I woke up in the living room to hear the alarm buzzing in her bedroom. The usual. I guess I was supposed to get off my butt and go lick her face or something that’s what “good pets” do. Also, she seems to love it. Humans are so strange. I entered her bedroom and jumped on her bed which took me quite some effort. Being a chunky bulldog can suck at times.

“Good morning, cutie” she said to me still with a sleepy tone.
“Woof!” was all I could say back.
I was excited for that day. Sheila had been promising to have a “girls day out” but she always ended up busy either going out with Chase or doing homework. I find it a little weird that she calls these type of days “girls day out” considering I’m a dog and she’s a human. But since it meant getting out of this h--- pit she calls home, I dealt with it.
“You know what day it is?” Said Sheila.
I wonder if she finds it even the slightest bit weird to be asking me questions knowing I can’t actually respond.
“Woof woof!” Stupid dog language.
“CORRECT! You and I are going to get mani pedis today just you and me! We were in need of a relaxing day like this just us two.”
I licked her face as a “yes” response and she laughed and kissed my head and we played around for a little while. I truly do love Sheila when she’s being nice like that. That was when her phone buzzed.
“Who could be calling at this time?” The ringtone kept playing back to the beginning as if whoever was calling had hung up and dialed again multiple times.
“Geez I’m comin’ I’m comin’!” She hopped out of bed and ran to her phone that was charging on the opposite corner of the room, nearly tripped (twice), and got tangled completely in the cord of the charger.
“Hello?” She answered the phone. 
“Yes this is I. Oh no! Yes. I am on my way.”  It was as if I had become invisible to her after that. She threw on some jeans and put her white hoodie on, checked herself in the mirror and vanished from the room. And I was left there. Sitting in the empty room. Abandoned. I heard the front door of the apartment slam shut and I knew she was gone.
She didn’t tell me where she was going but I was 100% sure that she was going to see Chase. Chase is a guy she’s been on some dates with. It’s more like they study together but it makes her happy to call them dates. One time we were at the vet getting my monthly check up done and she got a call from Chase asking her to meet up. No joke, she ran out of the clinic and nearly forgot about me. Took her a couple seconds to realize she had forgotten me and she went back inside to get me. It always seemed like it was him over me so I wouldn’t surprised if today was one of those days again.  But I knew there wasn’t going to be a “girls day out”. She didn’t even bother to refill my water bowl. This had been occurring way too much and I needed to make it known that I needed attention, too. Time to seek revenge.
I peed EVERYWHERE I could. I ran into every lamp or vase that was at my sight, I took out all the cotton from all the pillows around the house and I ripped some newspaper apart into millions of little pieces that would surely take her forever to pick up. Typical dog mischief. I felt good. She was definitely going to learn not to mess with me. I headed to my bed and just waited for Sheila to get home. Boy she was gonna be so mad it was all great! I was feeling so excited but as the time passed, Sheila didn’t come home. I figured she was still with Chase and I just became even angrier at the her so I did more mischief. After I was done breaking everything I possibly could,, I felt a little better as I had released tons of anger. I returned to my bed for the second time and this time fell asleep
I woke up at around 5 pm. It was late and Sheila was still not home. Why was it that Chase was so much more important than me? I began to feel sad. And hungry. So I searched for the bag of dog food that was near the kitchen and I knocked it over and just ate whatever fell on the floor. That was when I heard keys unlocking the door. Boy oh boy! I couldn’t wait to see the expression on her face when she saw all of this mess! Sheila walked in with her head down and headed to the couch not once looking up. This was strange. Everytime she gets home she calls my name and I run up to her and we have some sort of moment like in the movies. But not this time.
She sat on the couch and just stared at the ground. She must’ve been in a completely different world for her not to have already noticed all of the mess that was around her. She finally looked up. She noticed. Her eyes filled with anger and mine grew full of excitement! She opened her mouth as if she were about to give me the longest lecture of my short dog life! And then it all stopped. Her anger turned to tears and she only hid her face in her hands and began to sob. My heart dropped. Was it really all that bad to make her cry? I felt so bad. I approached her slowly. She did something that surprised me. She pet me. Gently. After all the mess I’d done… she pet me.
“My friend’s, Linda. She doesn’t have much time to live.” Sheila said in tears.
So she hadn’t been out with Chase… The phone call must’ve been from a family member or maybe someone at a hospital. I felt terrible. Oh no I wanted to smack myself so hard till I became unconscious.
Sheila was suffering and I had stayed home and only made things worse for her. I felt as if I would explode with guilt any second. Then it happened.
“I’m so sorry, Sheila” I said. YES. I SAID. I SPOKE.
