The Housekeeper - Chapter 16 (Part 3 of 3)

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 16 (Part 3 of 3)

Roger sat like a dog… with his hands on the floor in front of him.  The stupid duck was once again in his mouth… it had been there for much of the afternoon.  The stupid toy was now mostly covered in his slobber, but that was something that he couldn’t do anything about.  But now he was sitting – duck in mouth – staring at the closed bathroom door.  Carol had demanded that he “wait” for her to come out… just as he was… and so he did.  He didn’t want to do anything that would cause Janice to grab the remote control for his collar.  As demeaning as it was to pretend to be Carol’s pet doggie all day, he simply feared another session with Janice far, far more.

Knowing that Carol was on the other side of that door… peeing, only made his own need very apparent.  But since he was completely forbidden to use any human words, he had no way to really tell Carol that he probably needed that room more than she did.  And so he was starting to suffer a bit as he held his bladder back.  He fully remembered the last time he had to play her “doggie.”  Before that had ended they had taken him outside to pee – on a leash!

The door finally opened and Carol came out.  She walked right up to him and stopped, and he again dropped the duck at her feet… and barked.  But this time, Carol was only looking down at him.  “Get your duck, doggie,” she said as she started to walk past him.  “And follow me.”

Roger once again had to bend down and struggle to get the stupid toy duck into his mouth.  Then he turned on all fours and followed Carol out to the living room where he saw her talking to her mother.  He waited patiently… well, somewhat patiently. 

“Come along, doggie,” Carol said again as she now headed for the kitchen. 

As Roger crawled after her, he noticed Janice now getting up from her chair again.  He had to follow Carol all the way out to the laundry room before she stopped.  But when she stopped, he saw her open one of the cupboards over the washing machine and pull something out.  Something red.  He was shocked to see that it was a leash!  Nearly shaking at the humiliation, he stood there – on all fours – with the stupid duck in his mouth – as Carol clipped the damn leash to his collar.  And then he watched in horror as she opened the back door and headed out.  And with the duck still in his mouth… and no choice now but to follow, he crawled out the door as well.

The afternoon was cool.  There was a light mist in the air as if the weather couldn’t decide if it was raining or not.  Roger dropped the duck on the deck before he attempted to navigate down the stairs on all fours like he was.

“Get your duck,” Carol ordered.  “You certainly don’t want to leave your favorite toy behind.”

Favorite toy?  Not likely.  But Roger again grabbed the duck in his mouth, before feeling the pull of the leash on his neck, pulling him down the steps.  At least she wasn’t pulling hard.  Crawling down the steps like he was wasn’t exactly easy. 

The ground was soaked from the rain that had fallen just a little while earlier… and was threatening to fall soon again – if it wasn’t already raining.  The mist in the cool air was making him far more uncomfortable than he had been just crawling around naked. 

Duck in mouth, Carol led him around the yard a bit, before “walking” him up to one of the trees further back in the yard.  “Okay, doggie.  Now’s the time to do your business.  Pee for me like the good doggie I know you are.”

It had been bad enough last time when he had been forced to do it because of the trance that Janice had put him in, but this time he wasn’t in any kind of trance at all.  He was just following Carol’s orders out of fear of what he was afraid would happen if he didn’t.  Knowing he wasn’t going to have a choice in the matter, he raised his leg that was closest to the tree, and peed.  Fortunately, he did have to pee pretty badly, but that didn’t do anything to lessen the humiliation of the act one little bit. 

“Good doggie,” Carol crooned. 

Yeah right!  Roger shivered.  But was it from the cold wet weather – or the stupid humiliating way he was forced to behave?

Janice pulled the rolls out of the oven, pausing to turn the oven off before she did anything else.  She dumped the dinner rolls out onto a separate plate that she set down in the middle of the table.  Everything was now ready for dinner.  She could hear Carol and Roger still playing in the living room.  She was very glad that Roger was behaving so well today.  Otherwise she would have wasted no time at all to put him into some serious training!  Facing the living room, she called, “Carol!  Dinner time, dear.”

Carol headed for the kitchen as soon as her mother called.  The smell of the food was making her hungry.  She was glad to see Roger, with his toy duck, following right behind her.  As she entered the kitchen, she glanced toward the corner where Roger’s usual bowl was… and noticed that it wasn’t there.  “Mom, what happed to his dog dish?”

“It’s on the counter dear,” Janice explained.  Since he’s doing such a good job today of being your little pet, I thought it would be more appropriate for him to eat after we were finished.”

Carol smiled.  “Good thinking, Mom!”

Roger rolled his eyes at hearing that – in a direction where they wouldn’t see it.  He chanced dropping his “duck” and laid down on the hard kitchen floor for a bit of a rest.  His knees were getting bruised from all the running she had him doing and his mouth tasted awful from that stupid duck.  Yuck!  He was glad to see that he was being totally ignored while they ate.  He really needed a rest.  Carol had been relentless all afternoon in keeping him busy with playing fetch, along with “teaching” him to bark on command and roll over on command.  And the worst part was, that despite how humiliating it had been, at times, Roger had almost enjoyed the little games.  At times anyway.  Mostly, it was all simply demeaning.

