Three weeks can be an awfully long time in the north country, where the nights are six months long, and the only television comes in over the government channel, and listening to the radio is something reserved for those late-night hours, provided the antenna is up and there's no interference from the Northern Lights. But these particular three weeks crept by unusually slowly, as if they would never end, and Arnie grew restless and jumpy like a pent-up animal. Flo did her best to stay away from him, dodging his razor-edged temper as it grew sharper and sharper.
"Arnie, I sometimes wonder if you've got all the sense you're supposed to have," said Flo finally. "You've been grumbling and muttering around here for days, and I'm about to lose my mind putting up with you… I don't know what you're more worked up about, Ginny coming or that damn dog of yours Gus' bringing back from Old Crow."
"Don't call Novlik any of your names," snapped Arnie. "You know his name… Use it! He's Goddamn important to me, Flo, and you know why."
Flo had been through this argument too many times to hold out any hope for winning. "Okay, okay. You don't have to tell me that whole story again. About how Novlik chewed through his harness and swam fifty yards in Telegraph Creek to pull you ashore when you and him went through the ice. I've heard it so many times I could recite it for you backwards if you'd like!"
Arnie stopped his restless pacing, the first time in nearly an hour. "Maybe you'd have liked it better if he'd just left me out there in that cold water, half-unconscious and all! Maybe you'd have liked that, huh?!"
Flo shook her head disgustedly. "Honestly, Arnie, sometimes you're just a little kid. You know I didn't even know you then. I was back in Montana when that happened. So how could it have made any difference to me one way or the other?"
"You know what I meant," grumbled Arnie. "And… and who else would have risked their life to save mine? Nobody, that's who! Novlik and I have been buddies a long time, and may be he's just a dog to you, but he's like a brother to me. And don't you forget it!"
Flo smiled and gave her husband a friendly peck on the cheek. "I'm sorry, honey. I guess you've got me a little worked up with all your worrying and pacing like a bitch in heat. Anyway, he's due back today, and you know Gus'll take good care of him coming from Old Crow. He'll feel a lot better after his trip to the vet, and so will you. Then maybe we can start making plans for Ginny's arrival… she's due in another week. You haven't forgotten, have you?"
Arnie looked her straight in the eye, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Don't be ridiculous, woman," he laughed, "I'm thinking about that sweet little pussy almost as much as I am about Novlik… I'm going down to the airstrip and wait for Gus. He oughta be here soon. I'll give him your best."
Flo gave him a playful squeeze, tugging affectionately at his cock through his heavy work pants. "Don't worry about that… I'll give him my best… My very best!"
It was dark again, and the temperature had plummeted twenty degrees since Arnie left for the slow trudge through a half mile of melting ice and snow to the airstrip on the edge of the village, and she could hear them coming before they passed the general store and post office. Novlik had a distinctive bark that she could pick out over that of any of the dozens of dogs in town. And it carried for miles through the still sub-Arctic night, booming from his huge hairy chest like a cannon's report as he bounced along happily, sliding here and there on the freshly frozen ice while Arnie ran wearily along behind.
In a few minutes, they were pounding on the front door, then bursting in like a couple of carefree kids, slinging slush and snow all over the floor as Novlik shook his heavy fur clean.
"No! Not here! Outside, Novlik, outside!" she shrieked.
Arnie only laughed, but at least stepped back onto the front steps to kick the ice from his boots. "Don't scold him, Flo. It'll melt… He's just happy to see you, that's all. Tell him you missed him, and give him a little pat on the head."
Flo obliged, knowing that to snub Arnie's dog would be a terrible mistake. Sometimes she wondered how she ranked in this household – whether she was around for Novlik's convenience, or him for hers.
"As soon as you get your wet things off, come on in the kitchen. I've got some steaks on the broiler right now."
"I hope you saved one for Novlik. He's probably awfully hungry after his adventure. Gus told me he hadn't eaten a thing since they picked him up last night at the Mountie Station."
"Mountie Station?" questioned Flo, "I thought he was at the vet's."
Arnie dropped his boots by the heater grill, and closed the hall door. "He was. But the vet had to leave rather unexpectedly, so he dropped him with the RCMP outfit in Old Crow, so he wouldn't have to leave him alone out at the kennel. Good old Gus, he had enough sense to ask around when he got there and the Doc's place was all closed up. One of the vet's neighbors told him where to find Novlik, and he went back into the village and picked him up. He said the Mounties hated to see him go… They don't have any dogs there since they switched to snowmobiles. Some of the old-timers said it was like the old days, having a malamute around again."
