This 8 sentence blog hop is hosted by The Weekend Writing Warriors. (Click the link for the list of participants, or rules if you want to join!)
An officer asks Detective London to use a piece of cloth to track Kelli Rocha (wanted for assault), she agrees, strips off all her clothes, Shifts to a large German Shepherd, howls to get her partner’s attention, and begins tracking.
I skipped over a bit of description as London starts tracking.
She lost the trail in the scents of other people who had walked over it, and started tracing a zigzag pattern, nose lowered, sniffing furiously, searching for it again.
There! Kelli’s scent, thick with fear sweat, moved into the crowd. London barked twice to alert her partner that she was on the scent, and followed. She could hear Dale swearing, and glanced back to see her partner, backpack slung over a shoulder, jogging after her.
Dale would catch up, since she could easily track London’s movements through the crowd. After all, how many one hundred and forty-five pound German Shepherds were there on the street right now?
London would be glad when Dale joined her, as it was easier to move through the crowd with a partner who could yell at people who didn’t get out of the way.
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NOTE: I edited “Lily Wasn’t There,” and posted the full text on my blog here. What Happens After is at the very end.
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Four Feet and a Badge is my NaNoWriMo story.
In 1952, an event moved two and a half million people from one version of the Earth to another, a quarter of them Shifters (able to change their shape). It’s now 2015, and those people have married and had children. The Static (non-Shifters) fit in fine, but the Shifters often have to prove their worth.
Detective Amy London works in Seattle’s Narcotics Section, Shifting to four feet to sniff out drugs and chase down suspects. But she can be a little impulsive–like when she bit her previous partner, earning her a new one, strict, by-the-book Detective Janice Dale.
Dale tries to rein in her partner’s wilder behavior, not always with much success. And a new group of cocaine suppliers is muscling in on the city, and they’re leaving bodies behind. London and Dale will have to work through their differences to bring these dealers down, before the body count rises.
Exciting eight. You captured me right from the start and i felt I was there with London tracking.
I bet it would be quite something to be able to be dog-shaped. I can only imagine what the world smells like to them… And it’s fun to try! 🙂
I agree, exciting eight, I enjoyed reading from the dog’s point of view!
It was so much fun to write. What are stories but a little wish fulfillment? 😉
Great job presenting this through the dog’s POV. Sounds like London and Kelli are on to something big. I always enjoy your stories.
Thanks! Kelli doesn’t know who’s on her trail yet… but she’ll find out eventually.
Cool. I like this seeing things from the dog’s point of view. Reminds me of Stapledon’s ‘Sirius,’ in a good way. This could be a lot of fun.
I’ve read some nifty books from a dog’s POV–like the Chet and Bernie mysteries by Spencer Quinn. Well done, it’s quite something. I don’t think I’ve heard of Sirius, though. I’ll look it up. 🙂
Writing an occasionally dog-shaped human is easier, I think.
Excellent excerpt, I really enjoyed having the perspective of a woman-being-a-real-dog. Definitely want to keep reading this one!
I’m really glad I decided to do this for last year’s NaNoWriMo. Before, it was only a short story, but I thought there might be more to the idea. And there was!
I love that she started the zig-zagging pattern. My sister trains search and rescue dogs, and we hide for her german shepherd sometimes, and this is what they do if the dog doesn’t have the scent. Very realistic.
Yep, research is my friend. Though I still need to do more as I edit.
Got to admire those canine noses!
I love animal POVs and animal main characters. A 145-pound dog in the streets must be some sight.
I’d probably be backing away from a dog that size if I met it on the sidewalk, honestly.
Though Shifters live in large enough numbers in this story that at least some people know that the ‘big dog’ isn’t really a dog.
Good take on a tracking dog with human intelligence. By the way, in your overall description (not the snippet) “reign” should be “rein,” as in reining a horse.
You’re quite right. Thanks for the catch! Sometimes auto-correct is not your friend.
If a 145 pound shepherd rushed toward me, I think I’d get out of the way without a shouted warning! 🙂
I agree with the others—very realistic!
Surprisingly, it’s not as big a dog as you might think–she’d stand about 30 inches at the shoulder. Which is pretty big, but not Great Dane/Irish Wolfhound size.
I’d get out of the way, too–but first you have to be looking in the right direction, and not texting or listening to music or something. 🙂
Yep, life is better and easier for a dog with someone cutting a path for them. Very intriguing book idea, Caitlin. 🙂
Even a big dog isn’t at the same height as an adult, after all. Though I bet a football player sized Shifter would get close…
This is such a clever idea for a story. I’m liking it! it was a good scene as I ran along with them. Good 8 Caitlin!
Thanks! Sometimes the brain comes up with ideas that are just *weird* enough…
I really like the idea of a detective being able to shift into a police dog. It’s a clever idea. Based on the tone of this snippet, I’m guessing the two partners have a difficult time connecting.
They’re a new partnership–and their personalities are making the adjustment period a little exciting.
And Dale is considerably less comfortable with public nudity than her partner, for which I can’t blame her.
So in the future police work has gone to the dogs. But the games afoot!
You can’t beat those canine noses when it comes to tracking–or the many other things police dogs do. 🙂
Again, so loving this story! You really put the reader right in the moment with the actions. Well done, Caitlin! 🙂
Thank you. 🙂 This is a scene that’s been living in my head for a while before I wrote it down.