Chapter 3

Three years later

In the time that had past Jude somehow found a way to start enjoying her life again. Having Singer had really helped her, he was the reason she got out of bed in the morning. Sure she still missed Jamie but having Singer made her feel less alone. She still loved Jamie and she knew that some part of her always would but her loss was more bearable now. She could now picture sharing her life with someone else; she was finally ready to start moving on.
But at the moment she wasn't thinking about what a great dog singer was. She wasn't really thinking at all. She was just concentrating on breathing. She couldn't believe that this was how she was going to die. Suffocated be her dog. Singer was lying on top of her, pinning her to the bed.
"Get up Singer" she gasped "you're killing me here." Singer just kept on sleeping on top of her. Jude tried to push him off of her but she could barely move her arms.
"Singer I'm serious, get up!!!" she wheezed. Singer finally woke up, he lifted his head and gave her a look that clearly said 'What do you want? Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?'
"Get off of me" she rasped out. Singer ignored her; he yawned and started rubbing his wet nose against her cheek.
"Yeah good morning to you too" she said as she watched him roll to the side of her. "Did I say you could get in bed with me?" she asked him. Singer usually slept in the corner of the room but lately he had started to clime in bed with her once she had fallen asleep.
Singer started licking her face in response to her question. "No you are not forgiven" she said as she pushed him away. "You could have killed me; you weigh a lot more than I do you know." Singer looked at her with sad eyes and then whined, sounding like a small child who had just been yelled at for no reason.
"Come on I'll take you outside so you can get some fresh air while I take a shower" she said in a softer voice so that he would know that she wasn't to upset with him. "But don't go sniffing around the neighbors trash again, they left an angry message yesterday." Singer gave her a curious look so she continued "I know it's just trash but people are weird like that" she explained to him as they walked to the front door. Once out side Singer went to the trees he looked around as if to make sure that there weren't any new trees or bushes. Singer loved finding new territories to mark as his own. Jude didn't mind this; lately she was just happy that it got him out of her hair for a little while.
Singer had never really acted like a normal dog. Sure he liked to mark his territory and he walked on four legs but besides that he always acted more as if he were a human instead of a dog. He refused to eat out of a doggy dish, he had never needed a leash, and when ever Jude was watching TV he would lay down by the couch and stare at the TV screen. When ever anyone talked to him he would look at them with his head tilted to the side as if he were following the conversation, and most of the time it seemed as if he understood what they were talking about.
No matter what Jude told him to do, no matter how absurd it was, he would do it. When she asked him to get her purse he would come to her a moment later with the purse hanging around his neck. If she asked him to turn on/off the light he would balance himself on his hind legs and flick the light switch with his nose. When she asked him to put the box of pop tarts in the pantry he would carry it in his mouth and set it down on one of the shelves in the pantry.
Sure there were some well trained dogs in the world that could do incredible things, but Singer hadn't needed training. Jude would show him how to do something and when she asked him to do it again he would be able to do it on his own; sometimes he didn't even need her to show him the first time.
Jude had always thought this was cool, even it other people thought it was weird. People thought it especially weird that she had full conversations with her dog, argued with him (but they always made up soon after the fight), and sometimes she would even ask him for advice.
But ever since Jude started dating again Singer started acting weirder than usual. He followed her everywhere, the only time he let her out of his sight was when she put him out side. He had been driving her crazy; she kept bumping into him because he was always standing so close to her. Last night he was acting even stranger than that. He started growling in the middle of the night. He stood next the bedroom window growling and barking for over an hour.
Ever since he was a puppy Singer would growl at strange men. Jude used to think that he had a sixth sense about which guys she couldn't trust and that was why he growled. But she had recently changed her mind and decided that he was just being over protective.
Jude thought about it while she was in the shower and decided that she was going to have to have a talk with Singer. She knew that Singer didn't want her to be sad and lonely. She knew it would take him a while to get used to having someone else hanging around, and having to share her, but in time he would understand why she needed to find someone to share her life with, and eventually he would even be happy for her.
She was trying to figure out exactly what it was she would say to him to make him understand when it hit her. "I'm going crazy" she told herself. "He's a dog and I don't have to explain my actions to him."