Janice was all but finished eating when she glanced over toward Roger in his corner on the floor.  With a wicked smile on her face, she called, “Here doggie…”

Roger was suddenly pulled out of the nice resting period he had been enjoying.  The sound of Janice’s voice calling him… as if he was a dog… brought him nothing but fear.  But he didn’t dare not obey.  Especially since she was looking at him all too intently.  He got to all fours again, and crawled over toward her.  He stopped a few feet away and “stood” there looking up at her to see what she wanted.

Janice picked up an uneaten morsel of food from her plate and held it up in her fingers toward Roger, only she held it too high for him to reach it.  “Here, doggie,” she said.  “Show us how well you can beg for your food.”

Once again Roger was shocked and outraged. But what choice did he have?  Hating having to do it, he sat back on his haunches like the dog they were making him pretend to be, and put his “paws” up in a typical dog begging position. 

With a smile, Janice slowly lowered the morsel of food down to Roger’s mouth and fed it to him.  He sat there just as he was and chewed it and swallowed it.  Then he stared at her for a moment before dropping back down to all fours again. 

“Can I try?” Carol asked with a giggle.

“Of course, dear,” Janice replied.

“Here doggie,” Carol called delightedly. 

Roger was forced to go through the whole demeaning process three more times only with Carol this time. 

Janice watched Roger carefully as he “begged” and ate the food treats.  But the whole time she was making more mental notes to add to the list in her notebook.  “I think it’s time to feed him his dinner now, dear.  We don’t want to completely spoil his appetite.”

“Yes Momma,” Carol said, slightly annoyed that the game was done. 

“Since he’s your dog today, you can have the honor of feeding him,” Janice told her.

Carol got up and went to the counter to get his dog bowl.  But then she had to figure out what food to put into it.  “Momma, what do you want me to put in here?  We’ve eaten most of what you made.”

With a smile, Janice got up from her seat and opened one of the cupboards.  “This of course,” she said as she pulled out one of the cans of dog food.  “He’s a dog today.  Isn’t this what a dog is supposed to eat?”

Carol’s eyes went wide with surprise… which quickly turned to delight.  “Really?” she asked.

“Why not?”

As Carol went about opening the can of dog food, Roger stared in horror at what she was doing from the floor.  Dog food!  He couldn’t even begin to imagine how horrible it was going to be.  He suddenly found himself seriously trying to figure out how he could get out of it.  Could he protest?  If he did, what would Janice do to him?  He looked up at her… and saw her staring all too intently down at him… as if she was just daring him to do anything at all to avoid eating what they were about to serve him.  Under her menacing gaze, he cowered inside.  She wasn’t giving him a choice… again. 

All too soon, Carol delivered his “dinner” to the floor in his usual corner.  Roger stared at it without moving any closer to it.  It was all a rather putrid light brown color and it all looked to have the consistency of mush.  He could see specs of… other things… mixed in the food that he had no idea at all what they were.  And it smelled awful!  Even from where he was! 

“You will eat every bit of that,” Janice told him in no uncertain terms.

Roger forced himself to crawl over to the bowl.  The smell of it was stronger now.  Just thinking about eating – that – made his stomach lurch.  He lowered his head to the bowl… but not quite far enough to grab anything in his mouth yet.  It was a moment before he could find the courage to force himself to try to eat any of it.  But eventually his head went a bit further down and his mouth opened, and he took some of it into his mouth.  And the taste was just as horrible as the smell!  Oh yuck!  Yuck!  Yuck! Yuck!  He forced himself to stay there and chew the mushy food.  And with great effort, he forced himself to swallow it.  Ugh!  He had eaten dog food!  He was eating dog food!  Yuck!  How was it possible that even real dogs liked this stuff? 

He momentarily turned his head back toward Janice.  She was still staring intently down at him… now with a bit of a smile on her lips.  Damn her!  He turned back to the bowl on the floor in front of him and lowered his head once again.  Yuck!

And three bites later, Carol delivered another bowl of water for him to “drink” as well.  Ugh!  But he found that constantly going from bowl to bowl… eating then drinking… helped him manage to eat his “dinner.” 

“You’re very right,” Janice noted to her daughter.  “He is getting quite proficient at eating that way.”

“I told you, Momma,” Carol replied, her voice full of delight.

It took nearly half the bowl of “food” before Roger’s taste buds gave up and he no longer found it quite so bad.  But his brain never got over the fact of having to eat it… not even after he had actually managed to get all of it into his system.  And when he was done… and his water bowl was empty too… he continually prayed that he wouldn’t be throwing up all night!

And of course, that was when Janice “suggested” to her daughter that he might need to be walked outside again.  Ugh!  Two minutes later, Roger was once again leashed and heading down the back steps toward one of the trees in the yard – where he could lift his leg to pee like a dog.  Totally… unquestionably… demeaning!