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Summer was definitely over now and the sky remained permanently overcast with light rain coming on and off without warning. It was sometimes miserable sitting on the other side of the fence outside the other pack, but I stuck with my self-assigned task with a determination that was greater than any I'd shown for nearly anything else in my life so far and yet seemed easy knowing its complete essentialness. It helped that the long walk across the lot was never fruitless, even on wet and windy nights. No matter how bad the weather was, Pink Nose and I had at least one teacher willing to endure the rain with us. The persistent red furred female indelibly came out to greet us and give us our prompts, usually even waiting for us before we arrived at her section of fence.

The dogs in the other tribe were many and I'd hesitated to assign them names at first, but the red female became Autumn to me because her fur reminded me of the color some of the leaves were beginning to turn. It was well that our primary teacher turned out to be one of the females; so much the better to keep my attention in line if ever I would have begun to drift. I was still fascinated with the scent of the females here and that fascination seemed only to grow with time, not decrease with exposure. In fact, it became less a fascination than a fixation. Very quickly, scent alone seemed not enough. I wanted to touch her, to brush against her soft shaggy coat with my whiskers. Of course I could not, and that awoke in me emotions that I'd felt tickled when I first caught the aroma of the bitches here. Sometimes it was difficult to concentrate on my goal, so strong were these new feelings of mine towards Autumn. But of course, there was nothing to be done.

English proved trickier to master that I'd anticipated at the start. Rote memorization had to do at the start, but slowly the understanding that went behind the words and how they became linked together began to sink in. The way some words were ordered together to communicate meaning became almost intuitive in time and with repetition. From the start, it was clear that the human tongue was far more complex than my own language, with more rigid rules. Things had to be enunciated more clearly, which was a hassle for my tongue and throat and there was little to no body language; at least at first. Starting with basic nouns that were mimed or pointed at by Autumn or one of her peers, Pink Nose and I slowly progressed to learning a few adjectives and verbs. At the end of the sixth night, the chocolate lab and I had learned enough of a basic vocabulary to start stringing words together. Once we started doing that, things seemed to progress slightly faster.

Not a day had passed since that first big milestone before I realized that we had more than one source of information in the human tongue. Three more in fact. The lab techs came in the morning like they always did, carrying their load of food for us hungry canines. Their chatter began to sink into the background noise of the process like it always did, at least until I started to pick up on words that I'd learned from across the lot. The sounds humans made were much lower pitched that I'd gotten used to, and their pronouncement was so much clearer as to almost change the shape of the sound entirely and yet the patterns were unmistakably there to my sensitive ear. "Food" I heard several times unsurprisingly and "dog." The humans also commanded us to "sit" but I'd known that word since antiquity. But there were new words also. "Early" there was and "What" and "Why" and about a dozen others. Some key words, however stood out from the rest, my ear was able to tell the subtle difference in tone and inflection. "Jacob," "Steve," and "Lisa" were repeated as much or more than any other word the trio spoke. Watching them carefully, it was not hard to decipher that these were the humans' names.

Such a revelation! Sure, it was reasonable to assume that humans would want such a thing as a name, to assist in identifying each other, perfectly reasonable as I myself responded to such a "name" from the humans. And yet, to think that we had this thing in common. The vast gulf between man and dog, in that moment seemed to shrink and grandiose thoughts floated into my head like myself standing on two legs, as equal to my masters...

The thought died when the female lab tech, "Lisa" I knew now in her own tongue, put the bowl in front of me. I didn't bring forth the image again.

Of course, I relayed this information at our next talkie, sometime after the required breakfast nap. The dogs nodded in silent acceptance, but an excitement grew among all of them. This was the first nugget to have been gleaned since starting my new education, the first time that we got something truly useful from all the time and effort me and Pink Nose were putting in. I think it livened up the brown lab most of all, who had seemed to be running on fumes for the past two nights.

