Petey shook himself off, sneezing from all the dust and wagging his happiness. What happened? Did he catch the squeaky toy? Where was the sun? Who was that hooman? So many questions that needed to be answered.

Wait, hooman?

HOOMAN!!!!!

Petey launched himself out of the large circle of dirt he'd somehow ended up in and sped up the sides to the hooman, who smelled weird and looked weird but it was a hooman and he could get pats and rubs!!!

Pouncing forward, Petey splayed his limbs outward and bodily tackled the hooman, and they both went down, the hooman laughing loudly. Excited, Petey started giving him kisses, doing his absolute best to give the hooman as many happies as he could and he felt something welling up inside him and he couldn't help himself!

Jumping off of him, Petey backed up, slammed his rump into the ground and aimed his head at the sky, howling, "HOOOOOOOOMAAAAAAN!!!"

The hooman could barely breathe he was laughing so hard, and Petey checked up on him with more kisses, happy to help out however he could. Coughing in between laughs, the hooman finally managed, "Good grief, I've missed dogs. So I'm a hooman, huh?"

Petey nodded his head rapidly, wagging his happiness as hard as he could and generating quite a lot of wind as he did. Unintentionally, of course, but the hooman slid back from the force, holding a hand up to shield himself from the force. Slightly worried, Petey forced his happiness to stop wagging, but it was really really hard for him because there was a hooman!!!

Grinning, the hooman started rubbing Petey's head, itching underneath his floppy ears, and Petey collapsed at his feet with a blissful expression, his happiness thumping on the ground. Shaking his head with a brief laugh, the hooman got down on his knees and started vigorously rubbing Petey's stomach, and Petey closed his eyes from the sheer happies.

A few minutes of pure happy later, the hooman stood up, rubbing the long yellow hairs off his hands. "Your name's Petey, right? Mine is Dave. You seem like a pretty great dog - want to stay with me for a while?"

Petey's happiness started wagging again in spite of himself. He was being adopted! He'd been adopted before! At the time his owners had left him outside all the time and he'd had to start eating trash but he'd been kept by a family because they'd adopted him!!!

Extending one hand, Dave said, "."

A giant meaty bone that was also blue and a bit see-through appeared in front of Petey, and he happily rolled to his feet, biting down on it as hard as he could. It broke, and through the shards of it, Petey could see Dave's surprised face. "Uhh, give me a sec..."

Raising his hand again, he said with a frown, "."

A BIGGER bone appeared, and Petey bit it just as happily. It broke just like the other one, and Dave stared at where it'd been for a long moment. Petey rolled onto his stomach and lolled happily, his tongue hanging outside his mouth and resting on the side of his head.

"Well," Dave said at length, "We could try this."

Pulling a really long and shiny chew toy from his back, Dave held it out and started talking, but Petey already knew this game! Lunging forward, his teeth closed around the chew toy, and he shot past Dave, spinning to lower his front paws and wagging his happiness.

Dave whirled around, saying angrily, "Hey, that's mine!"

Striding towards Petey, he gripped the base of the sword, yanking backward. Petey's teeth clenched even tighter as he backed up. He hadn't played Tug in forever! He loved Tug! It was also known as Give It Back, Drop It, and You're Not Supposed To Eat That, but he liked the name Tug. And now it was called Hey That's Mine, too! So many names!!!

Holding on tightly, Dave said irritably, "That is the Herosword and it is completely-" he tugged harder. "-irreplacable!"

Petey was holding on as hard as he could when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw ANOTHER BALL!!! It was just as blue and round and squishy as the earlier one!

Letting go of the chew toy, Petey turned to look at it, and Dave tripped over backward. The chew toy hurtled away as Dave lost his grip on it, spinning and sparkling as it flew into the far, far distance.

But Petey wasn't paying attention.

HE HAD A NEW BALL!!!