls and drew them up to the side with another torturously slow lick. Her head tilted to favor him with a glance of one dark eye.

"You don't want to have doggy for dessert." She chided, shifting to the other side of his balls to dip her nose slowly into the opposite crotch between thighs and scrotum.

"Tia, maybe I -" Ham tried to argue, only to fall silent with a heavy grunt when she drew her head up and his cock disappeared into her wide, deep muzzle to the root. Driving her head down hungrily, her nose pressed solidly into the short hair of his groin, Tia whined around his girth. Her tongue was nothing like any human's. It pressed up against his entire length, sliding along the underside in an undulating ripple from tip to hilt.

Ham had to admit one thing - after having a dog take him in her maw no human could ever compare. The old saying went; "Once you go black, you'll never go back." Not that he had been with anyone of color, but the same could be said - and truthfully so - of 'going dog'. It just didn't rhyme so neatly.

The first time she had convinced him to let her into his pants he had been downright afraid of those teeth; the fangs were distressingly long and the edges of incisors and molars looked alarmingly sharp. The first blowjob he had ever gotten, when he was thirteen, had been an awkward affair between two virgins resulting in more than a few painful nicks from less than carefully shielded teeth.

Seeing the dog's teeth was profoundly more alarming in that regard.

But Tia had proved that her muzzle was both wide enough and deep enough, and her tongue sufficiently broad, to keep him from feeling the edge or point of a single inhuman tooth. "Ohhhhh, snap." Ham groaned, grasping the back of her shoulders. He let her work his length as pleased her, rather than seizing her head to direct the action.

There was no need, whatsoever, to control how the bitch moved her head. In truth, she didn't need to. That tongue could do wonders all on its own that did not require her to bob her muzzle or him to thrust, willy-nilly, into its hot embrace. At his breathless exclamation her tail thumped and swished behind her on the hood of the car.

Gentle, supportive hands held his ass in a firm grip, pulling his balance toward her and relaxing to let him shift back, slowly sliding his cock about within her muzzle while she lifted and dipped her head. Half of his length appeared, glistening with her saliva, only to disappear slowly once again while that tongue continued the canine-only magic on his entire length. Ham gasped and groaned, his breath catching momentarily before exploding from his nose with each rippling caress or slow thrust under the guidance of her hands and muzzle.

Spying the zipper down the back of her dress he released one hand from her shoulder to tug it down. Immediately that wonderful muzzle clamped down, quite firmly, upon his length and a light, warning growl vibrated from her throat. The sharp points of the short teeth between her dangerous fangs accentuated her warning, but nothing more.

He stopped half way, however, sliding his hand into the newly exposed fur to comb it up. The warning tightness eased and, as he worked his fingers deeper into her pelt to scritch with his blunt fingertips, she pressed her back up into his touch. Moving both hands down from her shoulder he leaned forward over her bowed head to work his fingers into her fur more vigorously, massaging and combing the fur left matted down by her dress. He felt a hand drop away from his rump and, a moment later, both hands drew away though her muzzle did not stop its wonderfully skillful suckling.

But then she raised her head, slowly drawing off of his cock, the wetness of her saliva swiftly cooling. "Ahhha, hon, cold."

"Mhhh, I don't want to finish my dessert too soon." Tia crooned, lifting him with a slow lick, the fingers of one hand lightly cupping his balls. The cool hardness of her claws was a mere tease along his taint as she held the base of his shaft to lazily circle the girth of his glans with her tongue. A moment later a cooler touch caressed his flesh and he looked down.

In one hand she held his length, and in the other she had a condom that she was smoothly drawing down over his shaft. "But I want more than a taste." She continued, looking up to meet his smile, her fingers circling him to roll the tight fitting latex downward. Deftly wrapping a pair of fingers around him, she began to tug downward gently, snugging the constricting membrane down. "I want you in me." She growled a lustful sigh, tongue lolling from that wonderful muzzle.

