“This is great, this is really just great,” growled Two-Tone as she clawed at the bars of the cage she was stuck inside. “It’s your fault that we’re in here, you know.”
“MY fault?” echoed her brother in disbelief. Lucky scowled, narrowing his eyes. “You’re the one who wanted to go looking for scraps in the alleyway!”
“And you’re the one who let us do it!” retorted Two-Tone, sitting down with a huff. “I can’t believe the dumb dogcatcher got us. This sucks. How’re we gonna get out of here?”
“Quiet down, you two,” growled a voice from nearby. They couldn’t see who was talking since only one side of their cubicle had bars they could see out of, but it sounded like an old, grouchy mutt. “There are some dogs that’re trying to sleep here! Young’uns, I swear…” he growled softly, muttering something else before going quiet.
Two-Tone humphed, sniffing at the awful-smelling kibble that had been put in a bowl for them. “Blech, this stuff is always awful…and our neighbors seem pretty awful. This place is awful. Everything is awful!”
“We’ll be able to get out of here, Tonie, I’m sure of it,” Lucky spoke, trying to calm his sister down.
The other Dalmatian tilted her head. “You have a plan?”
“W-well…no, not really,” Lucky replied awkwardly. Two-Tone grumbled and rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to lighten the mood a bit.”
“You could lighten it by quitting your incessant yapping!” the mutt growled again. The pups ignored him.
“We don’t need mood-lightening, we need to figure out a way out of here,” Two-Tone said, returning to the bars. She tried to gnaw on them. The cold steel hurt her teeth and tasted really bad. “Ugh!”
“Kids, listen,” a new voice said. It was feminine, and much less grouchy than the other dog. “Don’t lose faith. You’ve only been here for two days.”
“Two days too long!” Two-Tone yipped, pawing at the bars again.
“Tonie, hush,” Lucky insisted. “Let her speak.”
“Thank you, dear. Now, it’s adoption day today. You two pups are young, you have a good chance of some little boy or girl wandering in and wanting to adopt you. Us older dogs are…well, a little less fortunate. But the people who run this place take alright care of us, they never hurt us. So even if you don’t get adopted the first time around, don’t lose heart. You’ll get out of here, I’m sure of it.”
“Adoption day?” Two-Tone echoed. “I don’t want to be adopted! I want to go back to living on the streets, like real dogs!”
“Street life is tough,” the mutt spoke up again, sounding a little less grumpy. “It’d chew you pups up and spit you back out. You’re not suited for it.”
“Tonie, it’s either getting adopted, or staying in here for who knows how long,” Lucky said to his sister. “I, for one, would prefer to get adopted rather than stay in this dingy place. It wouldn’t be too bad to have a human family to take care of you and feed you, I don’t think.”
Two-Tone growled softly, narrowing her eyes as she weighed her options. Of course, her options were next to none. She sighed and nodded. “Alright. Let’s work on getting adopted, then. We’ll have to practice our puppy-dog eyes.”
Lucky smiled and wagged his tail. “Sounds great, Tonie!”
“Now that that’s all settled,” spoke the grouchy mutt, “can we finally get some shuteye around here?”
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The Dalmatians tried their best to get adopted that day, but very few humans actually came into the kennel they were in. One or two other dogs did end up getting adopted, but they weren’t. Two-Tone was naturally upset about this (as was Lucky, but he was better at not showing it), but her brother and the female dog from earlier helped to encourage her and keep her hopes up.
Several days passed uneventfully. Two-Tone and Lucky were periodically let out of their cages to let them run around a bit in a small backyard, but there wasn’t much to play with apart from a few smelly old toys. More importantly, there weren’t any gaps in the yard’s perimeter that would allow them to escape.
It was another three days before the next adoption day. Two-Tone already didn’t have very high hopes for it, no matter how much Lucky tried to encourage her. Though the female Dalmatian looking sad and mopey might persuade some human to adopt them.
The first several hours of the adoption day passed without any luck. There were definitely more humans than there had been a few days ago, though. After the initial rush, there was a bit of a lull, and Lucky was starting to nod off…and he suddenly jolted awake when he saw that a little red-haired human girl was standing outside their cage, looking directly at them. Two-Tone noticed too, and lifted her head up, her tail starting to wag slowly.
The girl started saying something to the other, taller human she was with, having a conversation in their unintelligible human speak. She kept pointing at the pair of Dalmatians, bouncing in place as she stared up at the other human. If she had a tail, the pups were sure that it’d be wagging.
Two-Tone and Lucky exchanged excited looks as their cage was unlocked, the door opened so that the girl could hold both of them at once. Their own tails were wagging as they pawed and licked at the girl’s face to put on a hopefully convincing show. The girl squealed and giggled, hugging them tightly. She nodded and said something to the taller human…and their cage was closed with them outside of it. The pups let out little yips of joy as their new owner carried them out of the kennel, barking goodbyes and good lucks to the other dogs they were leaving behind.
