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A Dog is a Dog, but Leo knows that there are all kinds of Dogs. His Mama told him so before he left to be with his now not so new Masters.

There are dogs out there who have Masters that don’t demand or ask anything of them. These Masters allow their companion to sit on the couch or floor, get fat, and eat all the Human food they could ever desire. Lap Dogs get to be taken everywhere, even places where Humans usually don’t allow Dogs, because their Masters are very demanding, or just ignore The Rules. While this may sound like a good life, his Mother warned him that there was Diabetes and Pancreatitis that can happen, which can put a Lap Dog’s life in danger. 

“What are those?” Leo had asked.

“Painful Things,” his Mama had answered, licking his little eyes to clean them. “They make you have to go to The Vet, and The Vet is Bad. We don’t like the Vet.”

“Okay, Mama,” Leo had replied with a little puppy grunt.

Another fate a Dog can have is becoming a Yard Dog. These Dogs usually work as security for their Humans, alerting them to the approach of anyone even in sight of their territory. While such a thing sounded noble to Leo, his Papa cautioned him that not all Yard Dogs have good Masters, and they can end up tied to a chain in all kinds of weather with only a rickety dog house to call shelter. He let Leo know that these Masters would sometimes forget to bring water to the Yard Dog in summer, or extra blankets to go in the dog house for winter. Because of the chain, the Yard Dog can’t go somewhere else for warmth or go looking for food or seek comfort and companionship from another Human. They are stuck where they are by a chain either in the ground, on a tree, or attached to the dog house. The most a Yard Dog in such a state could do was pull and bounce and bark and beg to be touched, fed, loved, but such good things are completely up to The Master, and not all Yard Dogs have a good life.

There are better fates, of course, or else Leo wouldn’t have been excited to meet his people and get his name. There are Service Dogs who work to help their Humans, detecting seizures, blood sugar drops, offering mobility assistance, even being eyes! There are so many jobs a Service Dog can learn to do, and the Humans who become their patients are ever grateful for them. Leo really wanted to be a Service Dog, but his Mama told him that such things were up to The Master, and The Master had decided he would be a Pet and not a Worker. Leo was disappointed at first, but that was alright. The more he and his sisters heard about the different things that Dogs got to do, the more excited he got to meet his new Masters.

A Dog is a Dog, and a Dog loves completely and unconditionally. Things would be alright if he became a Pet Dog, and simply lived his life offering company to the Humans he would call family. There could be cuddles, and good food, and so many games of fetch! No matter what happened, he looked forward to meeting his people.

So he counted himself lucky that he ended up being a special kind of Dog and not just a Pet Dog. Even at a young age, he realized his life was going to be different from what other Dogs got to live. His Mama and Papa had taught him as much as they knew about the different dogs and different roles, and he had taken them in, knowing that the people who came over to meet with The Master and visit with him would one day become The Masters instead. Yet even with all the people that came in and out of the kennel, visited the home, or talked with The Master, he had never heard of a Gamer Dog.

A Gamer Dog had a unique sort of role to play in the life of their Master. The biggest job was Snuggle Duty. A Human could go into playing their game on a Computer or a Television for hours, and they had to be kept warm and soothed, so part of his job was curling up on legs and laying on bare feet for the hours they spent gaming. Next came Emotional Support. If their human was having a rough time in their game, getting angry or upset, then it was up to the Gamer Dog to distract them, leaning up on their chair and offering gentle licks and nosing the hand for some pets to remind the human that all was well, and that they would succeed at their game, no matter how many times they had to try at the Mechanic. That part of being a Gamer Dog was kind of like being an Emotional Support Dog, a Working Dog, but with less training required.

There was one game that Leo’s Masters really loved. The Hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV With New Extended Free Trial… and he forgot the rest. There were a lot of words! Leo wasn’t sure what those words meant. He only knew that Fourteen, as his Masters called it, was a very special game to them, and how it had affected their life for the better. 

As he lived with them, being a Good Dog and fulfilling his duties as a Gamer Dog, he learned that Pumpkin (his female Master) and Boo (his male Master) had met because of Fourteen. He didn’t really know numbers, except that anything with -teen in it was a lot when it came to treats, and very little when it came to kibbles. Fourteen must be a human treat, then, because his Masters were always so happy playing that particular Game on their Computers. 

He also felt like Fourteen was more than a number, and that maybe it meant Love, because his Masters found each other because of Fourteen. The two of them really did love each other, that love only growing, and he was so happy they chose to share it with him, of all Dogs! What he did know of Fourteen was that his Masters would have never met had it not been for that game.

He was all the more blessed to get to be a part of his Masters’ Married! From what he could understand about Married - though sometimes they called it Marry (he wasn’t sure which one was right) - it was something very special to humans, where they sort of become each other’s Master, which for him as a Dog was a very special position in his life. He was all the more happy that he got to be a part of the Married, carrying The Special Item for the Married after Boo walked down the isle, but before Pumpkin.

So he would spend his days, hearing the voices of the people his Masters spoke to calling him Hildibean, his Gamer Dog monogram, and offering comfort when Savages, Roulettes, and Trials didn’t go the way they had initially planned.