Taking a slight step back while she sat up, Ham dropped his hands to her hips and as she leaned back he tugged her closer to the edge of the old car's hood, the suspension creaking in quiet protest. With one hand Tia reached down to hold the waist of her loosened dress down over her crotch, shifting her butt to help him draw her closer. The height of the old 'cuda was just right, Ham found, for him to remain standing for what she wanted. With her free hand she rucked up her dress, revealing her very dog-like legs to the thigh. Ham moved close again, resting his knees against the bumper, shifting the car back against its brakes.

From somewhere in the folds of her rumpled dress she produced a bottle of lube and handed it to him. Without fur to slime it was easier for him to apply, so he made a show of it. Leaning back on one elbow, holding her dress down against her loins, she grinned toothily and enjoyed watching him momentarily masturbate, seeming to find it as arousing as anything else he could do.

Not that she allowed him to do terribly much, in the foreplay department, due to her insecurities about the form of her very inhuman genitals.

That limitation did not satisfy Ham's needs terribly much, but he humored her there. He simply wanted to please her, in all the ways that human men pleasured their women. But she seemed more than pleased to have him in her muzzle or under her tail, so he satisfied himself with that; for now. One day he would find a way to convince her that he had no problems with the fact that her genitals were not human.

Bracing one hand on the hood he eased his hips between her thighs, letting her guide him to that never-seen place she enjoyed so much. He knew it certainly was not her canine sex, too. That much he figured out the very first time she coaxed him under her tail. Carefully she drew his length down below the hem of her dress, pulling to get him to dip his hips closer, until the hot muscular kiss of her anal ring pressed against the blunt, broad tip of his human cock.

"Ahh, love." She growled, eyes half lidded, two fingers pressing down against his shaft to keep it from slipping upward while his weight eased forward. "Yeah, there. Right there." Ham's eyes rolled up when the pressure building against his tip suddenly disappeared with a smooth, slick slip downward over his glans and an inch of his length. "OH!" A short, sharp whine that sounded almost like pain escaped through clenched teeth. Powerful anal muscles clenched and pushed at his girth but he held his hips firm against the outward pressure. "Fuck. Yeah, baby." She snarled, thin black lips peeled back from powerful white teeth while her body rebelled against his thick intrusion. Ham let her muscles work, neither thrusting nor drawing away, until the reflexive clenching faded. "So good."

"You're so tight!" Ham managed to grunt, focusing his mind for a moment on the calculus lessons recently completed. The smooth, hot grasp of her ass was pure bliss and, in that regard, she was no different than a human. Bit by bit her muscles relented, though the grasp of her entry was still amazingly tight. Shifting his weight on one hand he let his hips dip a little further, slowly pressing another inch or two of himself beneath her tail. Soft fur brushed his balls each time her ass tightened and her tail tried to tuck only to press up between his legs. "Fucking -hot, Tia, love. Just - fucking amazing."

Drawing back slightly, until he felt the grasp of her ring behind the flare of his blunt glans, Ham leaned further forward over her. Holding the weight of his body on one arm he lowered his head to brush the short fur of her black lips with a soft kiss. Lifting her legs she wrapped them about his waist, the dense satin of her dark hued fur warm against his naked flesh. Pressing the hocks against his lower back she urged him to press into her once more.

He did; slowly at first, but with increasing haste until he felt he was almost fully buried. Rather than simply slam his hips against her upraised ass he slowed quickly, just brushing the furry curves of her rump, and hauled swiftly back. Tia dropped her head back against the hood with a hissing whine, the expression writ upon her muzzle one of wordless agony though the tightening grip of her legs and urgent growl as she pulled told an entirely different story. Once again Ham dropped his hips, swiftly plunging into the silken furnace that was her ass, slowing just before colliding with her rump.

"You like that, baby?" She crooned, arching her back as he withdrew and thrust once more, slowly increasing his pace.

"Love it." Ham groaned, leaning his weight against her rump heavily. The knuckles of the hand holding her dress in place pressed briefly against his groin before he drew back. "You just don't know."

