My Life as a Dog
Chapter 1

Copyright© 2019 by Crunchy

It was an insane time of anger and fear. There were mass sea-mammal beachings as they either lost their direction or fled the orgy of violence the seas had become.

Close loving families with protective parents, practitioners of eastern meditative philosophies, Paladin type personalities, Genuine Mensch’, healers and empaths and the devout emulators of Jesus- all had some defense and resistance against the madness having a core, direction, or guidance beyond the magnetic.

Some who were only ‘born again’ as sort of an insurance policy against damnation, thought they had been ‘left behind’ by the rapture as unworthy, so decided ‘why not’ and joined the madness. Others had a better grip on right and wrong, and so were able to find a pathway through the madness, but for most it was a murderous spree of fear fueled rage and violence by all species against all others.

The other thing about magnetic pole reversal is it didn’t take very long, in geological terms. Just three days. Every other volcano erupted no matter how long dormant or supposedly extinct, creating a ten year winter. Imagine if there weren’t stored preserved food and nine of ten humans dead of violence from each other or their pets or livestock or ‘nature’.

The rage was such that weapons were not much used, mostly it was tearing at each other with tooth and nail. (and beak and fang and claw and hoof and stinger) It is incredible how much rage humanity is capable of. That Life is capable of.

So it isn’t likely that the sane survivors were untouched by violence, that would have taken a genuine miracle with all life except for a small percentage of humans and an even smaller percentage of dogs going berserk. (Some were service animals who’s client also managed to find an internal guide, or certain breeds of good family dogs protective of small children.)

Nor were they untouched by violence, certainly some had to defend their small charges from maddened violent parents. The truly non-violent unfortunately didn’t make it, since the very meek only inherited the compost they became as entropy claimed their remains. (imagine hiding in a light-less basement or attic then hearing the scrabbling claws of fear enraged rats.)


The good thing about being a sane survivor in the aftermath of the madness was that probably any one you encountered was most likely a very good person, either much like an enlightened one or they had a very strong set of values of some sort, even a devout atheist or perhaps someone with a hyper-active sense of justice, duty or over protectiveness.

If you made it through the madness whole, it was because you had an internal guide that provided direction and guided choices when the unnoticed support and prop of the magnetic field was kicked out from beneath us. With out an internal guide, most resorted to terrified animal state (including the animals themselves) and unable to navigate well enough for flight, well, the fight was on. (The focus of violent fanatics was violence, so it didn’t protect them. Even most sports fans had a fallback setting of violence.)

There were a good number of suicides as the madness passed, and people became aware of the horror they had either committed or witnessed; and despaired.

Of course, there were a lot fewer people around, and because of the ten-year Winter, people didn’t move around much after the first three months and full long-winter set in, unless local food supplies ran low. No one tried to take from any one else though, that kind of thing had been burned out in the days of madness. During that window people congregated or isolated as each best saw fit to survival’s necessity. So mostly every one was a hermit, or member of a small enclave near preserved food supplies. (It was pretty universal for people’s experiences during the madness to lead them to understand that two to five people were not the most stable configuration for enforced propinquity)


Even with all my advantages, my ‘extras’ and trying to stay away from the violence, I was struck down by I imagine a sniper’s bullet, snipers have a mindset for visiting violence from afar, and they had probably felt most comfortable during the madness viewing the world through a scope. Most people didn’t bother with weapons in their fear-fueled rage aside from casually, unless it was part of their self concept, like a machetero del selva or a cane cutter or the like. The weapons didn’t save them from the critters of the forest and field, turning in their fear and confusion on any and all, any fear of man overwhelmed by the panic of not knowing which way was where.

Anyway, the next thing I am aware I have assimilated the form of a large black dog, who has wandered a long way from where my last body had died. The mind of the dog was completely feral with no learned dependence on or allegiance to mankind, probably why it had no qualms against feasting on my corpse. I decided I was comfortable enough in this form, and as a dog I could ingratiating myself fairly easily into what ever society emerged from the ashes of the madness.

I took control of my form, selecting for prime male and placing my chosen array of ‘extras’ conveniently. Big black dogs often had webbed feet anyway.

As well as there being a lot fewer people (and those behaving respectfully toward their fellow humans at least, ) there were few dangerous animals left as well. For awhile at least, any survivors were forted up nursing their wounds.

I have seldom been in a dog host form for long, usually a stray is hounded to death at least for most of human history before the RSPCA was sponsored by Queen Victoria, and often enough since. As a kennel dog or a royal pack dog I had an expected life-span, and had to run off before I became strange, whereupon I was a stray. But I was charming even as a mutt, and often found a new home, if never a forever home. I learned a lot about people as a dog.

An interesting thing about the madness is that every one’s madness was a solitary experience, not a mob event so there was a lot less damage done to the structures of man. The library still stood, although the lights were off for good. There was no overturning of cars, just murderous rampage against all comers.

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