Before they knew it, they were on their way to their new home.
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Once Two-Tone and Lucky were out of the pound, they were put into one of those shiny, foul-smelling contraptions that humans used to get around. The pups had never been in one before, but they quickly realized that they smelled much better on the inside. They stayed on either side of the girl who had adopted them. Though Two-Tone had her reservations about having an owner, she had to admit that she felt safe around the girl. Her scent was calming, reassuring even, and while they couldn’t understand a word she was saying, her voice was sweet and kind.
The pups had nearly dozed off when the contraption stopped and turned off in front of a medium-sized house nestled in between two others. The Dalmatians exchanged a glance; they had a decent knowledge of human houses, and were hoping that there was a decently-sized yard behind the house that they could run around in.
Their owner lifted them up again, carrying them out of the contraption and into the house. Her parent said something to her, and she set them down, giving them a gentle nudge. It was clear that she wanted them to explore their new home. Looking at each other, they shrugged and nodded, sticking close together as they sniffed around the rooms of the house.
The entryway led directly into the family room; both of them smelled quite nice overall, and they soon learned that they were even allowed access to the couches and chairs. The room splintered off into two directions. One led to the kitchen and dining room, where they knew the humans would gather to prepare and eat food. Of course, it was likely the best-smelling room in the house. They were showed their food and water, which they didn’t want to touch at the moment, and they quickly learned that, while they were allowed on the furniture in the living room, the dining room chairs were a no-no. There wasn’t much else in this direction, so after they explored it thoroughly, they doubled back and headed down the other path, which led into a dim hall.
There were two rooms on the left, and one on the right. The first room on the left they were quickly shooed out of; it was the parents’ room. Not worried about being restricted access there, they carried on to the second room on the left. It was the bathroom, which smelled strongly of fruity, tropical scents that made their noses hurt. They quickly moved on to the lone door on the right.
This room was, without a doubt, the red-haired girl’s room. It was much more colorful than the other rooms, and noticeably messier, with toys lying strewn about, the bed unkept, and the dresser overflowing with clothes. It was a paradise to the pups; there was so much to explore! They quickly got busy poking into every crevice and cranny they could find, and tasting whatever they could find to see if it was chewable. They didn’t find much of the latter, but they were still satisfied with how much there was to discover! They were so preoccupied with their exploration that it took them a few minutes to notice that the girl had entered the room and had closed the door behind her. Of course, when they saw her, they eagerly scampered over to her, jumping on her legs while their tails waggled excitedly.
The girl giggled, lifting them up and setting them down on her bed. She pulled something out from underneath the bed and set it next to them; a cylindrical bottle that smelled faintly sweet, and a rectangular package that made a strange crinkling sound whenever she touched it. These sounds became louder when she tore the package open and pulled something out of it. Two-Tone and Lucky exchanged a befuddled look, recognizing what it was.
“Are those diapers?” Lucky wondered aloud. “Do you think she realizes that we’re housebroken, even though we lived on the streets?”
“Maybe they’re for her,” Two-Tone replied. They’d seen very young and very old dogs wearing diapers before, but they certainly didn’t need them. “She does look pretty young, after all. I can’t imagine that she’d–hey!” She barked as the girl suddenly pushed her down on her back, leaving her belly-up. Before she could react, the girl had opened up the cylinder, and poured some weird white substance on her lower areas. It smelled VERY sweet, almost overwhelmingly so. The girl unfolded one of the diapers and slid it underneath Two-Tone’s tush, pushing her tail through a small hole in it, and taping it up firmly around her waist. The Dalmatian was so dazed and bewildered by what had just happened that she forgot to fight back…
“Two-Tone?” Lucky yipped as he was made to lie on his back as well, with the same thing happening to him as well. He put up more of a struggle, but the girl was surprisingly strong…Two-Tone looked at the rustling garment that had been put around her rear. It was surprisingly comfortable, and was mostly white like her upper body fur, though it was decorated with pictures of human toys…blocks, rubber ducks, and a few others she couldn’t place. An identical one had soon been put onto Lucky.
The red-haired girl clapped her hands, seeming ecstatic about having put diapers onto her new pups. She stowed the cylinder and package where they’d been, before bounding over to her dresser, opening up a small drawer. The Dalmatians looked at each other. Lucky spoke first. “Well…this is an interesting turn of events…”
“She thinks we’re pups, Lucky!” Two-Tone huffed, pouting as she pawed at the embarrassing garment on her rear.
“I mean, we are pups, technically,” her brother pointed out. She shot him a look and rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying! She just doesn’t realize that we don’t need these things. I wish there was some way we could get that across to her.”
“Let’s just take them off,” Two-Tone grumbled, pushing at the crinkly garment with her fores. The tapes that held them together weren’t that strong.
“No, she’d just put them back on us,” Lucky replied. “Taking them off might just make her upset.”
“What do we do then? Bite her hand when she tries to put them on us?”
