“Listen, we’re not monsters, we’re just tired of dealing with… Well, you know, our kids.”
Amanda smiled to the parents. “Mary, Francine, Jim… Trust me. I’ve dealt with this before, and I’ll deal with it again. You don’t need to convince anyone but yourselves of your morality. You said your kids threw a party at Mary’s house, and now you want them to be loyal, kind dogs. And, I return, I get some very ‘generous compensation’.”
The adults looked to one another, then to the woman. They nodded, and with that a deal was struck.
The Dogsitter
“Mom, do I really need a babysitter?” Nick groaned, looking to Mary as she picked up her bags, smiling at the young man.
“I had thought you didn’t, and then you wrecked the patio. I get it sweetie, I was a kid once too. But that’s the thing. You should be an adult by now.” Mary smiled patronizingly, relishing the look of distrust and distaste on his face.
“Yeah. Whatever.” He grunted sullenly, pulling out his Nintendo Switch and working on one of his games. Of course he was planning to throw another party the second this ‘Amanda’ person was through, this time just to punish his other for being a bitch.
Said bitch knew fully well what he had in mind, and occupied herself with talking to the resident witch in hushed tones. “So you’re sure that you can do this, that you can change all of our kids into dogs?”
“Hey, I ‘m the best at what I do.” Amanda grinned, stroking the charm around her neck. She nodded to the other room, where Nick had begun to absently pant like a dog. “And what I do is make people into animals. You enjoy your day off, and come back with the others. Your kids will be fully changed by then.”
The witch waved the mother off with a smile, looking back to the young man in the other room. “Hey, Nick! Lunch time!”
Nick blinked at the words, his heart racing with excitement. For some reason the promise of food was really appealing right now, and he scampered into the kitchen. On the table was a bowl of dog food, laid out beside a platter of water.
He paused for a moment in confusion before digging in. For some reason, it had felt like he shouldn’t eat that, but the feeling had passed almost instantly. After all, he was hungry, and he knew this was good-he’d eaten it every day of his life!
Amanda watched him eat with a growing smile. He was digging in just like a dog, plowing face-first into the food and chowing down with great chomps. Then the brown-haired boy moved onto the water, licking it up with a lengthening tongue. All the while, a white stripe began to run through his hair, not unlike the fur of a St. Bernard.
He finished his meal and licked his larger tongue across his nose instinctively, heading back into the TV room and flopping down onto the couch. A smile spread across his face as he flipped through the channels, settling on the Westminster… Westy… The dog show. It was hard for him to process the title, but the sight of all the dogs on the television made him smile excitedly.
Nick panted harder, scratching behind his larger, floppier ears as he watched the show eagerly. Amanda really wasn’t half bad, since she’d fed him like that. It was honestly a little like she was a good caretaker owner caretaker. His mind flitted back and forth between a word he knew was right and one he felt was right, and he shook his head in confusion, flopping his ears.
“Aw, what’s that? I think someone wants a walk!” Amanda cooed.
Nick jumped from his seat in excitement, a huge and shaggy tail exploding from his ass. It wagged behind him furiously, and he panted in excitement, even as she attached a collar and leash to him. Something nagged at his mind that this wasn’t right, but he didn’t care. He was going for a walk!
He bounded for the door and onto the street, becoming increasingly doggish with every step he took. His nose flattened out on his face, turning a dark and spongy black. His face began to stretch out into a muzzle, even his habits changed.
“Squirrel! Rowf! Woof! Squirrrrell!” He growled, running to a tree and pawing at it, barking at the squirrel. Then his bladder clenched and he forgot about the squirrel, lifting a leg and soaking his pants in the process. He whimpered with embarrassment, and Amanda laughed.
“Right, right. I’ll get you out of those annoying clothes.” She cooed, stroking her amulet. As she did, his clothes vanished into thin air, replaced by thick and shaggy fur in a matter of moments. It was white and brown fur, thick and voluminous.
