Friday chapter IV Empty Vessel
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CHAPTER IV
Empty Vessel
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"Friday!" Tiffany called to the fields and saw the black dot in the grass begin running, and she knew Jake would not be too far behind her, today was Tuesday, and this was the day Friday was going to make sure her pup would be healthy. The ride to the vet clinic was rather pleasant with Friday not acting sick at all. The two dogs sat together on soft pillows on the floor as Tiffany checked in then sat near them on a cushioned chair and waited patiently for them to be called. Tiffany idly thumbed through the magazines which were not terribly out of date.
It took only twenty minuets to be seen but it felt like longer and even then it was just Friday.
Friday was led alone into a room where she was muzzled, something she was now familiar with, and had blood taken as well as an unacceptably placed thermometer before she was let to yet another room and put on a padded chair that made her lay back. It was comfortable but she was rather nervous regardless of the tech talking soothingly to her, then another female came in with a strange small version of sheep shears. Her eyes widened when the tech began to cut all the fur off her belly. She thought this was another way of killing her pup and bucked and fought. And found herself held down over the table. She panted through the muzzle that was put over her head. She could not believe she was to lose another pup and tried to break free when she heard someone talking to her. One of the techs was over her in a protective stance covering her belly and looking at her. "Look, we're going to stop but we want you to know that we are not going to hurt your pup or you, we just want to see your puppy and make sure it and you are healthy." Friday felt her hands and paws freed and other than the female tech that held her. Friday sat up and the tech let her stand up herself. "I have your file and your owner said you had a bad experience so what we are going to do is let you watch what we do with another patient so you will see it will not hurt.
Friday was skeptical but followed the tech to another little room where a husky bitch laid on the table with her belly shaved and a goo of some sort over her stomach. Friday was nervous until she saw it was applied not from inside. The husky smiled to Friday, "Hi, you come to see my puppy too?" Friday smiled shortly unsure and nodded.
"This is Friday" the tech introduced her to the husky, "Friday, this is DR. Anna and Natasha." The one DR Anna gave a short wave and continued to work a weird machine.
Natasha waved for Fridays' attention. "So this your first?"
Friday shook her head and began to sign to her but stopped when she got the usual confused look from those that could never understand her and sighed but fortunately the tech spoke. "Friday was an abuse case a while ago and she is mute, she was forced to miscarry a while ago so does not trust humans, so I brought her here to watch you so she knows what we are doing." Natasha nodded and smiled sympathetically to the border collie. "I'm sorry, but here you are safe, this is my fifth pup." Friday looked surprised and smiled taking a few steps forward and touching the huskys' swollen bald belly and found her paw covered in the goo and looked rather disgusted for the first time in her life and tried to lick the goo off but blanched at its weird taste. The whole room got at least a chuckle before the tech helped Friday clean her paw off at the sink. She then pointed to the doctor and the weird stick that she used on the huskies belly. An image formed on the screen and to Friday there was nothing really to see then it was pointed out to her. The head and body and tail of a fetus, Friday gasped and looked at the wonderful device that let her see the pup in the belly. She wagged her tail fiercely and almost pulled the tech back to her room and handed her the sheers and soon her belly was bald. She ran her fingers over the small extension of her belly. She hoped she could see the pup inside her like the husky.
She became impatient for the doctor and tried to get into things causing a bit of a problem for the tech but otherwise occupied her time until the doctor came in and smiled. "Hey there, ready to see your baby?"
Friday nodded enthusiastically and wagged her tail as the cool cream was put over her belly and the stick ran over her stomach. She kept her eyes on the monitor looking for the fetus like she saw on the Huskys' screen. The doctor put the stick up and told the tech to get another doctor and Friday sat up a bit. "It's okay Friday, I just need someone to look at something." Friday was a bit scared as she waited for another doctor to come in. The stick was passed over her belly again and again. And the doctors talked to each other and the one DR Anna nodded and asked the tech to get her family. Friday never thought about her being part of a family, she was just owned by humans that made her do stuff, but a family would be nice.
Friday wagged her tail nervously as Jake and Tiffany came in and smiled to her.
"Okay," DR Anna began, "I'm sorry to say but Friday is not pregnant, she is going through something called a Psudogestation. What that is, is that her body thinks it's pregnant and acts like it's pregnant, it's usually a psychological event that affects the body." She looked to Friday, "she just really wanted to be pregnant, but I'm sorry, there is no fetus."
