When Alex got home from work the next day he looked around suspiciously, half expecting to find some new crazy dog-related thing in his apartment. Like maybe the toilet would be replaced with a giant fire hydrant or there would be a bone in the living room too large to have been moved through any of the doors.
Instead he just found Bubbles sitting in her cage, looking happy as ever. She wagged her tail when she saw him and barked merrily. He guessed that was weird enough on its own.
Alex let Bubbles outside to conduct her business, then cleaned her up.
Not long after there was a knock at the door. Alex raised his eyebrow. Nobody he knew would coming calling unannounced at this hour.
"Bubbles, go hide in the bedroom," he whispered.
Bubbles ignored him and ran over to the door, barking loudly.
"No," hissed Alex. "Sssssh!"
"Bark bark bark!" said Bubbles.
"Hello?" came a voice from the other side of the door. "I have a package for Mr. Master."
Oh great, it was the courier. Well she obviously already thought he was a weirdo so screw it.
Alex opened the door.
"Hi Bubbles!" exclaimed the courier, as soon as the door was opened.
Bubbles barked and panted, bouncing up and down with excitement as she looked up at the courier.
"You two know each other?" asked Alex.
The courier had squatted down to Bubble's level so she could pet her.
"I met her yesterday when I delivered a package here," she said. "I ended up setting the dog crate up for her. That's not normally a service we offer by the way."
"You set up the cage?" asked Alex.
"Oh yeah. Bubbles here talked me into it," said the courier.
"She talked?" asked Alex.
"Well, no," admitted the courier. "She didn't talk per se. She was still very persuasive."
"How did you know her name then?" asked Alex.
"Well it's written on her tags," said the courier.
"So it was you who was in here setting up the cage huh?"
"I hope that's not a problem."
"Oh no no," said Alex. "I'm just much happier now knowing how that happened."
Alex signed for the two packages while the courier petted and rubbed Bubbles all over. The puppygirl looked very pleased with herself.
"Thank you much very much, Mr. Master," said the courier, as she took the pad. "Enjoy your packages."
"Thanks," said Alex, blushing at the name, and he shut the door.
"You're making friends all over the place aren't you?" asked Alex, smiling down at Bubbles.
She barked in the affirmative.
Alex turned his attention to the packages. He opened the first one. It was filled with several packs of a brand of gourmet dog food. Prominently advertised on the packs was "made from human-grade food products".
"Really?" asked Alex, showing Bubbles one of the packs.
"Bark!"
"Rather than just sharing meals with me?"
She barked excitedly, and assumed a begging position.
It wasn't like this was the weirdest thing Bubbles ever wanted. It probably didn't even make the top five. If the package said it was human grade food he couldn't see any reason why he shouldn't feed it to her if that's what she wanted.
"Alright," said Alex, "you win."
He put the dog food to one side on the counter.
"So we're clear, you're all but admitting at this point that you're the one ordering all this stuff right?"
Bubbles turned her head to one side to denote confusion, as she always did.
"You can't fool me," said Alex.
He picked up the second package and opened it.
This one contained two plastic dog dishes. One was red and had "Bubbles Food" written on the side, the other was blue and had "Bubbles Water".
Bubbles assumed the begging position and bounced up and down while barking.
"You want these?" asked Alex.
"Bark."
He handed her the bowls, one on top of the other, and she took the stack in her mouth. Bubbles brought the bowls over to the place beside the table where she usually ate and put them down. She nudged the red one with her nose until she was satisfied with where it was positioned, then she picked up the blue one in her mouth again.
She started banging it against the nearby table leg.
Alex didn't have to ask. He took the bowl from her, filled it with water from the sink, and put it back down.
Next Bubbles picked up the red bowl and started banging it against the table leg too.
"Message received," said Alex, laughing. He took the bowl over to the counter.
The packs of dog food had instructions on the back. It looked like you microwaved it for five minutes inside its own packaging then scooped into a dish. Easy.
Alex microwaved the pack as instructed and then opened it, allowing the steam to escape. Tentatively he sniffed it. It didn't smell good or anything but it didn't smell unappetizing either. It certainly looked like dog food though.
Alex shrugged. He dumped the dog food into the red bowl and placed it on the ground beside the blue one. Bubbles was already eating before the bowl touched the ground. The fact that she was eating dog food did not seem to be slowing her down one bit.
Alex watched her eat, fascinated.
When she was finished, and had moved on to the water, he stood up and began to make his own food. Moments later Bubbles was underfoot, rubbing against his leg.
"Bark!"
"Just let me finish making my dinner and we can play," said Alex.
"Bark bark!"
"That's easy for you to say, you've had your dinner," said Alex.