He shook it out, then lifted one of his large ears, hearing someone approach. They were his elderly neighbors, Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Churchill. He bounded towards them, tongue flopping, and they momentarily blinked in panic.
Then Amanda stroked at her pendant and the panic faded. The two cooed and scratched at his ears, petting him and giving him the same affection they’d give to any other kind of dog. “Oh, who’s a good boy? Who’s a good good boy?”
His fur came in a little thicker, a complete coat growing from his pores as their touch. His arms and legs shortened a little as well, though it wasn’t enough to make him fall to all fours… Yet. The young man panted happily and snuggled into the pets, soaking up every second of attention.
“Oh, I do wish that we had some pets of our own. How long has it been since we’ve had pets?” Mrs. Churchill smiled, looking to her friend. “If only we could adopt them when they were as old as him. Puppies are a little too much for us at our age, and most dogs are… Well, mean.”
Amanda smiled at that, grinning from ear to ear. “Well… You know what, I think that I could arrange that.” She kept talking after that, but Nick didn’t have that much interest in what she was saying. A nearby butterfly was far more worthy of his attention.
At least, it was until Amanda tugged at his leash again, prompting him to make the last stretch of the walk to his house. He was very nearly a dog by the time he got home, a bipedal St. Bernard. He had the typical blunt muzzle of his breed, the weighty body, and a passion for drooling.
And, the second he passed the door to his home, even his posture changed. He fell onto all fours, fingers curling as they became paws and tail wagging as he became complete. The doorbell rank the second the last of his thumbs receded into his wrists, and he barked at it loudly. “Woof!”
“Oh, I’ll get it.” Amanda laughed, undoing Nick’s leash and walking to the door. She turned the lock and pulled it open, a little surprised to see Nick’s friends there. Evidently he’d been something of a naughty boy…
“Hey, we’re here for the party. Um… What’s up with the dog? And you?” Diana, Francine’s daughter, asked. She was next to Chad, Jim’s son. That was good, it made things even easier for Amanda.
“Great! I’m the entertainment.” Amanda grinned, swatting Chat on the nose like a dog as he looked her up and down. “Not like that, you randy boy. I’m here to make sure Nick’s new puppy doesn’t make a mess… And that your food and drink doesn’t run out.”
As she spoke, she trailed her hands along her amulet. Her words were reinforced on the spot by a magical compulsion, one that made the two’s eyes glaze momentarily. Then they eagerly started a party that went from human to canine in under an hour.
Really, Amanda was proud of herself. They didn’t even notice as she switched the beer, chips, and games for bones, dog treats, and tennis balls. Before long, the two were panting and playing just like dogs, a Cocker Spaniel Chad chomping down on a bone and Diana fetching a ball. She’d be good at that, given that she was well on her way to being a Border Collie.
“Your friends, really quite troublesome.” Amanda chuckled, petting Nick’s large, goofy head. He barked happily and nuzzled into her arms, thinking of her as his most important person in the world. He was so drawn to her that he barely noticed her occasionally tossing a tennis ball in Diana’s direction, the white-and-brown furred girl falling to all fours and running back and forth like a common animal.
“Woof!” He barked in assent, only to turn towards the door. His sensitive, floppy ears had heard something… There was someone at the door! Intruder! “Woof! Rowf!!” He barked, hopping from the couch to scratch at the door’s frame.
“Ah, and right on schedule…” Amanda hummed, hopping off the couch and chuckling as the last of Chad’s body was covered in the soft, curly hairs of a Cocker. She opened the door and smiled to the parents, waving them in. “I think you’ll find them to your pleasing. Complete canines, body and mind.”
“Oh my God!” Mary beamed, looking down to Nick and petting his large head. She knew it was her son, even though he looked nothing like the boy he’d once been. Something about maternal connections, probably. She didn’t know and didn’t really care.