Tiffany nodded to the doctor with her hand over half her mouth, taking it down only to speak, "so she is not pregnant? Can she get pregnant?"
The doctor shrugged, "I suppose so she was before and we see no damage that would prevent fertilization or whelping and she and her body are really ready for it, but there is no fetus. The symptoms will subside in a month or two after I give her a shot and she will be moody so watch for that and the only threat now is Pyometra."
Tiffany nodded and sighed as she looked to Jake and Friday. Friday was becoming an person to her, her concerns and looks, and the devastation on her features made her want to cry for her. But Jake was there and there will be a next time. Tiffany watched the tech wipe away the sterile jelly and clean Fridays' bald belly. For the first time she saw the collies' belly button and the three liver colored spots that looked like they were tattooed on her skin. She touched the spots and found the collies' skin very soft.
Friday looked at Tiffany with sad eyes, her paws on her pupless belly. Tiffany hugged the collie to her and picked her up and took her out to the lobby. She put her down as she paid the bill and they all walked out to load up in the truck and go home. It was a quiet journey, Friday laid on the seat with her head in Jakes' lap. She was not asleep or trying her eyes were open and misted with unshed tears. Jake pet her shoulder softly and spoke to Friday too softly for Tiffany to hear.
They both helped Friday walk to the house and led her to her bed to recover. Tiffany left Jake in the room with her and went out to check on the sheep in the pastures herself.
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Andrew shook his head and made a motion with his hand again, Jake tried to follow but it was just so hard, his hands were just slightly evolved paws, the fingers just a tat longer and straighter than a normal dogs and the usually useless dew claw grew into a thumb, so really fine motor skills in the fingers were difficult, not that there was much thought to their improvement after the miracle of their creation.
The merle looked as his fingers were moved to the correct form. His arms wrists and especially his fingers hurt from learning the new language.
"Now, ask me again" Andrew directed him and he began to move his sore appendages
‘Do you want to go outside?'
‘What will you do outside' Andrew signed back in answer
‘Fuck sheep' Jake grinned as Andrew rolled his eyes
‘You and Friday are a match' Andrew signed
‘I love Wednesday'
Andrew looked at the dog strangely, ‘Wednesday?'
Jake looked at the repeated sign and began signing the week then brightened and grinning in canine fashion ‘Friday, I love Friday.'
‘Be careful, get her name wrong and you may be in the dog house' Andrew teased him and Jake laughed.
"What are you two talking about" Tiffany said as she came into the living room and seeing the wide grins on their faces.
‘Just going over the plans to spice up the sex life with some of the locals.' Jake signed and Andrew was beet red trying not to laugh, which only made Tiffany more suspicious.
"You know, some of us have farm work to do and don't have the time to learn new forms of communication." She said looking at Jake in her playful stern face. "Poor Friday is out there all by her lonesome helping dad shave the sheep."
Jake sighed "Alright, I'll go out there and see how far along things are."
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One by one the sheep came through, each receiving its turn, first a squirt of medication for killing parasites, then the shears to rend them of their wool and then off out the chute they went to run about relived of their burden but none to happy about the process.
Friday loved her jobs, fill the chutes and then let one loose at a time for sheering. Two hired hands helped in the process as well as two family friends who were as old as Mr. Athens.
They had started this chore an hour before dawn, the human actions annoying the roosters with their noises at such an early hour, and now it was noon and it looked like there was enough to last to the night even at their speed.
"this is it then we'll break for lunch," Mr. Athens yelled when Mrs. Athens touched his shoulder, the noise and the zoning out to the job made him deaf to her voice.
Friday saw her chance, she leapt off the gate fence and ran up to Mr. Athens pointing to the shears and then her own thick long coat then to her recently shaved belly.
"What? You want a shave down?" he said with a small chuckle
Friday nodded looking at him before going to all fours and looking up to him. Mr. Athens shrugged and like shearing another ewe he took the long collie coat off.
Friday stood back up on her shaven digitgrade legs and stretched in the circle on the floor where her coat lay. She shook off and stepped over to get a broom.
"Friday," Mrs. Athens said getting the dogs attention, "would you put that in a bag and bring it over to the house for me please dear?"
