#doggonit

The bad thing about living in an RV on the side of the road? Well, there were a lot of problems. A lot of them pretty gross to describe, honestly. But River only added to those problems by living in an RV on the side of the road with a dog. Back in Kansas, little puppy Jackson had a big yard to run around and play in. Nice and fenced in, not that he was going to run off anyway. But here in Soapberry, he was stuck in the RV a lot. River made sure he was nice and temperature controlled when she wasn’t there, but his other needs were a whole other problem.

They’d been living on the road for years now, and River had gotten used to the routine of taking him for a walk so he could stretch his legs and do his business. The RV had a little electronic doggie door on it in case she didn’t come home for a while for some reason, but she could tell Jackson loved walks a lot more than going on his own. The two of them had a bond that River felt was probably deeper than most dogs and their owners. It was almost like on some rudimentary level, the two of them could communicate. Not so much like Lassie barking about somebody being down a well, but River could feel what Jackson felt, and she had a feeling that went both ways. Urges and fears and the like were all communicated between them. She’d never felt so deeply connected to anything the way she was her dog. For the longest time, she thought herself some weirdo for being so bonded with her Australian Shepard mix, but since she’d done some research on selkies, it made more sense now. This was a thing with her kind. She definitely didn’t mind.

As the two of them walked down the streets of Pyewacket (she was finally starting to learn the district names), Jackson’s leather leash firmly in her hand, she suddenly got an overwhelming urge to run. She knew it was coming from him, because he started to tug on his leash. “Jackson, no,” she chided, following his line of sight to see a squirrel across the street. “Don’t you dare.”

But he did dare, pushing off the curb at a sprint and ripping the leash right out of River’s hand. Squirrels, his one behavioral weakness. She sighed and started off after him, a car having to screech to a halt as it almost hit her when she crossed the street. The driver laid down on their horn but she ignored it as she kept running after Jackson. If only she was as fast on land as she was in the water.

Right in Jackson’s path was a woman simply minding her own business, and the lead up to him slamming right into her seemed to happen in slow motion to River. “Watch out!” she cried across the grassy mini-park they found themselves in, but she was way too late. Jackson barreled right into her and she toppled over. “Fuck!” River snarled, gasping for breath from all the running. She jogged up to the scene, where Jackson had thankfully stayed. All this excitement of knocking someone over had seemingly distracted him from his quest for squirrel. He was trying to lick the fallen woman’s face when River finally got there. 

“I’m so, so, so sorry about him,” she said, grabbing up Jackson’s leash and pulling him back. She didn’t outwardly scold him, but she sent him some really bad vibes, causing his ears to fold back and he let out a little guilty whine. “Are you okay?” River asked the woman, holding out her free hand to help her up.

Doggonit - The Growlers