The others weren't idle during our nocturnal missions. Everyone except Terrier-face was keenly interested in exploiting the trove we now knew was on the opposite side of our building. The dumpster stood like a high walled vault, I knew because I'd taken the trouble to see it for myself and inside was housed delicacies like fried potato or even hamburger and many, many bones. The trouble was getting inside. As yet, Spinner had been the only one so far able to get in. This he did three nights ago by climbing up Fatty's back and hopping inside. It was a stupid risk as Fat Gut had warned, though he'd never even seen the thing himself. Spinner was trapped inside the dumpster after he was over. And sure, while he was in there, he found riches in food stuffs like we'd not imagined in our lives, but only by chance had he been able to escape. Finding a few discarded boxes, Spinner had been able to climb his way back out. Fatty himself had provided a soft landing for the, by then, panicking pup.

I'd been there in the last moments of the drama because Spinner had been trapped so long that we were pressing against our usual time limit to get back into the yard. I'd since forbade any more similar attempts. However, from the incursion, we brought back half a dozen thick bones and a leather bound ball that was exquisitely pleasurable to chew on. The bones and ball were buried promptly for future use and while things had turned out alright in the end, we knew how close we'd come to a real disaster.

Terrier-face, sometimes accompanied by Dizzy, still kept his vigilance on the watch house at the opening in the fence to the outside world. At this point, I'm not sure why he bothered, but he seemed assured that something useful would come of it. If nothing else, he kept an eye on the one human whose presence were were aware of at night and that was hardly useless in and of itself.

It was on the fourth night of the second week of my study of English that Autumn attempted to break our routine by asking me a real question. The night was cool, but the wind low and the sky was clear. That itself was cause to be glad. Pink Nose was with me, but so was Dizzy, who had halfheartedly kept his initial promise to study with me, though he usually only bothered to come with me every other night. Dizzy was sitting with another dog further down the fence as he was of course lagging behind Pink Nose's and my levels of vocabulary.

Autumn was there in the fore, but since it was a clear night, she was accompanied by two other females to either side of her. One was certainly a collie mix, if not full blooded border collie such as I'd yet seen. She was mostly black, with some spots of white on her paws and ears and tail. Her fur hung long and loose on her, but that didn't hide a scathingly trim body underneath. Truly was was leaner than one of Fat Gut's haunches... or one of my own if I had to be honest. To me, she looked almost insubstantial, at least until one looked in her blue eyes and saw plainly a fierce intelligence there and the illusion her body belayed was banished. The other female was slightly more comforting. She was more heavily built, but there was a certain feralness, a sharpness to her features that set my spine somewhat aquiver. I couldn't have known that she was, in fact, half wolf, but the way the moonlight canted off her features haunted me and at times, sent a supernatural thrill through me, like a half remembered memory from long ago.

The rest of their company had become aloof. These three alone out of all of them took anymore interest in me or my pack. More of the males on the other side of the divide were willing to come forth, but then they weren't as interesting as the females. Autumn turned around and paced for a bit after I'd finished reciting my vocabulary list she'd given me at the start of the evening. We'd already run through the meanings and I could still remember them all, though the dozen or so words were all new to me. Pink Nose did well with his own list, which was different from mine; later we would teach each other our own lists and thus progress was made twice as fast. I thought that she was thinking of a second list as there was still plenty of night left or else she was soon to explain a new concept or feature of the language. English, though more rigidly structured than my own tongue, still had some fluidity to it and some mind bending exceptions that simply had to be memorized through use, though they did not agree with any of the other rules set down; in fact, there were hardly any rules at all that did not sometimes have exception in cases.

Autumn, however did not give me another list of words. Instead, she briefly consulted with her two partners. Obviously, they agreed on something and Autumn stepped forward again. She sat and looked at me blankly through the chain links. I sensed that she was going to attempt straight communication with me for the first time before she spoke. Her first question consisted all of words I'd already mastered, so I understood her at once. "Do you come from the other building?"

There could be no doubt as to what she meant. "Yes." I said simply and gestured my paw in the general direction back to our yard. Pink Nose stared at me and Autumn in turn and slowly shrank back, leaving me to do the representing. I resented it a little, but not as much as I might have a month ago.

The fatter chocolate lab was not spared a single glance as he moved. The three bitches' eyes were entirely on me. Autumn asked another question. "Do your humans..." she hesitated, but not long, "teach you?"

That was a question pregnant with meaning and inference that I wanted to pounce on. But I felt compelled to answer before I thought too much about it. "...No." I said finally. I thought that the lab techs had taught us basic commands and routine, but I didn't think that this was what Autumn had meant.