"I know, babe, I know." Her free hand reached up to grasp his shoulder as he leaned over her, almost prone from the waist up. "I can feel how_hard_ you are. How big!" Beneath her the suspension of the 'cuda squeaked and groaned with each thrust, shifting back against its brakes when Ham pressed into the heat of her body, rolling forward when he eased out. The sheer weight of the vehicle moving her lent a power to his thrusts that forced short, sharp barks of pleasure from her.

"Hard for_you_, love. Harder than anyone ever has had me before!" Dropping his head, Ham buried his face into the fur at the hollow of her neck and shoulder, both of her hands moving to grasp at his upper back. The HiFi fell silent for a few moments, leaving them with no accompaniment to their lustful coupling while it sought a new CD and began playing again. Ham grunted a ragged, breathless laugh at the heavy thump-tssht that rumbled from the speakers.

You let me violate you,

The song began and blunt claws raked upward against Ham's back, making him groan aloud with a heavy downward shove of his hips. Tia's legs tightened powerfully about his waist and a growling yelp bubbled from her throat.

You let me desecrate you,

As the words began to percolate through the dog's lust addled brain he felt her grasp slacken ever so slightly.

"What song is that?" She panted heavily, her eyes mere slits focused on nothing. "I've never heard it before." The pause gave Ham a few much needed seconds of respite to force back the quickly rising urge to pump that lovely ass full of cum.

You let me penetrate you ,

Tia whuffed once in momentary confusion, and then a rolling growl of laughter escaped her muzzle. "Oh, yeah, like it!" With each outward gust of laughter her ass clenched about the root of his cock, inner muscles ratcheting down powerfully to embrace him in a tightness that was both mind-blowingly intense but too tight to allow his needful release.

You let me complicate you ,

"Closer, by -" Ham hissed as her twitching grasp made his mind fog, scattering his thoughts. "Closer to -"

"Oh, this song is_so_ perfect!" She clenched even tighter with a leering canine grin.

"Gods! Just like you." Turning his head he nuzzled into the ruff below her ear, then kissed the curve of her jaw, the side of her muzzle, her whiskers, and finally the loll of her wet canine tongue. Pushing down against the hood of the car Ham raised himself just enough to look down at her. Slowly drawing his hips back against the embrace of her canine legs he grinned hugely. "It gets better." Slowly he began to bob his head to the beat, holding her gaze from only an inch further away than the length of her gaping, panting muzzle.

Help me. I broke apart my insides,

Help me. I've got no soul to sell,

Ham mouthed the words with a smile, easing down torturously slow, brushing his hips against her ass while Tia writhed in pleasure, and drew up again.

Help me. The only thing that works for me,

He touched her nose with a kiss and winked. At least the distraction of listening to the song made her stop torturing him with purposeful manipulation of her inner muscles.

Help me get away from myself,

With a huge, leering grin, Ham exaggerated the words that followed by dropping the full weight of his hips down and thrusting forward, driving Tia's hips into the air as the vocals rose to into the chorus.

I want to fuck you like an animal,

Tia yowled, her claws raking at his back and shoulders, her head thrown back her hips thrust lecherously into the air held aloft by the legs powerfully locked around his waist and the spear of human cock shoved deep beneath her lush tail.

I want to feel you from the inside,

Slipping his hands downward, Ham reached back behind himself to catch the hocks of the long shanked canine paws locked against his lower back. Drawing back he gently unlocked them, pulling her legs back around and lifting until those hocks rested against his chest.

I want to fuck you like an animal,

Pulling her paws closer together in the center of his chest Ham lowered his head to bury his face against the large, coarse pads of her broad canine paws. The smell of forest loam and concrete was incredibly powerful, her own scent almost entirely subsumed by the scent of the eighth-mile long trail from the nearest bus stop to the barn. Nuzzling into the fur between thick black pads he looked at her through the bracket of heavy black claws of splayed canine toes.

The bitch howled as their bodies met with shuddering force, making the car shift beneath them.

My whole existence is flawed,

You get me closer to God.