“WHAT THE H---?!?!?!?!?!”
“Holy poop!”
“OH MY GOD!”
Sheila fainted.

She woke up approximately 20 minutes after laying in the carpet right in front of the couch and I was freaking out. I didn’t know what to say I was just as shocked as she was. I mean, I was aware of the fact that I could think like a human but I never knew I could TALK.
“What happened?” Sheila had awaken. I had no idea what to do. I wanted to call Chase to have him come and care for her but maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea… I had already creeped one person out I couldn’t bare with two.
“Woof?” I said approaching her slowly. My “woof” wasn’t very convincing.
“WAIT! YOU SPOKE TO ME!”
“Woof woof?” I said trying to sound as convincing as possible.
“Don’t act like you don’t know! Don’t make me feel crazier than I already do!”
“...I’m sorry I didn’t know eit-”
“OH MY GOD YOU”RE TALKING”
“But you-”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP!”
“Woof?”
“How could this be?!”
“Okay liste-”
“OH MY-”
“Would you let me talk?”
“Ohhhhhh myy-”
“Sheila!” I interrupted.
“OOOOH YOU SAID MY NAME” She nearly fainted again.
“Should I think that this is normal?!” She yelled.
“Listen if you could call someone to come pick us up and take us to talk about it with someone…”
“WHAT? Who is going to believe me when I say ‘oh I have a talking dog please get me some help.”
I giggled.
“Don’t giggle. It’s creepy.” She said frightened.
Okay not only was her friend about to go away to the heavens but I just talked to her and she was probably scared out of her life. Maybe I should’ve called someone. But she beat me to it. When I turned back to look she had already reached for her phone that was on top of the couch right next to her. I’m not exactly sure who she was calling. She said something about and unwanted dog.
2 weird looking strangers one male and one female showed up at the door around 10 minutes after she hung up the phone. I was confused towards why the guy was carrying a cage in his right hand. Then it hit me. I guess I am a little slow. The lady picked me up and the guy held open the door of the cage. He picked me up and began to move towards the door
“YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME, SHEILA” I yelled without hesitation.
The man dropped the cage right that instant. The lady just nodded at him. I was so confused. Sheila had a look of fright and confusion mixed together. The man picked me in the cage back up just as the lady had instructed him to do so and we continued to move further and further away from the house. I remember seeing Sheila in the distance before they put me in the car. I’d never seen her looked more confused. That day both of our worlds were flipped upside down.
I woke up the next morning in a cage. I heard so much noise it was driving me crazy. A woman in a white astronaut looking suit came by my cage and carried me out of it. She took me to a completely empty white room. I could even hear the echoes of the ladies heels as she walked away. I did as I was told to just “sit” and “wait”. A different lady walked into the room and she bent down in front of me.
“So when did you first learn to talk?” She said very straight forward.
Silence.
“I asked you a question?”
“I- I’m sorry this is still a little weird for me.”
“There’s no reason for you to feel awkward. Listen, you might think you’re special but we’ve brought you here for you to realize that you’re not the only pet that can talk.”
“I’m not…?”
“No, sir. All of the dogs, cats, hamsters, lizards, turtles… pets in this building are just like you.”
I was speechless.
“Now when did you discover this about yourself?
“Um… yesterday night?” I explained to her everything and answered every question she asked me. After what seemed like forever, she finally dismissed herself. The lady who had initially taken me out of my cage returned to walk me back. When she opened the door she looked at me and smiled. So she knew, too.
As we were walking back to my cage I noticed something I hadn’t when I woke up. I noticed that the voices I heard were not coming from humans but from the hundreds of other different pets in their cages. They could all talk! It was insane and it was all happening too quickly.
It’s like a completely different world in here. I can converse with all of these different pets and talk about our experiences and they’re all so familiar it’s so nice to be able to talk with others and not have it be completely weird. Sheila was a nice owner and all I guess she has her reasons to have done what she did and I’m glad she did, too. This is all a lot less weird than going on “girls day out” with her. I heard one of the ladies mention that she was now engaged with Chase. I guess they weren’t just “studying” after all. I would assume her friend is dead by now… it’s been around 6 months. Either way I hope she is doing fine and I hope either of two things, that she forgives me for almost giving her a heart attack or got some sort of treatment to help clear her mind like they do in the movies. That’s right, I can watch movies now. I love it here it’s like we get treated no different than the adults only in here, it’s not weird. I guess things happened the way they did for a reason. I’ll always remember Sheila whether she chooses to remember me or not. I’ll be living the ultimate animal life. Never take us for granted for you never know what may be hidden under our “woofs” and “meows”.