There was a great muttering among the three females at my response. The wolfish female snapped for some reason, but the other two held their ground against her superior physical presence. The collie spoke more quietly and yet her words seemed to carry greater weight with the other two. As yet, I was only able to understand about half the words they were saying.

At length, Autumn said to me, "How did..." But she was cut off by the half wolf. I caught the word "Don't." Autumn received further counsel from the collie and rephrased her question. "Who taught you?"

My first reaction was to tell them the black lab. Of course, I realized a moment later that they would have no idea who I meant. Their question concerned me because though I tried to rationalize the meaning of the question as perhaps, "Who taught you to speak?" or perhaps some other skill, I knew this was not the correct meaning. Autumn was going deeper and right to the heart of the matter. What she meant was "Who taught you everything?" I looked at Pink Nose for support. His wide watery eyes reflected back confidence, but no guidance. Of course it was up to me. It was always me. I turned back to Autumn, cocked my head one way and then another agonizing. How could I put into words something that was so tied into a personal mystery of mine which I'd yet to voice to anyone since the black lab had been taken? I eventually settled on, "No one." Then a second later, I amended, "We taught ourselves."

More muttering. Each of the three females had concerned looks on their faces, even the half wolf. By now, this conversation was attraction attention from the male pen. Gossip seemed to be breaking out over there which then spread quickly back into the female area.

Autumn seemed to sense that a mob was forming behind her and she hurried out with a last question. She sat up smartly. "Why are you all so..." and then she used a new word. However as she did, she pulled herself up with enviable ease, displaying her creamy belly with forepaws hanging. Using her paws, she made a wide gesture around her slender midriff that was not in the least difficult to understand. "Why are you all so fat?"

That made be feel uncomfortable. More uncomfortable still were the females now coming up to the fence, first a couple, then quickly followed by the rest. All their eyes were on me, but not many were on my face. Most lingered about my midsection or else my prominent pigeon chest. I didn't feel shame, not yet, and yet that unease when I first had this tribe lay their eyes on my body filled me with an intensity I hadn't yet known following the question. The males' stared, it was true, but it was very different coming from the females, somehow more intense, or at least less guarded. My own poorly understood interest in them seemed to make the matter much worse. "I... we..." I stammered back to Autumn. But I had no answer to give. What could I possibly have said? We were as we should be, how could we be any different? And yet there was an iciness inside my heart that disagreed, like a needle waiting to pierce it and strike me dead in an instant. I couldn't bear to think about it anymore.

I began to walk away. The dogs on the other side of the fence barked and shouted at us, pressing against each other, but I didn't look back. Pink Nose followed wordlessly, but Dizzy lingered by his tutor. "Why are you leaving, Topsy?" He asked plaintively, obviously reluctant to leave yet.

"I need some time to think about stuff." I answered honestly enough.

My canny brother rose, but he stalled, saying, "Was it something that fluffy female said?"

Why lie? "It was." I said, still moving.

My brother rushed forward a little, but stopped again. He hesitated, then said, "Did she make fun of you?"

What he said struck closer to the heart than I wanted to admit. "Come on, Dizzy." I insisted. "We'll talk about it later."

It was that easy to set his mind at ease. Dizzy gamboled ahead, his chubby body jiggling on youthful frame. And yet the movement of the excess flesh on his body, always comforting before now did not seem so. I waddled slowly back to the yard, Pink Nose in tow.

The long trek back wasn't quite so long as previously. Just as I'd hoped, our condition had improved with practice. In fact, the improvements in Pink Nose, Fatty, Lopside and myself were much greater than the benefits Spinner or Dizzy seemed to gain from the extra roaming space. At this point, we could cross the entire lot without rest, though the night was still filled with the sound of our heavy breaths accompanied by the soft rustle of flesh against fur as our legs moved.

The enhancement to our stamina was very noticeable, even to the point where I noticed a difference even during the day when the skill of "long distance" walking was not needed. Something barely tangible was different, something that carried over into other facets of my life, but it was a good thing. Maybe it was an increased energy, or awareness of my surroundings. But it may have been as simple as having a point of existing beyond lounging in a yard and eating my fill. Regardless of what it was. I was at this point thoroughly convinced that getting up and moving about, even until the muscles ached and burned - especially then - was beneficial. I didn't know how or why as yet, but the results were clear, minuet though they were at the moment.

