It wasn't anything abnormal.
She picked up strays all the time, though admittedly this one looked and felt… wrong. It was dark out, so she couldn't tell anything about the animal other than the basics. It was a dog, she knew; it had barked at her before it fell unconscious and she had started dragging it to her car. God this dog was heavy.
Groaning with the weight, she managed to shift her hold to just one arm and open the waiting car door. The resulting light pooled out, blinding her for a moment as she blinked rapidly to clear her vision. "Wh-"Her breath caught. This was no ordinary dog; it was red, with a black stripe of a mane falling messily about red-white eyes that were half-rolled into the back of its head in unconsciousness. With shaky hands, she reached out and gently pushed the upper lip back. "It can't be," she whispered in horror, staring openly at the square, too-human molars that gleamed yellowish white in the car's dim illumination.
The dog looked like Smile dog. It looked a little too much like Smile dog to be healthy… or faked. For a long time, she simply stared at it in indecisive horror. What should she do? If it was Smile dog, then she would attract a lot of trouble by bringing it to her house. However, leaving it to fend for itself was cruel; it couldn't even walk when she came across it.
She sighed, looping her arms around its torso again and heaving it into the back seat. As she got in the driver's side and started the car, she had a bad feeling in her gut that she was making a horrible mistake.
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Wren Jones' house was full of animals. Stray cats came in at all hours from the little doggy door in the kitchen and lapped up the saucer of cream she left out; there were four or five dog beds around the living room that looked recently occupied, as though the users had just left. A large crate housed several abandoned ferrets she had discovered one day, and the large bird cage next to it was always open and sometimes occupied by injured avians.
The only animals that lived there permanently were the two crested geckos that shared a glass tank. Those had been a gift from a friend of hers last year, and she loved them just as dearly as she did the other, part-time tenants. As the door opened, the eyes of several animals turned towards the thin, struggling girl and the large dog she was carrying.
"Yeah, I got another dog," She grunted, addressing a tabby nearby, "Deal with it, Minerva; s'not like you have to stay here." The cat blinked regally as Wren attempted to gently set the monstrous dog onto the biggest of the dog beds. The dog's head lolled, then shifted as it returned to consciousness at the less-than-gentle drop Wren had ended up giving instead. It lifted its head and gave a deep, rumbling growl; the other animals shifted and shied away at the sound.
"Hey," She scolded, voice wavering, "Don't give me that. I just took your butt off the street and gave you a warm, comfy bed to rest in. How about you just lay still, don't kill any of the other animals, and rest?" It continued growling, but the threat wasn't behind it anymore. Wren swallowed nervously and continued, "Are you… are you Smile dog?"
Its ears perked. "I… okay. You're really Smile dog?" She jumped when it nodded. "You can understand me?" Another nod, and an eye roll. Wren bit her lip. This was entirely new; what was she going to do now? "Do you have an owner?"
Smile dog nodded, smiling wide and opening its eyes up until they looked like they were going to pop out. It took her a minute to realize it was trying to tell her something, and when she did her heart dropped into her stomach. "Your owner is Jeff, isn't it?" She said hollowly.
The dog nodded excitedly, and she felt like crying.
"He's going to come looking for you," she said in a shaky voice, "He's going to come looking for you and he's going to kill me when he finds you here." The dog nodded again, slower this time. "He'll kill me anyway, even if you're not here; I'm dead meat walking…." She reached out her hand unconsciously as she spoke, rubbing behind Smile dog's ears. It let out a contented growl and leaned into her touch, seemingly unconcerned with her impending demise. "I… you. You can't let him kill me, okay?" She said, turning her attention back to the dog. It gave her a half-blissed look. "I'll pet you all the time and feed you real meat and…. And bacon. Just… when he comes, don't let him kill me, okay?"
The almost unconscious nod she got in return didn't make her feel any better.
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