"Is it still far?" I asked. We had been walking for nearly twenty minutes. Thankfully, we had not run into any familiar faces along the way. My awkward small-step movements made it obvious that something was bothering me and causing me to involuntarily move the way I did. At least, the few passersby that we did come across, certainly noticed.
"We're almost there," Alice said. "Although I do need to drop by a store real quick."
"Can't it wait?" I pleaded. "I would really like to visit a bathroom, so I can remove this plug and get this stuff out of me. It's getting uncomfortable."
"It won't take long, besides, I need you to be with me," Alice said.
With a sense of defeat, I accepted that, for my own sake, it was better not to argue with Alice too much. We continued our journey and eventually came to a halt in front of The Pet Palace, a pet supplies store.
"So what do you need me for?" I asked. "Are you getting things for your pets which I'll need to carry?"
"Something like that," Alice giggled as she opened the door and stepped inside. I obediently followed in her footsteps. She made a beeline for the dog section of the store, where she then started wandering around aimlessly, seemingly not knowing what she was looking for. An employee noticed Alice's searching behavior and approached her.
"Welcome to The Pet Palace, how may I help you?" he asked.
"I just got a new pet, and I'm looking for some necessities, but I'm having trouble finding them," Alice replied. She glanced at me when she mentioned 'pet', displaying a nefarious look, before turning back to the employee with an innocent smile.
"What are you looking for?" the employee asked. "Maybe I can help you find it."
"Well," Alice started. "I'm looking for a shock collar. I want to train my dog and I don't feel like using sprays. It's not effective enough."
"What is the dog's size?" The employee replied. "Due to safety concerns, we don't have shock collars for small dogs, but bigger dogs handle it better, so we only carry shock collars in bigger sizes."
"That should be alright," Alice replied. "Sandra is an adult dog, not a puppy. Which is why I insist on a shock collar. It's a lot harder to teach adult dogs the correct behavior without using a shock collar, and I don't have the time to play nice." Alice pointed at me and continued, "Sandra is a big dog too, she has roughly the same neck size as my friend. You can try to fit it on him." She had trouble hiding her wicked smile. But unlike me, the employee did not notice that 'Sandra' referred to me.
"Hmm," the employee hummed thoughtfully. "A medium collar should do then. Let's have a look." He grabbed a collar and attached it to my neck. "Yeah, if your dog has roughly the same size, then it should be alright," he concluded.
"Does the collar need batteries?" Alice asked.
"No, just the remote. The collar is charged on a power outlet," the employee replied. "Collars generally have a near-empty charge, so it's best to charge it first thing when you get home." He pressed the power button on the collar. To my horror, it turned on. The LED power indicator lit up yellow. "This one seems to have anywhere between one and six hours of charge left," he said. "Yellow generally means it's nearing emptiness and a charge is advised. When it turns red, the charge is less than an hour, though, on a full charge, it can last two to three days."
"Does this collar have a function to zap automatically on barks?" Alice asked intrigued. "Or would I have to do that manually?"
"There is a mode for that, but you can also trigger shocks manually if it is not registering the barking," the employee said, handing Alice a small remote. A small plastic strip was sticking out from the back of the remote.
Oh, no. I thought. The batteries are included... I just hope Alice doesn't realize it too...
Gripping the remote, Alice instantly felt the plastic strip. She grinned and turned to the employee again, saying, "I'm also looking for a metal crate cage for Sandra to sleep in overnight. I don't want to risk her damaging my furniture until I'm sure she's well-behaved."
The employee quickly lost his trail of thoughts. "Oh, yeah, of course," he replied. "Follow me." He turned around and started to lead us toward another aisle. Alice's plan had worked. Distracting the employee had made him forget to take the collar off of my neck or even just turn it off. Following behind the employee, Alice flipped the remote over and pulled out the plastic strip, connecting the batteries to the remote's electric circuit.
Looking over her shoulder, she grinned and started pressing buttons on the remote. I was expecting her to shock me as we walked, I anxiously awaited the jolt, but to both my relief and surprise, nothing happened.
Arriving at the dog crates, Alice wasted no time thanking the employee, "Thank you! I'll browse for a bit if that's okay. I'll let you know if I need anything else!"
"Of course," he replied in a friendly manner and walked off.
Alice turned towards me, looking at me with an expecting gaze, but remaining quiet.
I opened my mouth to ask her if she wanted me to see which cage fit my size, "Do-"
An electric jolt instantly hit my neck. It was much more painful than I had imagined it would be. Alice had likely turned the intensity to one of the higher settings. The sudden pain was enough to make me jump. "Ah!" I exclaimed. Another shock followed. I cursed myself. Noise-activated shock collars on humans certainly didn't play fair.
Alice looked on in delight as I couldn't stop myself from getting shocked multiple times in a row until I finally managed to keep my mouth closed and keep my groan quiet enough to not trigger another shock.
"Awh, so the cute puppy can whine after all!" Alice said in a heightened voice as if talking to a puppy. She walked up to me. "Good girl," she said, as she patted me.
I crossed my arms and pouted, letting out a frustrated hum as I forcefully exhaled through my nose.
"You're lucky I'd have to take it off of you before we make our way over to the cashier anyway," Alice responded and turned off the remote. "If you behave well, I'll lower the intensity back home," she said, as she now also turned the collar off and removed it from my neck.
"I'll be good," I said.