Amanda watched the parents play with their changed children for a few moments before stroking her amulet again, humming knowingly. Jim and Francine collapsed almost immediately beneath the weight of her magic, the two of them panting and licking their kids’ faces.
Jim was getting fur just as curly as Chad’s-no, curlier. It was thick and poofy, a nice snow-white in comparison with his son’s curly brown. His body cracked and popped as it reformed to something less than human, and he wagged his new tail. Fully a poodle, he gnawed at the same bone as his son, ears twitching as Francine fought her daughter for a tennis ball.
The former blonde was currently shrinking, and shrinking fast. Her arms and legs became small and stubby, and her body seemed to stretch out to a distinct tube. She was a dachshund in a matter of seconds, yapping at her much larger daughter as the dog held the tennis ball in her mouth, well out of Francine’s reach.
Mary, meanwhile… Mary was able to fight it. Not well, but she was still able to resist some of the mental compulsion. Ironically, those Mensa exercises had paid off. Her ears grew larger and larger, longer and longer until soon they hung well below her shoulders. They were just like those of a bloodhound.
“Why arrre you doing this to us?” The canine lilt in her voice didn’t escape her notice, and the woman whimpered plaintively.
“Why? Because anyone who cares to little about their kids to turn them into dogs needs to be punished in turn. Honestly, I’m a hitwoman. Do you know what that means? It means that I make people disappear. Forever. And you wanted to do that to your kids?” Amanda tutted disapprovingly, tapping Mary on her darkening nose. “Bad dog.”
Mary’s heart clenched at that, though she shook her head and flopped her ears in protest. She knew that responding to that would meant that she was acknowledging having become a dog, but she couldn’t deny that being called bad was like going through a breakup. After all, being called that by her owner was… No, Amanda wasn’t her owner, she was… Her owner? Her owner!
“See? And in due time, all barriers crumple. But don’t worry. When… Well, if, you change back, I’m sure that you’ll be much better people. With a fondness for chasing squirrels. Ha! That’s a plus, it’s better than being squirrels, isn’t it?” Amanda laughed, laughing even harder as Mary tackled her, covering her face in licks.
With each pass of her tongue, it became longer, floppier, wetter. Her nose flattened out on her face, jowls flopped from her cheeks, her face became the silly droopy visage of a bloodhound. The transformation worked its way across Mary’s body, and she didn’t care. Her mind was already gone.
“Sit! Beg! Roll over!” Amanda barked orders to the new bloodhound, laughing as the dog eagerly obeyed. The wrinkles on Mary’s changed face seemed to ripple with every one of her movements, and Amanda delighted in how inhuman the woman had become.
“Good girl! Who’s a good girl?” She rubbed at Marys belly with both hands, watching as the last of Mary’s tail grew in. With that, the last of her changes were complete. Just in time, because the doorbell rang once more, the last time for the night.
Every single one of the dogs barked at the sound, and Amanda hushed them with a wave to her amulet. The same magic that had stripped them of their minds instilled a rudimentary obedience training in the animals, and Amanda grinned. “Damn, I’m good.”
She strode to the doorway and opened it up, smiling to the elderly women she’d met while taking Nick for a walk. “Mrs. Watson and Churchill, it’s a delight to see you again.” She smiled, nodding. “I have your dogs right here, a fully trained poodle and Cocker for Mrs. Watson, and a collie and a dachshund for Mrs. Churchill. Unless you’d like to switch the pairs. Sorry for not being able to mix it up past that, but they’re kind of attached to each other.”
“Oh, I can see that. I’m fine with taking the boys.” Mrs. Watson smiled, picking up her two. “And I know that Vera can take the girls. It’s a shame that the St. Bernard and the bloodhound aren’t up for adoption, I do so love those silly things.”
Amanda waved the women out with their new pets, laughing good-naturedly. “Well, these two are mine. And if you’ll excuse me, I’m ready for a nice dinner with my new pets.” She looked down to the dogs with a smile, scratching their long, thick, floppy ears.