Training with Wolfie - Chapter 7 – Part 2 of 2

Training With Wolfie

By Karen Singer

Chapter 7 – Part 2 of 2

     Brian was getting awfully hungry.  He was even starting to think about some of the dog treats she constantly gave him.  He figured he had to be desperate indeed if that’s what his mind was focusing on.  The oddest part was though, that she had left him and Wolf alone all morning…well, at least since she had come out that one time.  He had seen no other sign of her since.  She had reduced him to the status of…a dog, and now she was ignoring him…like a dog.  Out of sight, out of mind.  It was particularly noticeable because she had always been so attentive in the past. 

     He watched as Wolf sniffed carefully around the base of one of the nearby trees.  Then he lifted his leg and peed against it.  Then of course he had to sniff at what he had just done again.  Ugh!  The few times Brian had needed to pee, he had simply crawled to a spot where he didn’t think he’d be crawling through anytime soon and squatted his body down a bit and let loose on the grass.  Forget lifting his leg like he was supposed to.  As long as nobody yelled at him for it, it was a lot easier.

     Wolf suddenly lifted his head and looked toward the house again.  Brian looked too.  Was she coming out?  But he didn’t see her yet.  Wolf suddenly started barking and running toward the gate on the driveway side.  Brian just figured it was someone else wanting to pay rent, or perhaps one of her workers.  But as he watched Wolf, he realized that Wolf was acting different, he seemed excited…happy!  It had to be someone he knew! 

     Brian tried to figure out what he should do so it would be less likely for him to be spotted.  But before he could move, he saw the back door open and Mrs. Murphy finally came outside.  Knowing she would call right away, he started crawling for the porch before she bothered.  Wolf, however, nearly knocked Rosa down as he excitedly jumped all over her.

      “Down Wolf!  Down!” she yelled at her big dog.  Wolf stopped jumping on her, but he was still looking for her attention and ran around in a circle until she bent down and rubbed the thick fur around his head and neck.  “Did you boys miss me?” she asked as soon as Brian was fairly close.  “I wasn’t gone all that long.”

     Brian stopped in his tracks.  She had been gone?  He should have realized it before. 

     Rosa walked up to him.  She bent down and rubbed the top of his head too.  “And how about you?  Were you a good boy while I was gone too?”

     Unable to answer her in any meaningful way, Brian simply sat…like a dog. 

     As usual, Rosa put the two of them through their old exercises, but this time she wondered if Brian was more focused than usual on the little liver treats she handed out.  When she was done, she let the two of them into the house.

     Brian expected her to feed him something for lunch, but once in the house, she walked right through the kitchen as if lunch was the furthest thing from her mind.  He followed her into the living room where she pulled something out of a bag from a store.  From his position on the floor, he couldn’t tell what it was as she pulled it out of the packaging. 

     Rosa turned and saw Brian…now Bobo, watching her.  Wolf was over in the other side of the room laying on the floor chewing on one of his stuffed toys.  “Just stay there,” she said to Bobo.  “I’ll be right back.”  She left him and went to her bedroom where she found what she needed, then headed right back to the living room again where she picked up the items she had just purchased.  She turned to Bobo.  “Stay!” she commanded.  Then she bent down to go to work.

     Frightened by whatever she might have in mind, Brian dared not move as she came around behind him.  He felt her picking up his left foot and pull something over it, then up his leg.  Then she picked up his entire leg and began pulling whatever it was up even higher.  It was fairly tight, whatever it was.  As soon as she had it where it was covering his entire knee, she dropped his leg.  Brian expected a nasty bump as his knee hit the floor, but instead, he was surprised by no pain at all.  Padding!  She had pulled some kind of knee pad up his leg!  If he had a way to talk, he would have thanked her.  A minute later, the second pad was on his other knee.  Delightedly, he crawled around in a circle.  Much better!