“No! We want to stay on her good side! You’ve seen the kind of stuff humans can do, how quickly they can turn on dogs.” Two-Tone went quiet as Lucky said this. He continued after a moment. “We have to be nice to her, and hope she’s nice to us.”
“I suppose you’re right, Lucky…she’s coming back.”
They stopped their yapping to watch the red-haired girl return, holding a pile of various things in her arms, which she set down on the bed in front of them as she babbled something in her human speak. Half of the stuff was pink, and half was blue. She reached out to Lucky, who tried to squirm away, but the bulky diaper between his hinds hindered his movements. Two-Tone looked around, trying to plan her own escape, but the bed was in the corner of the room. No matter where she ran to, their owner would easily catch her. All they could do was endure her strange antics…
The girl started pulling some blue socks onto Lucky’s paws, unable to understand the pup’s protesting. It took her some time to get all of his paws covered because of his squirming, but she was persistent, if nothing else. Soon, Lucky was wearing four bright blue socks that stood out against his white fur. But the girl didn’t stop there. From the pile, she next grabbed something strange that Two-Tone didn’t recognize. It was the same blue color as Lucky’s socks, but it was frilly and lacy, with two long ribbons on the bottom…it took her a moment to realize it, but when the girl put it on top of Lucky’s head and tied the ribbons underneath his chin, Two-Tone realized that it was a bonnet! How young did she think they were, anyway?
Diapered, socked, and bonneted, Lucky looked very embarrassed indeed. He tried to paw at his socks, but he couldn’t push them off. He couldn’t bite them off without tugging at his fur, either. His bonnet was similarly stuck on him, as the ribbon was tied firmly, just enough so he couldn’t push the thing off of his head. However, Two-Tone was unaware of his struggles. The girl had turned her attention on her, and the pup had a feeling that she knew what her fate was going to be. The pile now consisted almost solely of pink items.
“It’s a good thing Patch isn’t here to see this,” Two-Tone growled softly. The girl hummed as she proceeded to put each of Two-Tone’s paws into bright pink socks that had white lace around the rims. The socks were…quite soft and comfortable, to Two-Tone’s surprise. She thought they’d be itchy and rough, maybe ticklish against her pawpads, but they felt strangely nice to wear. Even more surprisingly, she found herself relaxing and not resisting in the slightest as each of her paws disappeared into the garments.
And then came the bonnet.
It was identical to Lucky’s, except that it had the color pallet of her sock; pink fabric and white lace and ribbons. Two-Tone found it very hard to resist taking a snap at the red-haired girl as the humiliating headwear was put over her ears, the ribbons tied around her chin. It was…soft, admittedly, but unlike the socks, the lace was itchier. It’d take some getting used to…but she didn’t want to get used to it! She wanted to get it taken off now! She pawed at it, but just like Lucky’s, it stayed firmly on her head.
The girl took a step back to look at her dolled-up pups, giggling and clapping her hands. There were only two things left in the pile now; odd plastic devices that fanned out to either side, with a ring behind the fan, and a yellow bulb of some kind in front. One was pink, and one was blue…sure enough, the girl picked up both of them, and gently held the respective colored ones to their mouths.
The pups shot each other a look, their brows furrowed as they sniffed at the yellow bulbs. They smelled rubbery and weird, but not entirely unpleasant. Two-Tone was the first to lick it. It was strangely soft, and squished a little bit against her tongue. It seemed safe, so she took it into her mouth, which was clearly what the girl wanted them to do. The pup’s tail started to wag when she realized it was a lot of fun to chew on! She gnawed on the rubber bulb and–
She blinked as she had a flashback to an old, distant memory. Warmth, snuggled up against her wriggling littermates. The taste of warm milk as she nursed on her mother, Perdita. She felt safe, secure, relaxed…
The flashback only lasted for a few moments, but Two-Tone had started suckling on the bulb in her mouth. It reminded her of when she was a very young pup, living off of what her mother provided. The bulb didn’t give her milk, no, but it evoked the same feeling of calm relaxation. The pup felt strangely happy and safe, and a quick look at Lucky confirmed that he was feeling the same way.
The girl left the room, surely to go and get something else. Lucky smiled shyly behind his mouthpiece, his wagging tail making his diaper crinkle loudly. “Thish girl ish definitely shometing.”
Two-Tone nodded in agreement. “Yeah, she ish. But…I tink I could get ushed to dis, maybe…I feel happy, bu’ in a way dat I never felt while on da shtreets.”
Lucky scratched his side with a hindpaw, having to move his leg more vigorously to make up for the sock covering his paw. “Yah. I tink…I might be able to, too.”
Two-Tone tilted her head as they heard their new owner coming back. Maybe being treated like a newborn pup wouldn’t be so bad after all. And if something went wrong, they could always resort to their old plan of jumping ship as soon as the opportunity presented itself. However, Two-Tone had a feeling that such a thing wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
End