"Gonna try to spin that are you?" Mr. Athens chuckled as he ate one of the sandwiches his wife brought.
"no try to it, I'll spin it and knit it too." She said in her matter-of-fact voice to Mr. Athens chortle all the while Friday was scarfing down sandwiches as fast a possible, she found she loved ham and mustard and tolerated bread.
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Jake came into the lunch break and was instantly greeted by a wagging tail shaved down collie bitch, but with a dramatic change in her appearance he suddenly saw what made her so beautiful He realized it was her face that made him so attracted to her, her beautiful white muzzle split on the sides with the outline of her black lips, her black head split between the eyes with a white stripe and her dark earthen eyes, the same color as the dirt on pasture five, thanks to her he had seen that plenty of times up close. But she was lovely to look at even if her white muzzle was stained in organic patterns of, yellow? Curious Jake licked her lips testing what was on her lips Friday licking him in return but amorously.
"you don't lick hotdogs, you eat them." Rob, one of Mr. Athens longtime friends said with a chuckle from the rest at the implied joke that made Friday curious how she was funny and made Jake embarrassed. She was not sure what to eat or even why one would eat a hot dog, then that implied that humans ate dogs and she was disturbed by it.
‘why would a human eat a hot dog, am I to be eaten?" Friday said worried.
Jake burst into a howling laughter and shook his head then translated for the men, "She thinks you want to eat her."
"Well we're not, but I would if I were you with a cute girl like that." Barns, another longtime friend of Mr. Athens who also helped for sandwiches and beer joked as Friday struggled with the now confusing prospect of humans performing cannibalism with mates.
"No one gets eaten literally, it is a rude and crass thing old men who forgot how to perform that act say to embarrass young ladies and boys." Mrs. Athens soothed Fridays bewilderment while being perfectly vague but if she was not to be eaten then everything was fine so she went out to pee and leave the humans to be silly.
Jake watched Friday leave, noticing how firm her body was. He then looked to the laughing men.
"you dog you" one joked as Jake blushed at his slight reaction to the beautiful bitch.
"Well after lunch you can help her with the sheep." Mr. Athens told him and handed him a surviving sandwich from Fridays decimation of the lunch tray.
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Spring gave way to summers heat and insects. It was hot but not too muggy except after rains when the humidity was impossible and the dogs seemed to take the brunt with their thick coats, Friday was better off with her shaved coat but Jake stubbornly clung to his medium long coat and stayed a little extra time in the cattle drinking trough once Friday showed him the trick and how to play with the cows noses when they went to drink. It was harmlessly biting the water but by pressing their tongues to the roofs of their mouths they could send a spray of water over the heifers' long faces. It was great fun until the cows became used to the prank and ignored them, and on one occasion Jake had his tail bitten so was careful to tuck it away after then.
Friday began to relax more at the farm, playing more and more with Jake. Jake watched her roll playfully in the grass, and enjoyed her closeness as they played and wrestled and ran about the farm.
Jake and Friday returned to the house he shared with his mistress. Tiffany gave him a pat and a hug as he came in, Friday enjoyed a soft petting but was still distrustful of Tiffany. "Any progress?" she asked as Friday passed her by and went to her room.
Jake shook his head and sat on the couch Tiffany joining him as he spoke, "I tried. I tried every night." He sighed as Tiffany pulled his head into her lap and pet his soft coat. "Well we'll get into her we want her in here eventually."
Jake shook his head and relaxed on his mistress' lap. "I dunno, I think it will take some drastic change to get to her." he confessed still unsure how to treat her.
Tiffany twirled his soft furred ear around her finger. "Well we'll get it into her." She was quiet for a few minuets, "I'm glad you have taken such an interest in her."
Jake sighed softly, he felt he never really had a choice in the matter and just began so settle into the nightly routine. Jake curled to Tiffany and watched TV. He looked up surprised when Friday put her head on his rump. She was curled up at the end of the couch resting her head on him. he pet her from muzzle to ear and played with her soft half fold appendage before petting her head
Friday looked up as he pet her but kept his head in his mistress lap as she pet him. she scooted up to put her head on his hip so he could touch her better and he did. She rubbed her belly and cuddled to his fluffy rump and nibbled his tail playfully and was swatted with the appendage.
