One Year. Part 4

Mark sat in the crate as the car drove. He was on a plastic tray which was inside the wire mesh of the crate walls, and the door of the crate had a bolt slid through the loops on the door to lock it. Once again, he couldn't get out even if he wanted to, which he didn't. He started thinking about the man in the front of the car with Mr Franks. Who was he? Was he part of the research going on? Mark couldn't remember reading anything about it. Maybe he was there to help Mr Franks with the start of the experiment. Yeah that was probably it, thought Mark. With his mind made up, he tried to see which direction they were going, but the height of the windows meant that he couldn't quite see out properly. He could just see occasional trees go whizzing past.

It must have been about 10 minutes into the journey that Mark felt the car start to turn more frequently and eventually feel it stop. He waited to be let out, imagining wagging his tail in excitement, while he heard Mr Franks and the man climb out of the car and come round to the back. They opened the back of the car and Mark barked. He didn't know why he did it, he just did. Straight away he felt stupid. What was he doing? He was barking like a dog, to two men he hardly knew. But again Mr Franks just smiled at him, and once again Mark felt reassured.The two men picked up the bags by the crate and started to take them inside, leaving the back of the car wide open and Mark on show to the whole street! Mark stared around hurridly. What if someone saw him? He suddenly felt really vulnerable. Here he was wearing practically nothing except a leather dog harness, a dog collar and a skin tight suit. He was practically naked, sat in a cage in the back of someones car. Mark tried to lay on his front so that if anyone did walk past, they might not see him. But it didn't work. Before Mark knew it he heard voices, and then saw two guys walking past, chatting to each other. As they past, one looked over at the car. Mark screwed his eyes shut and hoped they didn't see him. He waited a few moments but nothing happend. He openned one eye and saw they had gone. Had he got away with it? Maybe he had. But then he heard one of the voices say

'You will not guess what I just saw!'

Mark shut his eyes again. When he oppened them, he heard footsteps coming toward the back of the car. He braced himself for the two guys to come and stare into the cage. Mark got ready for the humiliation.

Mr Franks slid the bolt back and swung the cage door open. Mark felt the pit of his stomach fall. He could not have been more relieved! He stood up on his hands and knees as Mr Franks reached in and took hold of Marks collar. Mark moved his head so Mr Franks could clipp the leash onto the ring more easily. Mr Franks stood back and let Mark out and then started leading Mark toward the house. Crawling as fast as he could, Mark got through the front door and the safety of the house. Mr Franks closed the door and turned round, and started leading through the house. Mark had thought he would show him round first, give him the tour, but r Franks had other ideas. He lead Mark through to the kitchen and into a corner where Mark could see a plastic dog basket with a cushion inside it. Mark saw that the cushion was covered in a paw print design. He could guess what this was. This was his new home for a year. Walking up to it Mr Franks leant down and started pointing to the basket saying 'BED' in a loud voice. Mark looked up at him as he was leaning over him and realised that he wasn't talking to him. He was giving him a command. Mark crawled into the basket and sat on the cushion.

Mr Franks reached over and unclipped the leash from Marks neck. He stood up and hung the leash on a nail that was sticking into the wall. He turned to Mark again and said 'LAY DOWN' Mark did as he was told. As he did so, he felt the harness rub against his upper body. He hoped that it was taken off before he was expected to sleep. Mr Franks looked down at him and said 'Good boy, now stay there.'

With that Mr Franks walked out of the kitchen and left Mark laying in his bed.

-

Mark had laid there. He had been there for what felt like an age. There were no clocks in the kitchen so he couldn't tell how long it actually was. He had begun to get bored of waiting. He looked round. There was nothing in the kitchen that he hadn't seen and been staring at for ages. He got up onto all fours and begun to walk round the house. He walked past the empty dining room and lounge and went in the direction of the front door. He got to the bottom of the stairs and looked up them. Was he allowed upstairs? It was a bit personal, going up to the bedrooms, and he wasn't sure what Mr Franks would say if he found him up the stairs. Mark wondered what to do. He decided that he had to stay in characte and tried a loud whimper, and waited for a moment. There was no reply. Unsure what to do, he started up the stairs. When he got to the top, he was about to try again when the man came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his body.

He looked down at Mark and said in a loud voice 'No! Naughty boy. Back downstairs and go to bed.'

Mark turned around and saw that it was easier said than done. He tried to crawl back down the stairs but felt like he was about to fall at each step. Using his arms to stop him he half crawled, half slid down the stairs till he got to the bottom. Feeling slightly silly, he looked back up the stairs and saw the man standing at the top of the stairs.

He said 'Go to bed.' Mark felt a bit unsure. He had just made it down the stairs head first. Did he really have to go and lay down again?

The man pointed his finger and said 'Go to bed!'

Mark started to crawl back to the kitchen. He laid down and waited to get bored.

-

He didn't have to wait too long. Mr Franks and the man came down the stairs and into the kitchen. They were talking but Mark only caught a few bits of what they were saying. It was something about a class so Mark guessed that it was something to do with the university. The man went over to the nail in the wall and picked up the leash. He reached down and took hold of Marks collar clipping the leash onto it. Mark was lead down the hall and out into the front again. He quickly scanned the street but saw no one so crawled round to the back of the car. He was picked up and had the leash unclipped, and was then locked in his crate as Mr Franks started driving again.

Hold on a second, thought Mark. That was wierd, he had thought of it as his crate. Mark thought about it, and decided that he had let himself slip just then. He wasn't a real dog, and this wasn't his crate. It was an experiment and it was a borrowed cage. He had to make sure that he didn't get into this too much. Mark was still considering this as the car stopped. This time however, no one came to let him out. He heard Mr Franks and the man walk off.

The crate wasn't that big and Mark soon grew uncomfortable. The crate wasn't as big as the one he had been in the night before and he couldn't move around as easily. Again, he had to wait for what seemed like an age. After a while, Mr Franks returned and opened the back of the car. He unlocked the crate and took something from his pocket. Mark tried to see what it was, but he didn't need to as Mr Franks took hold of the collar and started to add something that was clinking as it moved. After a few moments of Mr Franks fidgeting with Marks neck, it was on and Mark could feel something dangling from his collar. Mr Franks smiled at him and patted him gently on the head. The crate was locked again and the back of the car closed and Mark was left in the crate with nothing to do but wait for Mr Franks return.

-

When they did return, they brought what they had obviously come out for. There were several bags along with mesh screens wrapped in plastic sheets. Mark recognised another cage and his heart sank. All the purchases were put in the back of the car along side the crate Mark was in.

On the journey back to the house Mark thought about his future for this year. He could see that most of it was going to be spent in cages and it was also going to be spent in the presence of a jingling comingfrom whatever was now attatched to his collar. Mark was fairly certain that he now had some dog tags on his collar, but was unsure about what they said. That worried him slightly. He had only been called boy so far, and occasionally pup. He wished he could quickly read what was on his neck just to see what was in store, but he would just have to wait.

Once again he was left in the car when they pulled up by the house, and only brought in after a while. When he did go in he found that the dog basket was now inside a cage in the corner of the kitchen. His suspicion had been correct about the cages then. He didn't really want to go in but Mr Franks took hold of his collar and Mark obediently crawled inside the cage, and the bolt was slid into place.

'Good boy Hardy, Good dog.'

Mark stopped. He had just heard it. Not only had he been called a dog, but he had also heard his new name. Hardy.

To be continued...