Catching My Breath, Taking New Steps

I burst through the door and slammed it shut behind me. I was panting from the exertion of running home, not to mention the anxiety from having someone so quickly figure out my secret. Did other pet girls have a sixth sense for who was one of them? I'd have to be much more careful on who I talked to if I wanted to keep my true nature safe. I leaned back against the door and shut my eyes tightly.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

My eyes snapped open as I discovered you had been standing in the living room this whole time. There was an expression of concern on your face that made me feel so protected and cared for, even if it was something so simple.

"Uhh, nothing, bro! I was just out for a walk and - actually it was more of a run, I was just trying to get the blood pumping, you know? Anyways I have some studying to do, talk to you later bye."

I spat out the words as quickly as I could before essentially leaping through my bedroom door and shutting it as fast as I could. Somehow, I couldn't even handle a basic conversation with you anymore, and trying to lie to you on top of that made it so much harder.

For the next few days, I didn't do much. I had stopped going to class weeks ago, and at this point all I was doing was watching vlogs from pets about their lives and tutorials on how to be a good dog girl. Sometimes during these videos I would feel an intense burning in my body, a scream telling me to do something, anything.

So I went to the pet store. The action that only days beforehand I said I could never do, because I would never come back from it. I was going to buy some ears and a collar.

I walked through the doors and the bells chimed, alerting the employees to my presence. Standing behind the counter was a man in his 30s and his cat girl.

"Hello, and welcome to Pet-Style! Do you need any assistance?"

"No thanks, I'll be fine!"

Gracefully, they let me be as I browsed the store by myself. This place had an aisle for seemingly every animal type. I had no idea that the basic pet store would have a section for lizard tanning beds. It didn't take long for me to find the dog section, though. The only section that rivaled it in size was for cats.

There was lots of stuff I would never have thought about. I saw tons of chewing bones, leashes, tennis balls, feeding bowls, brushes, and most importantly to me, collars and ears. My eyes kept straying over to the chewing bones and I cannot believe I even wanted one. What the hell, brain? You're supposed to be a woman, not an animal!

I looked over the large collection of collars and ears and let my heart guide me. "Giddy" would be the word to describe how I felt looking through this candy store. There were single-color collars, spiked collars, black leather collars, gold luxury collars, and more. The one that caught my eye the most was a pink collar decorated with little hearts all over. I picked it up and then looked over the ears. The most common ear type was Labrador ears, but they seemed to have at least one option for every major breed. Eventually, I came across the perfect ears: Some brown corgi ears that perfectly matched my brunette hair, with the right ear pointing up and the left ear flopped over. These ears were so ridiculously cute! I had to have them. I grabbed both the pink-hearted collar and the corgi ears and I got ready to pay, before looking back down the aisle... and grabbing a bone. Dammit, me.

After buying the items, I stuffed them all into the backpack I had brought with me before heading back to the apartment. Once I got there, I called out your name to see if you were home, and was lucky enough to find the apartment empty. I quickly opened the bag and took each item out. Standing in front of the mirror, I got ready to put each accessory on. I would have loved it way more if my first time was with you doing it, but I had to settle for what I could get!

First was the collar. It had a bunch of adjustable sizes, so I got it to what would let me slip it over my head, and put it on. Immediately, it was like electricity running through my body. This is it! This is what my body had been missing these past 4 months! I didn't even wait to let the collar set in. Grabbing the corgi ears and putting them on my head, I was moving so fast I almost stabbed myself in the eye trying to throw them on. Looking in the mirror, my eyes started watering. I was a dog girl, I was a corgi, and I was so. Damn. Happy. I couldn't help myself, I started to giggle at the absurdity, which turned into full out laughter. I grabbed the chewing bone I bought and put it in my mouth before bouncing around in our living room for a moment, that's how high my emotions were.

Then they all came crashing down when the door opened and you looked me in the eyes.