Florence was tempted to say the Mounties could have kept the beast, as far as she was concerned, but she thought better of it, and pulled another steak from the refrigerator for him.
Novlik immediately caught the scent of raw meat, and bounded into the kitchen like a charging lion, his thick furry tail wagging excitedly. Flo tossed it to him quickly, before he could jump up on her with his huge paws. She was still carrying a bruise on her side from the last time she'd fed him. It was no use complaining to Arnie about his dog's over enthusiastic friskiness; that dog could do no wrong in Arnie's eyes.
Novlik pranced into the back bedroom, the one he usually had all to himself, and contentedly began working on his two pound steak, pulling it apart with his sharp teeth, the bone crunching easily in his powerful jaws.
Arnie and Flo finished their dinner without another interruption, and settled in the living room afterward, the supper dishes still on the table.
"I told Gus to come right over," said Arnie, "I told him that hot cunt of yours needed some attention, and you'd picked him to do the job."
Flo nearly dropped her gin-and-tonic. "You what!? You didn't really say that did you? Well, did you?"
Arnie was nearly doubled with laughter. "Oh, baby, you should have seen the look on your face. I'd have given a hundred bucks to have a picture of that. You really fell for it, didn't you?"
"Well, it sounded like the kind of thing that twisted mind of yours would dream up," exclaimed Flo, "and besides, with you I never know when you're putting me on."
Arnie downed the last of his bourbon, and helped himself to another healthy slug from the bottle on the counter separating the living room from the kitchen. "I should have told him. It would be a whole lot simpler."
"Oh, no you don't, Arnie Dennison," threatened Flo, waving her fist in a gesture of mock defiance. "You stay out of it. All you have to do is lay the groundwork – the rest is up to me. It wouldn't be any fun your way. Getting there is half the fun."
Arnie looked at his wife, wondering how most men would feel about a woman like her; a woman who needs more than one man to keep her satisfied. Sometimes he wondered how many men Flo would have if they lived somewhere else, Los Angeles maybe. Just how many one-nighters would she give herself if there were hundreds of men around for the taking? It didn't really bother him, and that was what puzzled him most sometimes. He was supposed to be jealous and possessive about his woman, at least that was what he'd always been told. But with Flo, it was something different, something exciting, and most of all, completely open and honest. There wasn't any sneaking around in their marriage; everything was done right out in the daylight, with no lies, no excuses.
Of course, he'd never been the ideal devoted husband, either. When the opportunities were there, he'd never been one to turn down a little on the side. And he'd have done a lot more of it if running his company hadn't always taken so damn much of his time.
Flo was getting drunk now, he could always tell. He listened as her words began to blur a little around the edges, and her sentences occasionally took on extra verbs and adjectives. It never took much – Flo'd never been one to hold her liquor; two or three drinks, and she was under the table.
"You really think that good-looking Swede wants to get in your pants, huh?" he teased, ready for a little fun to keep the evening interesting. "What makes you think you've got anything he wants? You're not quite the little dish you used to be, ya know. Why should he mess around with an old woman like you."
"Old woman!" Arnie sensed he'd struck a tender nerve. "Who the hell's an old woman!? Why, I've got a better body than most girls ten years older than me…"
"You mean ten years younger, don't you, baby?"
Flo thought it over a second. "Yeah… that's what I meant to say… Anyway, you know what I mean. Here, take a look at this… Is this the body of an old woman?"
She yanked her housedress over her head, and she was wearing nothing underneath, not even panties.
"Goddamn, woman. Is that the way you run around all day? No wonder you're always so horny, galavantin' around with no drawers on. Where's your pants, cunt? Ain't you got any?"
Flo left the dress where it fell, right in front of her on the floor. "Of course I've got some. For your information, Mr. Wise-ass, I was getting ready to take a bath when you and that furry brother of yours came in. That's why I don't have any underwear on, all right?"
"Furry brother, huh? You calling me a son-of-a-bitch?" asked Arnie, staring her right in the face as though he meant it.