     Rosa watched Brian’s movements.  She could tell he liked the pads she had bought him.  She had only gotten them because of some of the things she and Mr. Tolliver had discussed while they were looking at different leathers.  Things that she should have thought about earlier.  Well, Brian, or Bobo, might like the pads, but he certainly wasn’t going to like what came with them. 

      “Bobo,” she called.  “Come!”  As soon as he had come back to her, she said, “Stay!”  Then she picked up the two straps she had used on his legs once before – the day that Tolliver had first seen Brian.  Within minutes, his legs were pulled up again, forcing him to now move only on his kneecaps.  As she and Tolliver had discussed.  It would probably be best if she started getting him used to having his legs in that position, a little at first, then in ever increasing lengths of time.  So that by the time Tolliver had all of his things ready for Brian, he would be much more used to it.

     Brian was a bit shocked as he moved tentatively around the room trying to get used to his legs being this way again.  He was grateful for the padding under his knees, that made things much easier, but he still hated being bound like this.  And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it – especially since his hands were bound up into paws too.  Feeling nothing but sorry for himself again, he found the little spot between the chairs that he had used previously, where he felt a bit more hidden from the world…where he would be less likely to be seen in his present state.  He laid down on his stomach in the cramped little space.  From there, he worked his way to his side.  The space had just enough room for his bound up legs so he could be comfortable.  But before he could try to take a nap, something hit his arm and head, startling him.  He looked up and saw one of Wolf’s stuffed dog toys lying next to his head. 

      “Something for you to play with,” Rosa said before she walked off. 

     Brian ignored the toy completely and laid his head on his arm.  He hated having his legs bound up that way.  For that matter, he hated having his hands bound up too.  Not to mention that he hated all of this.  But what could he do?  She hurt men…probably tortured spies for the CIA…professionally!

     Rosa kept Brian’s legs bound up for most of the afternoon, even when she shooed both her “dogs” outside to play again.  But when she finally let his legs loose, she also removed the knee pads she had put of him. 

     While Brian was glad to have his legs loose again, he would have rather kept the knee pads.  But since they were outside anyway, it didn’t really matter that much.  What he really wanted more right now was something to eat.  He was hungry!  Fortunately, she called them in for dinner not long afterwards.  Once again, he ate his dinner from a dog bowl on her kitchen floor.  And fortunately, this time, Wolfie didn’t even try to get any. 

     After dinner, Rosa kept her dogs in the house for a little while before sending them out again.  But she didn’t leave them out very long before bringing them back into the house.  As the evening wore on, Brian laid on her living room carpet and tried to watch TV with Rosa while Wolf moved from spot to spot to take his never ending naps.  At one point, Wolf jumped up onto the couch with Rosa and laid his head in her lap.  Brian watched as Rosa pet her big dog’s head endlessly as she sat watching TV.  And Wolf obviously loved it. 

     Late in the evening, Rosa sent both her dogs back out into the yard again to do their business.  Brian peed quickly, hoping that the sooner he got it over with, the sooner she would release him and send him home. 

      “You’re supposed to lift your leg when you pee!” Rosa yelled at him as he was “watering” the grass under him.  “Like Wolfie!”

     But Brian said nothing in return, not because he couldn’t say anything, but because this time he considered it his little way to spite her.  He started crawling closer to the gate instead where she could untape his hands so he could go home. 

     Rosa saw where Brian was heading.  “Sorry, Bobo,” she said.  “You’re not going home tonight.  Not until Sunday night.  Since you don’t have to worry about being called for school, then there’s no reason you can’t stay here with Wolfie and me.”

     Brian felt both horrified and crushed.  All weekend?  He would have to be a damn dog – all weekend?  That was…forever!  Reluctantly, he followed Rosa and Wolf back into the house for the night. 

     When she went to bed, he started the night sleeping on the floor of her bedroom with Wolf.  But in the middle of the night, when he had woken up and realized that she was sound asleep, he moved quietly into the living room, where he climbed up onto her sofa and stretched out.  Much better!