Holding the shanks of her paws against his chest Ham grasped her hips to pull her back toward the lip of the hood, his thrusts having shoved her considerably upward. Her hands grasped at his flexing biceps and the toes of her paws pushed against his face, her head thrown back to yowl with canine pleasure each time he accentuated the lyrics with his hammering, urgent thrusts.

At least trying to keep with the tempo kept his mind away from the orgasm that would have struck him dumb within minutes.

"Oh,god, Ham!" She whined beneath him, parting her paws enough to see his face between them. With a leering grin he pressed himself deeper than he could remember ever having done before, the underside of her tail pressing firmly against his aching, needy balls. "Oh, fucking god!"

You can have my isolation,

He drew up the hand at her hip and found the hem of her dress, spilled upward around her hips by the repositioning of her legs.

You can have the hate that it brings,

The thought crossed both of their minds at the exact same moment. Tia's eyes sprang wide and one of her hands dropped quickly from its desperate grip near his forearm, but she was not quick enough. Ham's hand shifted down, his gaze dropping at the same moment, and pushed her dress upward even further exposing the fur softened geography of her loins completely to his sight for the first time.

" HAM!" the dog shrieked without the slightest hint of pleasure.

You can have my absence of faith,

Stunned, Ham blinked stupidly for a moment, shook his head, and raised his gaze. The sight that met his stunned look was one of a fury the likes of which he had never seen on Tia's canine muzzle before. Her lips were drawn back in a rictus snarl of absolute range, her wide eyes glaring with such intensity that his erection almost completely wilted where it was still snugged in the suddenly excruciatingly tight grasp of her ass.

"WHY?" Her yowling shriek pierced his ears, both of her hands shoving against his arms and the legs, heretofore propped against his chest, abruptly pushing. He staggered back, cock slipping from her ass to slap his thigh. Rolling and leaping at the same moment the dog righted herself on the hood of the car. "I told you no! Why didn't you listen!No, I said! No!"

You can have my everything,

How swiftly it all changed.

Ham realized that he had made a dramatic mistake, and all he did was look. Tia positively vibrated on the hood of the car; like a Chihuahua left out in the January cold. Fury warred with panic and pain in the expression on her muzzle, ears alternately flatting back in anger and dismay.

He realized only then that he had humiliated her with that one glance.

Help me. Tear down my reason,

"Tia," He stammered, ignorant of his complete nudity but for the glistening condom hanging from his swiftly softening cock. "Tia, I -"

"You_had_ to." She backed up the hood of the car in a crouch, pain beginning to win out over the fury in her expression. "You just fucking had to, didn't you?"

"Tia, Love, I didn't mean -"

"Don't give me that 'love' shit, god damnit!" One brown furred arm gesticulated wildly at him. "You ruined it! Ruined it all!" Swift as a cat after a mouse she spun and leaped from the hood of the shuddering car with a squeak of old shocks. Clearing the kitchen counter between refrigerator and stove hood with surprising ease she skidded only briefly when she landed on the table, shoving it a couple of feet noisily. Her claws hissed angrily on the concrete when she bounded from the table for the door. Ham turned and launched into motion as well, bare feet finding better purchase on the concrete than her pads and claws.

He reached the door half a heartbeat before Tia, which was a scarce window of time considering their current pulse rates, and snatched her up in a tight hug before she could yank the door open and escape into the night. "Tia! Tia, please, stop!"

Help me. It's your sex I can smell,

The dog writhed and snapped, though thankfully her muzzle was not actually aimed at him. The sound of those teeth, which minutes before had been lovingly bracketing his erection, clashing together was like pistol shots. "Let me go!" She snarled, kicking against him with her paws. One connected with his knee, turning his leg out and sending them both sprawling to the floor. Ham was far stronger than she, taller and heavier and hardened by years slinging parts. She could not break loose.

But she could most certainly writhe like a furred snake.

Help me. You make me perfect,

Nine Inch Nails fell abruptly silent when they rolled over the power strip near the door and depressed the manual switch. Snarls and breathless grunts filled the sudden silence as Ham tried to get himself out from beneath his infuriated, humiliated canine girlfriend without hurting her - or getting mauled by her.