"Baby, if the shoe fits, wear it," laughed Flo, lifting her large, firm tits with both hands and aiming them tauntingly in Arnie's direction. "Hey, here comes your brother now. Here, boy! Come see the other SOB! Here, boy!"
Novlik took his cue like a veteran, and bounded into the living room at full speed, barking loudly as he cleared the length of the room in three huge leaps.
"No, Novlik! Don't jump! Don't…" but it was too late. Flo had forgotten her hard-learned lesson; that was, never to call the enormous animal unless she was prepared to be knocked for a spin. He slammed into her chest with his tremendous furry paws and sent her sprawling onto the bearskin in front of the fire, arms and legs flying in every direction, and Novlik – all one-hundred-and-fifty pounds of him – right on top of her.
"That's what you get, stupid," roared Arnie, tears of laughter running down his cheeks. "That'll teach you to lay off the booze for a while?"
Flo was futilely struggling to shove the heavy mass of still damp fur off her, cursing the animal at the top of her lungs, "Get off me, you Goddamn hippopotamus! Get the hell off!"
"Now, now, Florence," said Arnie with a trace of derision, "you know you shouldn't talk like that around Novlik. He's not used to foul-mouthed broads. Talk nice to him, and he'll do what you tell him."
"Talk nice, my ass!" bellowed Flo, still pinned under the hairy behemoth. "I'll kill him if he doesn't get off me!"
"Here, Novlik… Sit! Over here, fella." Novlik instantly obeyed, stepping right in the middle of Flo's chest as he trotted over to his master's side.
"Shit! That damn beast of yours will be the death of me yet," muttered Flo, brushing the mud off her skin and looking for any broken bones. "How come you don't teach him no manners if he's gonna live in the house like people?"
"He just likes you, sweetheart, that's all… Isn't that right, Novlik?" The huge dog barked twice – loudly – and the echoing roar seemed to fill the whole house. "See, cunt, what'd I tell you? He's just a man, like all the rest. He knows a bitch in heat when he sees one."
Novlik left his post and sauntered over to Flo, nuzzling her bare leg affectionately with his cold, wet nose.
Flo grudgingly gave the animal a quick pat, and the enormous dog promptly rolled over on his back, his fluffy tail swishing wildly, and his long, pink tongue trailing from his panting mouth.
"See, I told you he likes you. He wants you to rub his belly."
Flo stroked the downy flesh of his underbelly, and as if on signal, his huge, bright red penis began to swell and poke from its furry sheath.
"You've sure got the knack, all right," laughed Arnie, finishing his third bourbon. "Even the dogs know about that gaping, hot cunt of yours. Give him a little hand job there, sweetie, that's all he wants. Why, he ain't been around no girl dogs in weeks."
Flo pulled her hand away from his belly. "You shut up, Arnie! I don't need to sit here and listen to that kind of talk from you!"
Arnie's smile suddenly melted away, and his eyes seemed almost to grow a shade darker – and twice as cold. "You'll take any kind of talk I want to give to you, bitch, and don't you forget it! And you'll do what I say… unless you know somebody else who'd put up with your crap! I was only kidding you, cunt, but now I mean it. You're always bragging about how good you are with men. Let's see what you can do with Novlik!"
"You're crazy! You're completely off your nut, you know that!?" answered Flo. "I'm not about to satisfy no dog… for you or anybody else!"
Arnie slowly stood up, put his drink down, and quietly pulled his three-inch leather belt from his belt loops, then doubled it and dragged it lingeringly across the palm of his left hand. Flo felt her skin break out in a million goose bumps as she remembered the last time that hot strap had left bloody blisters across her backside – the time she'd stayed overnight with that geologist from Chicago without telling Arnie where she was. She knew he meant business, that he'd use that frightening thing on her again if she riled him.
"Okay, Arnie… You win, I'll do it." She dropped to her knees and placed her hand gently on the big dog's heaving belly.
Arnie chuckled as the soft full cheeks of her buttocks faced him and he could make out the narrow hairline slit of her pink open pussy nestled between the ivory columns of her smooth thighs, her fleshy lips pouting as if they were angry.
"You're always one step ahead of me, aren't you bitch?" he said, stepping out of his pants and settling to his knees right behind her. His prick snapped up instantly, already hard and eager. He laughed menacingly, then, "All right, boy! Get ready for a real treat! Tonight you're getting a real human bitch!"
