{"sf1_id":800617,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Pilot: Jake the Ranch Hand","author":"MicoConejito","words":898,"posted_at":"2014-12-27T14:53:00.000Z","tags":["Alternate Society","Dog","First Person","First Time","Friendship","Gay","Horse","Labrador","Love","Oral","Romance","Story Progression","Story Series","Teasing","cute","pet"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/800617-pilot-jake-the-ranch-hand","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/800617","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=800617\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nStory PilotJake the Ranch HandThe earliest I remember is my brothers and sisters climbin' on me and\nbitin' my tail. My mom licked my face a lot; everything was white and noisy. Let's\nsee... There were lots of other families livin' there, not just my mom and our\nlitter. I remember this bell on the door that kept ringin' for no reason and\nthe humans talkin'. Some humans would visit our litter and pick us up, cuddle,\nthen put us back. Sometimes they didn't put one of the litter back, and nobody\nstopped them. I never saw my brothers and sisters again once they left out the\ndoor with the bell on it. I still wonder where they ended up.I got picked up by this little family livin' in Dallas before I could\neven walk. They had just sent their last two kids off to college, whatever that\nis, and they wanted to bring some noise back into the house to fill the space.\nI guess they got what they asked for. I spent most of my childhood somewhere\nbetween barkin' at the plants and chewin' on the bars of my cage.I don't know why they kept me in there. Eventually I figured out that\nthey'd stop throwin' me in if I didn't bite on their shoes. The woman had\npretty tasty shoes to be honest. I liked the ones with the tall heels; it made\nthe gnawin' feel better between my teeth. The legs on the dinin' room chairs\nwere good, too. I liked them better because my teeth could sink into the wood a\nlittle bit more than the shoes. Eventually they made it clear that those were\noff limits, too. I remember the stack of chewin' bones they had in the pantry\nfor me. Pretty soon it became a kind of game. If I was good, they gave me a\nbone, and, if they gave me a bone, I wouldn't try to eat their pillows. Not\nthat I don't still want to.Thing is, I have no idea what the Humans are sayin'. They look at me and\nstart gettin' loud, but I just stare at them while they wave things in my face,\nwaitin' for something to make sense. I know my name at least, but that only\nmakes it harder to avoid them. I can't stop my ears from foldin' back when they\ntake on that tone, and then they know they caught me. Over the years, I've\nlearned some of their words: sit, lay-down, stop, fetch-the-remote, and some\nother words they say with a really high-pitched tone like, walk, bone, and\nbath. The basics are important, I guess.I'm not the only dog in the house. There's a really old Lab, David, who\nsits in the window and sleeps all day. He yells at me less than the Humans, but\nI don't think he likes me at all. He never wants to play, and it's impossible\nto have a conversation with him. It's even more frustratin' because he's the\nonly person I can understand around here. The only other people I can talk to\nlive out on the ranch, and they're not very invitin' since we work together\nevery day.My owners have this ranch, and they keep all kinds of feral animals here.\nI guess they're collectin', because I can't see a reason to have this many in\none place. We crossbreeds got adopted by the Humans to help out on the ranch.\nWe have three horses and a bull. I don't think the Humans know about the owl\nguy that sleeps in our barn or the cats that loiter around the cow pens and\nsteal milk. My job is really just to help out where I can and keep an eye out\nfor feral coyotes and trespassers. I get to run a lot, so that's good. The\nhorses do all the heavy liftin', and the bull keeps the ferals in check. I'm\nnot sure what the Humans do, but I'm sure they're workin' just as hard.I don't really mind that I don't have friends. Somethin' about bein'\nalone is easy. I don't have to worry about anyone likin' me. I do the work and\nthey let me go off on my own to play. I spend a lot of time thinkin' about what's\nout beyond the fence. I went out into the woods when I was younger, just to see\nwhat was out there. I ended up lost. I'm not sure how long I was gone, but I\nremember how happy the humans were when they found me again. They put this collar\naround my neck. David says it tells the humans where I am in case I run off\nagain, and it shocks me if I'm too far from home.I was glad to come home. I didn't find anythin' interestin' in the woods\nexcept these cool mushrooms, but they weren't good food at all. I felt sick for\na week. I tried asking the humans if they'd take me out past the fence, but\nthey never do. They probably can't understand me. Oh, well. I guess the people here\nare kinda' my friends in the end. Even if I don't really know them, I'd be\nlonely if they weren't around.Yeah, life is good. We've had a lot of adventures here. If you've got the\ntime, I've got plenty of stories to tell. "}