The Lapdog Ch. 04

"Let's have a look at those tits." The man yanked on her leash, pulling her to him.

Suddenly, Miss Davenport walked into the room, and the incident came to an abrupt end. Carla signed for the package and gave a perfunctory thank you to the man before he left, accompanied by a glare that could melt through steel. Judging by the look on Miss Davenport's face, the delivery man was going to be looking for a new job, possibly in a different state under an assumed name. But Lisa had other things to think about.

She trotted behind Carla as they walked down the hall with a feeling of shame. She had just stood there and waited to get felt up by that horrible man. Certainly she should have said or done something. She was the kind of person who stood up for herself, wasn't she? But then it occurred to her that maybe she wasn't that kind of person anymore. She didn't have any assertiveness left in her.

Lisa was disappointed in the meek, indecisive person that she had become. Even worse, she felt that Miss might be disappointed in her too. She didn't like the idea that she might have let Mistress down, or worse, that she might not be the pet that Mistress wanted her to be.

"Um...Miss?"

"Yes?"

"I...uh...I mean...I didn't mean to..."

Carla gave her an indulgent smile, and took out some pieces of Lisa's favorite chocolate from her pocket. Lisa perked up and quietly licked them out of her mistress's palm. Being fed by hand always made her feel better. Miss Davenport stroked her head as she ate.

"There we go. That's my girl. Now stop worrying. We both know that you can't fend for yourself. You're just my pet doggie, after all. That's why I give you everything you need and make all of your decisions for you."

Lisa still found that kind of remark to be embarrassing, but it was also somehow...reassuring. The delivery man had frightened her, and was comforting to know that Miss would always be there to look after her and keep her safe. But at the same time Lisa came to a realization. Just as the delivery man had made her remember what she was wearing, Lisa was now forced to see herself for what she was.

Like a stray dog that had been turned into a household pet, she had become too tame to take care of herself. Lisa wasn't a self-reliant career woman anymore. She was a timid little pet who couldn't be trusted to stay out of trouble, and who needed to be watched over for her own good. Even without her costume, she would never be able to survive on her own. She'd be as frightened and helpless as a lost pet. As Lisa finished the candy in Carla's hand, she felt an abrupt rush of gratitude towards her owner. Miss took such good care of her.

While Lisa nuzzled and licked her mistress's fingers in silent thanks, another training lesson, one that she had scoffed at in the past, popped into her head.

I need an owner. I'd only get into trouble thinking for myself.

This time, she believed it.

As her training continued, Lisa internalized more and more of her lessons. But it went without saying that one of the main effects of Lisa's obedience training was obedience. When she was rewarded for repeating the little phrases that she heard, Lisa wasn't just being taught to say humiliating things about herself. She was being taught blind obedience.

Over time, Lisa had been taught to obey without question. It had been a long time since Lisa had engaged in any kind of rebellion against her mistress. But her training magnified the effect to the point where the idea of defying her owner didn't even occur to her. Obeying Mistress felt as natural as eating and sleeping. For her part, Carla made obedience easy; she rarely asked Lisa to do anything particularly difficult, and she praised and doted on her pet when she did as she was told. For Lisa, obedience became part of her nature. But despite her best efforts, eventually she was faced with a situation where she couldn't obey, no matter how desperately she wanted to.

Lisa had woken up after her usual nightmare; this time it had been an especially horrible one. Her old office had turned into a cage where everyone stared through the bars and laughed at her as she tried to type with her paws. Lisa began to calm down as she looked up at her sleeping mistress. Waiting in her pet bed helped a little too; Miss had laid some of her old clothes on top of it so that Lisa now slept surrounded by her owner's scent.

When she had first become Miss Davenport's pet, one of the things that had frustrated Lisa the most was that there was nothing for her to do until Carla woke up. But her training had helped her to see that she was doing something. Lisa was helping her busy owner to get her sleep. Every morning that she waited silently for Miss to wake up, she was showing her devotion to her mistress. That thought made her feel warm all over. But devoted or not, this morning Lisa had a problem. She badly needed to pee. For some reason she had been particularly thirsty at dinner the night before and now she was faced with the consequences.

She got out of her pet bed and sat on the carpeted floor in the hope that the different position would help, but it didn't. As she waited on all-fours, her legs clenched together, she argued with herself about what to do. She couldn't wake Miss up. It would be bad, and besides, Mistress had mentioned the day before that she was going out to an important meeting today, she needed her rest. But Lisa couldn't leave the room to pee without help, and she was desperate. On the other hand, if she were a good pet, she'd hold it in so that Mistress could sleep, wouldn't she? The struggle between her need to obey and her need to relieve herself warred within her for what seemed like an eternity. She was still trying to decide what to do when her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, terrible feeling of release.