I could feel that my mind was still abuzz with Autumn's last question, but I didn't want to talk about it directly, not yet. Instead, I grazed the disquieting idea from another, more comfortable direction. We were resting on the lawn at the front of our building just past the lot when I spoke to Pink Nose. "How are you feeling?"

Pink Nose was panting and he was stretching out a hind leg in an obvious attempt to rid a stitch, but he said, "I'm feeling good."

I licked my nose, then said still breathing heavily, "The walk's getting easier isn't it?"

"Yeah." Said Pink Nose, shaking his head emphatically. He stretched his rear leg out and arched his back. The effect was to pronounce his regal gut still farther out until it looked like Fat Gut's and redouble some of the thick rolls on his flank. "I never thought I could walk across the whole lot in one go." He said, panting but satisfactorily.

"And we walked around the building too, from the other yard." I added, watching Pink Nose's reaction.

As I hoped, Pink Nose brought up what I really wanted to talk about. "It's strange isn't it? I can walk almost three times as far as I used to. It's almost like..." I feared it would fade, but then Pink Nose brilliantly phrased it in a way that I wouldn't have. "We're supposed to be able to do this, isn't it?"

I felt that what I was about to say might be dangerous, but with just Pink Nose here and in the right frame of mind, I felt safe. "Perhaps, the yard is a bit... cramped for a dog."

I watched Pink Nose carefully. He looked thoughtful, rather than defensive. "Well, it is a bit small. At least for spending all the time in. I think we've all felt that at one time or another."

"Yes, but I kind of stopped feeling that way when I began to get older." I didn't need to mention the other obvious factor.

"I did too." Reflected Pink Nose now stared up into the star strewn sky. He re adjusted himself again so his leg was not sticking out and the contours and fleshy curves of his body resettled on him again in a new configuration. "Before the fence was opened, I had already stopped thinking of the yard as small, and yet... It is small." He looked back at me, somewhat more earnestly. "At first I thought the outside was much too big, but that was just my aching feet talking. Now that I can walk better, it doesn't seem so large after all."

"And perhaps, after some more time, even the lot might begin to seem small?" I wondered aloud.

Pink Nose rumbled in his deep chest, "Oh, I do hope it is a long time before that happens. And I don't think it will be so easy to get outside the whole lot as it was escaping the yard."

Indeed the idea seemed magnificent, but already with seemingly long distances now having become mediocre or even short, the continuation seemed plausible. Was it possible even to just keep on walking? Tireless? The new ten week old pups seemed never to run out of energy, maybe it was possible to reclaim some of that. I was quiet for a while, longer even than it took for the two of us to recover. Pink Nose sat though, waiting and watching the sky. Finally I said, "What do you think it means, though that the humans have us in such a small space? I mean we became so unfit without even realizing it."

I knew it was bold of me to mention fitness when we were both aware of our tiny reservoirs of stamina, but Pink Nose understood. He had to think for a long while, nose down and chin disappearing into his thick ruff. "Well... it may be that they don't want us fit." Said Pink Nose with no small amount of doubt. It was against our nature to think that our masters had anything but the best intentions for us. He quickly added, "I mean, whatever they need us for, we might not have to do a lot of running around for it."

That was certainly plausible, given the gaping mystery of our existence. But something didn't quite add up. "But we've been able to improve ourselves a lot with only a little exercise. And we know that they are interested in our health." That was beyond doubt as I'd long since shared my thoughts on the matter with my friends in our Talkies.

Pink Nose chewed on his tongue for a while. "There may be more to health than what feels good." He said, "But that's not a very good answer."

I leaned back, feeling my overlarge tummy still spreading over the ground and my croup smush softly against the turf. Pink Nose's words brought back to mind what the Black Lab had said about Fat-Gut, about the humans' tests and his blood. "But I really think that all of us, especially the heaviest of us could benefit a lot if we just got out of the yard some of the time. I don't know why the humans wouldn't do that for us."

"Maybe they don't have time, or they don't trust us not to run away, like Dizzy and Spinner did the first time." Said Pink Nose reasonably. "Maybe we get walks wherever they take us next."