The pink furry skin of the dog's belly lay exposed to her, and with it, the long shaft of his prick. And at the base of his sex, his huge nearly-black testicles like furry golf balls. She took it all in, slowly realizing what her husband had dreamed up for her.
She started to turn around and confront him, but he came over her naked buttocks from behind and grabbed her securely around the waist. "You don't want to be making any sudden moves now, cunt. He might get mad and take a hunk out of you. And we wouldn't want that, would we," he sneered. "You just give him a good blow job, and don't make any quick moves unless…"
"My God, Arnie! Have you lost your mind completely!? I can't do that! Not to a dog! Dear God no… I can't Arnie… I can't do that!"
He only laughed. She was in utter torment, and he wallowed in it. "You fuckin' slut! What makes you think you're too good to suck my friend there? He's more of a man than some of those fruits you run around with! Why, you're not even worthy to suck him… You should feel honored that he'll even let you put those lips of yours on his prick. You'd better reconsider, slut, or I'll change your mind for you!"
He reached for his leather belt, and Flo's mind spun crazily at the prospect of this awful thing he was demanding of her. She knew she had no choice – he'd use that belt on her without a moment's hesitation. But to do that to a dog! Could she make herself do it…?
"Make up your mind, bitch! What's it gonna be?" he roared.
Her hand shaking like a falling leaf, she slowly reached down and took the forbidding length of his animal prick in her hand. Novlik squirmed impatiently under her gentle touch.
"Turn your head so I can see you," ordered Arnie. "I wanna see it going in and out of that dog-sucking mouth of yours. Suck it good, now… Suck it!"
Vainly, she tried to blot out all thoughts of what she was doing from her mind, and to hold back the choking wad of nausea filling her stomach. She placed the side of her face on the big animal's warm belly while she fondled his long, fur-encased member with her hand. Slowly, ever so slowly, she stroked it, while Arnie looked on wide-eyed, and suddenly… it appeared… the pointed, red glistening tip of his long prick oozing out of its protective sheath, slowly moving forward. She took long, deep breaths to fight back the nausea…
"Now! Suck it, slut! Suck it!" Arnie yelled.
Holding her breath now, she did it. Pushing it all from her mind, Flo opened her lips and allowed the slender forepart to slide into her moist mouth… far inside until it touched the back of her throat, then bringing her rough tongue into action. The taste surprised her, amazingly it was almost sweet, and very tangy, even better than some men she'd tasted. The animal responded almost immediately, hunching his rear flanks forward as she sucked and twirled his organ in her mouth. As she moved her hand to his balls, caressing them lightly with her fingertips, a long, low whine came from his throat, and his left rear leg began to quiver convulsively.
Three double shots of booze had dulled her palate, but the taste was surprisingly delicate, not like she'd have imagined, if she'd ever given it any thought. She hollowed her cheeks slightly as the long, tapered shaft shot into her mouth in a steady, pumping rhythm. She closed her teeth, but not enough to hurt the animal, swirling her tongue around his pink member as the excitement of this incredible thing she was doing began to kindle inside her. Somehow, it didn't seem nearly so awful as she anticipated; rather, almost enjoyable in a terribly wicked, forbidden sort of way.
"Suck it, bitch! Suck it good!" Arnie shouted at her, maneuvering his wife's wide-spread buttocks back toward him and gaping greedily at the tight, puckered little entrance to her brown, hairless anus.
His cock jutted forward again, as if it had a mind of its own, and he reached down and pulled the thick foreskin back, then crawled in closer to her backside, dragging his thick penis through the wet juices of her moist pussy to get it well lubricated. Again he did that, delighting in the visible shiver that raced along her spine as his cock brushed the sensitive lips of her ever hungry pussy.
"Put it in!" he barked, gripping her hips tightly like handles. "Hurry up! Stick it in you, slut!"
Obediently, her hand came back around her hips and he watched eagerly as she grasped it tightly and forced its swollen tip into the deliciously tight, constricting ring of her anus. He couldn't hold back a loud gasp as his prick slipped into the taut sheath, the muscular rings clasping it agonizingly tight as his throbbing shaft wormed its way into her asshole. He gave a sharp, deliberate lunge and heard her moan as he inched his hardened cock into the warm, velvet folds of her tender passage.