She used her paw to pull it from covering her eyes to see Jake smiling to her and moved his tail to swat her over the ears with it and she lifted her head and he swatted her muzzle with his tail and tried again but this time it was caught in her jaws and she gave it a tug and a squeeze. He reached his arm down and playfully grabbed her scruff and shook it a bit and she let his tail go and licked his paw.
Jake obviously enjoyed the licking and she took his wrist in hers and licked over every canine claw and padded finger. She nibbled his pawpad and licked over it up to his wrist. Jake had his eyes on her when she looked up after letting his paw go. Tiffany was looking at her too, an uncertain look on her face but she looked back to the television.
Friday rested her head beck on Jake's rump and enjoyed his musky scent as he watched the TV and pet her head softly.
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Friday was waiting for Jake by the time he went to the paddock to get the sheep the next day. He smiled to the collie, "we need to put them into the back pastures."
Friday nodded and began to get the sheep going and from there a small herding routine began. Every morning Jake was met by Friday at the pasture or the paddock and he really began to enjoy knowing she would be there.
Friday became used to the routine herself. She enjoyed tending sheep but still kept everyone at arms length. But Jake was beyond arm length when he failed to show up for the sheep. The sheep began to bleat that all was not well and Friday was beginning to believe them and against her better judgment she went to the house Jake shared with his mistress. She wagged her tail a bit unsure as she approached and saw him sitting on the porch. She wasn't sure if he was well or needed help so she came in closer. She went to the porch and Jake looked to her, "Hey there, didn't expect to see you." he said happily
Friday looked at him and saw no defect yet he was still on the porch. She pointed to the pastures and the sheep but before Jake could say anything Tiffany came out the door with a leash and seemed surprised she was there and said, "oh good, so I don't have to chase you around."
Friday was taken by surprise when Tiffany snapped a leash on the less than cooperative collie bitch to pull her along to what she did not know. She was more than annoyed but suffered it with Jake holding her paw as they were led out to meet with the rest of the family. The humans were wearing things she did not usually see them wear, and they smelled of old dust rather than the new earth that their daily clothes smelled of, even Jake had a bath and smelled of some sort of fruit. Friday smirked a bit proud that she had not been bathed by the lesser human whelp before this odd parade where the flat stones sat in neat rows. The humans all brought flowers and seemed unhappy but still smiled. If she had the vocabulary she would have said they were somber. Flowers were laid at the stones and Friday looked unamused at this new bit of human silliness. In her disinterest she did notice something that made her ears perk. There were planks of wood with carvings in them but there was sometimes just a picture of a collie, a quadruped, and there were more as she looked, some beside the humans others out along the rim. Mr. Athens took notice as the collie took interest of who was buried in the family graveyard.
"Those are some important family members." He said to Friday as she touched one of the carved dog effigies about three graves from him. "Those are the Athens dogs. There are two German shepherds near grandpa Roberts' grave, he loved those two dogs to death. And the one you are looking at there is Tommy, and he has been here for so long we have a joke that he was the first of the Athens family to be buried here and the humans followed. This is what makes this land ours" he said to the collie who looked herself to be as mobile as the stone she touched. "Since this place was a log cabin in the middle of nowhere in the early 1800's our family has been put in this land. It's how we know it's home, some of us will always be here."
Friday looked around her and came to realize that this was the place where the dead of this ranch went, all the family members. She looked over to the fence line that Berry was buried at and began to think. She nodded and realized in her mind, if she was going to a part of this family, she had to be part of the land. She looked to Jake, ‘I need to be let go, I want to look around.'
Jake nodded "I think Friday wants to look around."
Tiffany looked at Friday then to Jake, "she needs to stay in here until we leave." She looked to Friday, "will you stay until I leave?"
Friday nodded and lifted her chin to be released from her bond, and she was.
Friday was true to her word to Tiffanys' surprise and seemed interested in how close this family was to their family and land to include the bought slaves as family members, which meant that she was not just a dog with a master, but a dog with a family, a family that will put her body in the ground with them, and honor her after she is gone. She fell on her knees out of sight of the rest of the family, her paws gripping a thin stone, it was old, but the care to create something so elaborate for a dog, it, it was nothing how she knew life. It was not what she knew to be true, she had seen the stones but never paid them much mind before this, but now, now they were all her thoughts. Her nails grated against the back of the stone as she gripped it, and she would honor her mates' mistress and stayed, but she would not stay long, she had to go.