Welcome the animal thrill.

When he moved it was in a daze, and he knew, even as the sharp sting of his back pulled him into brief tunnels of focus, that he was traveling towards some relief from the blaze of the season. The shore was too far off to satisfy him, and consciously he knew it couldn’t offer much relief. He thought then he saw trees not too far off but they sloped into the horizon too often and sprung back up from the earth as sharp reeds. Exhaustion left him clumsy, and then carefully restrained frustration pulled at his aching paws. His pace quickened and then he was sprinting across a sea of grass.

Tired as he was he was still amazingly swift even at a casual speed, and he gunned forward, unknowingly towards a heap of dog settled in the grasses as he'd once been. But he was only aware of her after a failed attempted to halt at the last moment and tripping on his own long legs instead, he rolled forward as if he were to crash.