Florence felt the sudden surge of his hot, throbbing shaft ramming upward into her tight passage and she had to cry out, but the fantastic, lascivious delight of the animal cock fucking into her ovaled lips was beyond anything she'd imagined. It was beginning to taste even sweeter, and the way it plunged taperedly into her mouth was driving her wild with pure animal lust. Sex at home had grown dull and lifeless for her, but the perverted thrill of this incredible experience was almost too much to bear. Arnie was screwing into her puckered anus, something she'd grown accustomed to and she could take it or leave it, but Novlik was thrusting his hard animal cock into her mouth and would soon squirt his own life-giving sperm into her in a seething flood… and suddenly she wanted it… she wanted it badly!
She thirsted for his animal cum in her mouth… rushing down her throat… choking her as it spurted in a hot, sticky torrent! Maybe she'd finally cracked up, but that was what she wanted, and she sucked and tongued his glistening pink spear ravenously while Arnie burrowed his stiffened rod into the tender depths of her back passage. She could feel his heavy, sperm-laden balls slapping with a loud thump against the sensitive folds of her cunt, and she closed her eyes, savoring every second of this abandoned, wicked ecstasy she had suddenly found.
"Aaaaagghhh! You're hurting me!" She opened her lips around Novlik's prick pumping into her mouth enough to speak as her husband rammed his cock into the rubbery, yielding depths of her rectum, shoving the soft, tender flesh aside before it until his loins finally collided roughly with her widespread buttocks, flattening them beneath his weight. Every inch of his long, thick prick was buried in her warm, tightly constricting rectum.
Gasping for a quick breath, Flo was unable to move even a little to ease the agonizing pain as her husband's sadistic cock impaled her helplessly, rammed to the hilt in her anus, her thighs split horribly apart. He was showing her no mercy, and she wouldn't satisfy him by begging for any. She fought back the tears as wave after wave of sharp pain shot upward from her obscenely stretching rectal passage. The torture was incredible!
Arnie cursed under his breath with delight, reveling with lewd excitement at the feel of his wife's ass pressing tightly against his hairy pelvis, while he watched Novlik's long, crimson prick sliding wet and glistening between her pursed lips, his strong, sinewy flanks jerking spasmodically while she scratched delicately at his furry animal balls with the nails of one hand. Goddamn, he didn't know if he could take it! He shoved his loins forward into her tightly puckered tunnel and his eyes focused intently on the stiffened rod that disappeared completely in the stretched, brown hole between the jutting fleshy mounds of her buttocks. He grunted with pleasure and drew the hard, blood-filled shaft out slightly, watching with cruel passion-dazed eyes as the tender pink flanges of tender flesh were pulled out with it; then his cock disappeared once more in the forbidden aperture with his inward thrust that sank his cock again up to the hilt in her rectum. His breathing became faster and suddenly he began rocking rhythmically in and out of her warm clasping channel, deep down into her belly with each and every thrust.
"Oooooh… oooohh… oooohh," Florence moaned around Novlik's ever swelling organ buried in her mouth, as she knelt like a wretched slave before him, committed to his cruel satisfaction. Arnie delighted in watching her lose control like this – it gave him great amusement to watch her grinding back onto his wet, glistening shaft as it cruelly sodomized her again and again. She seemed to be enjoying the vicious thrusts that spread her tender rectum walls so painfully… enjoying this savage ravishment of her asshole. Damn, she was incredible! What an unbelievable slut she had become! The pain seemed to be gone, for she was sucking the animal's prick with obvious wild-eyed delight, even reaching down between her spread thighs with her free hand and fingering her own clitoris, rubbing it fiercely in an insane effort to bring on her delicious, all-consuming climax.
Christ, he'd never in his whole life witnessed anything like this! Not even in those wild Alaskan whorehouses he used to visit when he was working freighters. He gaped with amazement at his vicious white cock disappearing and reappearing as he rammed it all the way into her savagely grinding buttocks with each powerful, sadistic thrust. She was taking everything he could throw to her, and was hungry for more. Not even the tiniest bit of his prick could be seen as he buried it relentlessly into the tightly clasping passage, its blood-swollen head straining far up into her tender, hungrily clutching depths.