Lisa heard a trickling sound and felt warmth between her legs. She looked down and saw to her horror that she was peeing on Carla's beautiful rug. Lisa stared at the dark stain that had started to form in disbelief and shame. She had done the most humiliating, degrading, doglike thing that it was possible to do, and the worst part was that she'd done it all by herself without any orders from Carla or her training machine.

Lisa couldn't bring herself to look away from that spot. To her it was a symbol of all of her failings. Her failure to keep from becoming a pet. Her failure to keep from wanting to become a pet. Once she had been someone important. A businesswoman who people listened to. Someone who mattered. Now she had peed on the carpet, like...like a bad dog. She was utterly worthless. Useless. She couldn't even control her own bladder. The very first phrase that she had learned from the training machine ran through her head.

I am a silly little poodle.

When she had first heard it, she had told herself that it was just something that Carla's crazy machine forced her to say. But it wasn't. It was true. She was just a stupid dog who'd pissed all over the rug.

I am a silly little poodle. A stupid, stupid animal.

And she'd been bad, too. Really bad. Miss was going to be so disappointed with her. As her feelings of humiliation and failure overtook her, Lisa broke down and began to sob. Her mind was filled with ugly, self-hating thoughts unlike anything that her training machine had made her say.

Stupid. Dirty. Useless. Trash. Worthless.

She started as she felt a hand touch her back.

"What's wrong, honey? Are you ok?"

Lisa hadn't heard Carla get out of bed. She'd woken Mistress up. That made it even worse. Miss needed her sleep and Lisa had ruined everything. She tried to answer but she couldn't stop crying long enough to speak. She wasn't even sure what she would say if she could. Lisa just stayed on all-fours like a dog sobbing and staring at what she had done. The light from the newly-risen sun streamed through the window like a finger pointing at her shame.

Miss Davenport leaned over and looked at the wet spot. She stared at her pet for a moment with a worried expression on her face. It was the first time that Lisa had seen her mistress look unsure of what to do. Then Carla rose abruptly to her feet in the manner of someone who had made an important decision. She walked to the bedroom door and patted her thigh as if summoning an easily distracted dog.

"Here, girl."

Lisa couldn't bring herself to get up from her position on the floor. She didn't belong on two legs. Too dumb. Too worthless. Lisa wondered how she was going to be punished. Carla always treated her like a pet. What did you do with a dog that peed all over? Whatever happened she deserved it. Maybe Miss would beat her with a rolled-up newspaper. Or she'd get a doghouse and leave her chained up outside. Maybe she'd even make her stay there at night in the cold. She didn't deserve to sleep in Mistress's bedroom anymore.

Carla walked back to where her pet still sat huddled on the floor. Lisa looked up at her for a moment, then stared down at the rug in shame. Miss Davenport knelt down so that her body blocked Lisa's view of the carpet stain. Then she embraced her and stroked her head. "Come on, honey, it's ok. No one's mad at you."

Carla clipped the leash to Lisa's collar and led her down the hall. Lisa didn't know or care where her mistress was taking her. She just stared at the floor and blindly followed the pull of her leash. When they stopped, she saw that they were in the bathroom. Without another word, Carla stripped off her clothes, led Lisa into the bathtub and took a shower with her.

Lisa's costume wasn't dirty; it had been designed with her bodily needs in mind, but being lathered and washed by her mistress still made all the difference. The touch of her owner's hands felt like forgiveness. Miss Davenport spent a very long time washing her, so much so that it was obvious that it was for Lisa's mental state and not her cleanliness. As Carla bathed her, she spoke to her pet in a low, reassuring voice. Scattered words and phrases separated by the noise from the shower poured into Lisa's ears. My favorite...so lovely...always take care of...precious...good girl...all mine.

After being dried with a thick, soft towel that was as pink as her skin and after having been given a good hot breakfast, Lisa found herself on Miss Davenport's lap being petted. Her strokes weren't arousing, merely the caresses of a woman who wanted to calm her frightened dog. From time to time Carla held her coffee up to her pet's lips so that Lisa could take a sip too.

"I...I'm sorry about waking you up and ruining your rug, Miss."

Carla smiled and stroked her head. "Don't worry about it. A little doggie can't be expected to be totally in control of things. Or totally in control of herself."

As much as she wanted to, Lisa couldn't disagree. Not after she had just finished peeing on Mistress's rug. Lisa's eyes began to water as she thought about what she had done. "But...you have that meeting today, and...and...it looked like a really expensive carpet."

"The meeting can wait. I'm spending the day right here at home with my absolutely perfect pet," Lisa looked up at her mistress and gave her a tentative smile. Carla smiled back at her and scratched her behind the ear. "As for the carpet, yes, it was quite valuable. An antique, in fact...but I'd much rather have you than the rug."

Lisa's face glowed as she closed her eyes and leaned into her mistress's touch. For the first time since she had woken up that morning, she didn't feel worthless at all.