Chapter 7 – Dog lessons

KIKI RACED home from school, stopping only to pick up supplies at a pet store a few blocks from her apartment.  Jiji had been alone for the whole day; trapped in the cardboard box her father had given her.
    She cracked open the door just a little to take a peek, trying not to make any noise. No luck. Jiji’s ears were so much better than hers. Little claws scrabbled on cardboard—and there she was, her head hanging over the edge of the box. “Let me out, let me out,” the puppy whined.
    Kiki plopped down on the carpet and lifted Jiji from the box. “So what’d you do all day,” she asked.
    Jiji wriggled out of her hands and ran around the room. “What did you expect me to do? I slept and I peed and I ate. And then I slept and—“
    “OK, I get the point,” Kiki said. “Look,” she held out a bag. I bought you some presents.”
    Jiji ran over and sniffed the bag. “There’s food in there?” It was a rhetorical question—even through the plastic wrap she could smell puppy dog bones.
Kiki dumped the contents on the floor. “Yes, I got you snacks, a leash, and even a sweater. What do you think?”
    “Gimme one of those snacks you’re talking about,” Jiji growled.
    “Don’t be rude.” Kiki held up the snack and commanded, “Speak!”
    “Gimme!” Jiji said, losing patience.
    “No. You have to bark like a regular dog when I say ‘Speak!’”
    Jiji shook her head. “Do other dogs beg like that?”
    “Sure, all the time. They like it.”
    “So being a dog means I gotta cringe and beg and humiliate myself and I’m supposed to like it?”
    “Pretty much.”
    Jiji sighed, cleared her throat and barked.
    Kiki laughed. “I didn’t say cough. That was pathetic. Try again.”
    The puppy lay down on the carpet, put her paws over her eyes and said, “I’m not hungry anymore. You eat it.”
    Kiki quickly gave in. “OK, how about it you just say please?”
    “Please!” Jiji leaped across the carpet and grabbed the treat out of Kiki’s hand.
    “Don’t eat so fast,” Kiki warned.
    Jiji growled, and speaking out of the side of her mouth as she chewed, said, “Dogs always eat fast. We think it’s the last food we’re ever gonna get and somebody might take it away.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I don’t know. I just know. It’s a dog thing.”
    As Jiji licked her lips, Kiki held up the leash.
    “What’s that?” Jiji asked, nosing the strange object. She didn’t the smell or look of it.
    “Your wear it when we go outside. It keeps you safe. Here, let’s put it on and you’ll get the picture.”
    “Whoa, hold it,” Jiji, said, struggling and almost nipping at Kiki’s fingers as she tried to get her front paws through the harness. Kiki stroked her back. “Trust me. It won’t hurt. See that’s not so bad.” She put the dog down on and the carpet and let her run around the room, trailing the leash behind her.
    Jiji returned and asked, “Fine, I’m wearing it. But what’s the point? I’ll just trip over it.”
    Kiki picked up the leash. “Not if I’m holding the end, like this. See?”
Jiji plopped herself down on her belly on the other side of the room. “I get it. I go where you want to go, not where I want to go. You’re the master and I am the slave.”
    “Come here,” Kiki ordered, deciding it was time for a lesson in discipline.
    Jiji shook her head, hunched down in the carpet and refused to budge.
    “Come,” Kiki said, a bit louder this time.  Jiji stared at her but didn’t move. “You gotta do what I say. Those are the rules. Come here!”
    Jiji didn’t want to obey. She wanted to stay right where she was. But Kiki’s voice was irresistible—she wriggled forward on her stomach, unable to stop herself, until she was halfway to Kiki. Again she plopped down on the carpet and tried to hold out against the VOICE.
    Kiki laughed. “Nice try. Come here.”
    Resistance was futile and quickly forgotten. She raced across the carpet and licked Kiki’s face, happy just to be loved.