Dawnlark Plains carry me home

I apologize for the delay! orz

French Fry’s head bobbed automatically at the sound of his name, though he found any words of confirmation had lodged in his throat as a beautiful smile shaped Rana’s lovely muzzle.  His tongue lolled from his muzzle as he began to pant — does anybody else think it’s hot in here? no? just me? — and he found himself unmotivated to do anything but simply stare at the female, his soulful brown eyes filled with wonder and affection.  Not looking her in the eyes, of course — that was so uncomfortable to endure! — he fixed his gaze on some safe middle ground between her throat and her forelegs.  He didn’t know her name, but he was already wondering how he would explain to the Family that she needed to come home with them.

The conversation passed harmlessly around him.

“It’s gotta go.  Can you help me?”

“Hello...what did you say?  I was distracted by that...what’s around the other one’s head?”

Just then, Rana’s attention focused on Fry as she nodded cordially.

WAS THIS LOVE?  IT SURE FELT LIKE LOVE.

French Fry’s tail quivered and wiggled like a live wire.  He had no real understanding of what the operation was for; Mac understood it better, but Fry was just a little slow on the uptake.  “I had an operation,” he piped up bashfully.  He remembered when the e-collar had been a point of pride — a force field.  It was something he’d brandished repeatedly at poor Big Mac.  “Try to bite me in the face, Mac!” he had repeatedly urged the poor Newfoundland.  “Try to chew on my ear, Mac!”  And when the more stoic of the brothers had obliged his eager minion with a soft sigh and a harmless NOMF, French Fry had gone bananas with his victory.  It was a comedic vignette that had inevitably made its way to the Facebook pages of all the Family’s friends by now.

“It was only supposed to be for a little while,” French Fry explained with a low whine of dismay, his pitiful eyes looking as though his face should be backed by a Sarah McLaughlin song.  “But this sure feels like a longer while.”