Pink Nose had some good answers, but I wasn't really satisfied. The only reason we had gotten to know the benefit of long walks was because we had taken the outside world ourselves, without the humans' knowledge. And even then, I would never have known the benefits of pushing one's physical limits had I not had the necessity of going across the whole lot every night and making haste. Had these things never happened, I'd still not be able to walk a third of the distance I can now without rest nor would I feel as vigorous as I do now. Why hadn't such a simple thing been given to us in the first place? Why did we have to discover it in such a difficult and roundabout way?

But there wasn't any use in complaining about it. And that's what I'd really wanted to do, complain. "Well, They certainly have a reason for doing things the way they have." I said unsatisfactorily.

Pink Nose opened his mouth, but then thought better. Instead, he watched Dizzy, who was far afield in the lawn surrounding the lot, nosing about aimlessly. He sat, waiting for me. Obviously he was ready to go when I was.

But there was still one more thing on my mind for all this talk of exercise. I decided just to ask directly. "What do you think about getting Fat Gut up and about?"

Pink Nose snorted, answering immediately. "I think he wouldn't stand for it."

"Yes, I know he'd be difficult, but he's the only one who hasn't gotten outside the yard. If anything's changed, he walks worse than he used to."

Pink Nose shrugged, "I don't know. I think he gets about as well as ever. He's just having Slim do stuff for him now."

And indeed he was leaning on Slim's mobility for nearly anything he could nowadays. Fat Gut was typically only caught up and about when it was meal time or he had to eliminate. "I'm concerned about him is all. I don't like the way he sits in one place all day unless he has to move."

The slightest hint of shock crossed Pink Nose's face. "Topsy, I'm pretty sure that he's moving only a little less than he used to in the past."

"But haven't you watched him?" I insisted. "He only gets up now when he has to and even then, he complains about it if there's anyone near to hear him complain. What if he's getting so that he _can't _ get up at all?"

"Topsy," said Pink Nose repeating my name, "I'm sure that's not the case. He's just being his regular lazy self. Why does he have to move if he doesn't want to?"

"That's just the thing." I said driving the point home. "What if he does want to move about more, but is too embarrassed to say anything?"

Obviously, Pink Nose thought I was reading too much into the matter, but then he hadn't had the long conversations with Fat Gut that I'd had. In fact, Pink Nose and Fat Gut continued to quarrel more than occasionally. But Pink Nose answered seriously. "If that's the case," he shot me a look, "If you really think that's the case then the answer is obvious." I waited. "Just order him to exercise."

I didn't like the idea. Yet more responsibility thrown upon me and in a way that my close friend would definitely not like and begrudge me for. "I don't..."

Pink Nose interrupted. "Listen to me. If you think he's too embarrassed to admit it and if you really think that it might come to Fat Gut not being able to get up anymore, then order him to walk. That way he doesn't have to feel embarrassed about it."

I frowned, "He'll hate me for it."

Pink Nose shrugged, "So he will, but you're the one who's concerned about it."

I glared at Pink Nose, feeling sure that this was, in fact, some ploy of his to cast down Fat Gut in favor of himself as second in the pack. And it might be at that. But... But, what Pink Nose said made sense, and knowing Fat Gut, I couldn't think of a single better plan that had a hope of working long enough for Fat Gut to notice a change.

"So are you going to force him?" asked Pink Nose after a while. He sounded ambivalent, but there was the slightest edge to his voice.

I had been pondering about it during the silence. "I'm going to try to convince him to do it willingly..." I licked my chops in agitation, "But also forcefully. I won't accept no for an answer."

Pink Nose shook his head slowly, a half smile at his lip that I suddenly hated. "He'll never do it willingly. You might as well bite his neck from the start..." He took a moment to scratch several fatty rolls up his thick neck, "If you are still intent on doing this thing."

With a snort in his direction, I rose at last. "Come on, lets get back." It was my privilege as Alpha to ignore his comment. But I walked stiffly for I disliked the lack of support from Pink Nose, but also suspected that he really wanted me to go through with my plan to fix Fat Gut in his secret heart, for the reasons that I'd told him to his face just a minute ago. But before I'd gotten back to the fence,I knew I was going to go through with it. It was going to be another project, perhaps more difficult than any other before it, but I felt the need to go through with it. Later, I was sure that I had needed the distraction from the more disconcerting events earlier in the day.