"Tia, jesus! Stop!" Ham managed to keep his grip on her despite the fact that the dense layer of satin fur, bereft of the loosened dress hanging from her midriff, gave her a lot of wriggle room. Eventually he managed to get himself rolled over on top of her, shoving her face down to the floor. "Please, Tia. Please, I'm sorry!"

Fury had finally fled and panic burned out. All she could do was weep. "Ruined. It's all_ruined_, now. Ham, just - just let me go."

"No, Tia." He waited until her struggling finally stopped, only shifting his arms to take his weight from her back. Releasing the bear-hug he shifted his hands to her upper arms and gently rolled her onto her back. Straddling her thighs he looked down at her. "I'm sorry, Tia. I am." A drop of water fell from his cheek to_paf_ softly from one side of her gaping muzzle while she panted for breath. "Don't go, please don't."

"Let me." She turned her head away, eyes closed and ears back. "Let me go, Ham. I just want to go home."

Cautiously, very aware of the sound her teeth made snapping an inch from his face, Ham reached down to draw her muzzle toward him with two fingers of one hand. "Tia, I didn't know you were a dude." He sighed breathlessly. "I'm sorry."

And there it was, the revelation she had kept from him for two whole months while he was pounding her shapely canine ass. That was because she had nothing else_to_ pound. What Ham had seen, in the split second he had to focus, was not the feminine canine diamond he had been expecting but a pair of respectable sized orbs the color of age darkened maple.

Dog balls.

Above them was some sort of dark colored mini-girdle, he guessed, that she used to hide the rest of her canine equipment. Ham could only imagine how uncomfortable that had to be when she was aroused.

"I'm not, though!" Tia protested with a choked sob, her body abruptly going slack beneath him. She touched a black tipped claw to her temple. "I'm a girl , Ham. Up here, I'm a girl." Her hand went to her breast, over her heart. "Here, I'm a girl. This science that made us, this Mengele-esque experiment, is not perfect." Her hand dropped over her eyes. "It makes mistakes. Like me."The upper half of her dress had fallen about her waist in their struggles and she shakily tugged it back up.

"You are not a mistake, Tia." Ham affirmed softly, helping her get the dress back onto her shoulders to restore some semblence of modesty.

"I am!" She snapped with halfhearted anger. "My mind tells me I'm female, but my body betrays me with_this_!" her free hand slapped her lower abdomen where her hidden canine cock was. With a choke she closed her eyes.

"So?" Ham shrugged, "What does my seeing that ruin, though?"

Tia moved her hand and opened her eyes a sliver, "Us? You won't -"

Ham huffed a laugh and leaned down over her, until his face was half an inch from her muzzle. "Tia, you were not listening to the song, were you?"

"No," she snuffled brokenly in confusion.

"It's not the body, love, it's the mind." He lightly touched his lips to the dog's. "I'm not in love with your blowjobs or your ass, Tia. I'm in love with you." Sitting back up Ham reached over to flick the power strip back on. "So what if you have a dick?" Walking barefoot on the throw rug in front of the HiFi he turned it back on. "I can deal with that, Tia." The audio warbled and squeaked as he pressed the reverse-seek button and rewound the song. He glanced sidelong at her. "We can figure it out, okay?"

Nine Inch Nails throbbed back to life, though with much less volume as he turned the dial.

-- your sex I can smell,

"So -" Tia scowled at him, rubbing her nose with the back of one arm and snuffling. "You're not - freaked out?"

Ham walked back and knelt beside her, his flaccid dick dangling, dripping bits of lube on the floor from the condom held in place by nothing more than the vacuum of its application. "Oh, fuck yes I'm freaked out." He offered her his hand and helped her stand up. Slipping his arms around her he drew the dog closer, until his lips were brushing her brow. "But in a delighted, wonderful way. Now I know the whole of you, and maybe - please? - I can enjoy showing you how much I love you?"

Leaning back he looked down into her eyes as NIN played on, mouthing the words.

Help me, you make me perfect,