On and on she sucked at Novlik's pistoning, scarlet prick, her fingers warmly caressing his downy black balls, while her other hand fondled the wet, puckered lips of her own wide-spread slit. He felt her buttocks tighten as she squirmed to suck him up even further into her ravenous belly, filling her taut rectum with his stiffened manhood as she came nearer and nearer to her own fulfillment. He couldn't stand any more, and he began pounding into the hungry furrow furiously, slamming his pelvis against her exposed buttocks so hard he thought he'd split her in half.
Nothing else in the world mattered to Flo except the burning desire ravaging her knotted belly, and where the shame and humiliation should have been, there was only an uncontrollable hunger for more… more! Her ravenous needs grew maddening as Arnie stepped up the pace of his powerful assault on her rearward passage, and her wildly quivering belly and loins screamed desperately for precious relief. She ground back against his impaling shaft like the insatiable bitch she was, all the while sucking and tonguing the sweet, honey-tasting animal prick fucking deliciously into her throat. She could feel the telltale moans of passion slipping from her lungs. She was nearly there…!
Novlik's massive, sinewy body began to quiver convulsively, and suddenly without warning, Florence's mouth was filled with a great undamming of thick warm liquid which gagged her and slithered and oozed down her hungrily gulping throat. Like a starving animal, she sucked and swallowed, sucked and swallowed while the huge beast whined with ecstatic delight, and her whole body shivered with the pleasurable raptures of unrestrained masochism…
Just as quickly as it came, it was all over, and the huge dog's prick began to deflate and withdraw from her eagerly clasping lips, until finally, the animal rolled from beneath her and got to its feet.
"Oh, yes, yes! Oh… Oooooohhhh…" she moaned pathetically at her panting husband as he pistoned savagely into her wildly stretched rectal passage, streams of sweat running from his body and mingling with her own as they coursed along her thighs and legs. "I… I'm going to cum! I'm going to… Now! Oh, God, nowwwww!"
As his fiercely battering cock worked itself again and again into her rectum, her hips forced themselves back on the painfully impaling shaft, and she groaned incessantly as the pleasure grew greater… greater… and then – burst in a dizzying whirl of color. Never had she dreamed Arnie could bring her such incredible blissfulness… never had she known such total and devouring wantonness.
She was spinning out of control in a frenzied rippling orgasm that filled her whole being. She was gone! Nothing else mattered… nothing but those delicious, satisfying chills of pure pleasure coursing through her ravished body.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh…" she screamed, as the blessed, fulfilling relief spread over her naked form, her senses dazed to everything around her in the magnificence of this special moment.
Arnie cursed aloud, still sawing into her savagely with the last of his stored-up strength, thrusting into her so hard she thought his enormous, throbbing prick would rip all the way through her, and burst out her mouth; she moaned pitifully from the pain, but offered no resistance. She felt his strong pelvis snap convulsively against the flattened mounds of her buttocks and then a great, flooding surge of thick, hot semen burst up into her rectum, filling her trembling belly to the brim, and oozing out in a thin, hot rivulet down the inside of her quivering thigh.
She heard him gasp one last satisfied groan of relief and withdraw, his rubbery cock now deflated. Her tightly clasping passage released its grip on his limp organ reluctantly, and he slithered out of her with a wet sucking sound. In its place came a quick, welcome chilling rush of air in her unplugged hole; then, she too fell forward and sprawled exhausted on the carpet, her breasts heaving beneath her.
Florence lay very still for what seemed like a long time, then gathered enough strength to climb shakily to her feet, wiping the thin trail of semen from her thighs, retrieving her dress from the floor. She could feel Arnie's eyes on the naked flesh of her back even before she turned and faced him. When she finally did, there was no mistaking the mask of contempt twisting his face, but she'd expected nothing less. There could be no mercy, no understanding about something like this. Subjecting her to every unspeakable indecency he could dream up was not enough; only by rubbing her face in it could he really be satisfied.
"You really are a slut, you know that," he sneered. "You're even worse than I thought."
Flo knew better than to argue with him when he was like this. "I'm going to take a bath now, and go to bed. I'll see you." She turned slowly and made her way to the bedroom, her equilibrium off from the dizzying spin her mind had suffered.
Arnie reached down beside his favorite chair, his hand touching Novlik's furry head. "You liked that all right, didn't you pal?"
Novlik answered with a quick swish of his thick tail.
"Well, if all goes well, old buddy," grinned Arnie, rubbing the mammoth dog's forehead, "maybe in a few days you'll have another playmate… A nice young one for you this time!"