Chapter 354: My Dog Failed the Customer Service Interview

Cherry insisted we visit Dazza before I developed a second pet problem, which was unfair because the shark had apparently adopted me without asking for references.

The collection convoy’s next dispatch remained hours away. Bridget and Lyra stayed with the club preparations while Cherry and I took booked transport to the survey depot, carrying the bowls we had actually bought in Twawi.

I told the keeper our arrival time and checked that the powered pen was working before we entered the protected observation area. Loving Dazza didn’t make his madness effect disappear, and I had no desire to learn its exact range through an unpaid experiment involving the driver.

The creature noticed the box first.

A collection of eyes turned toward us, followed by teeth appearing in places I remained unwilling to classify. Cherry set the bowls on the inspection table while the keeper checked their material.

"We brought you presents, sweetheart, although you had to let the man finish before eating the packaging."

Dazza pressed closer to the inner barrier. I chose to interpret the movement as affection because the alternative made buying personalized bowls feel less sensible.

[System: Look at your little champion, mate. All those eyes and still not one thought about obedience. You could enter him in a dog show if the judges signed a bloody farewell card first.]

He could learn, and I would appreciate you offering encouragement that didn’t include a coroner.

Old Mate offered Heel for One Bloody Minute, worth two thousand EXP and ten IP for one supervised recall-and-stop exercise, with the boundary intact and nobody unprotected. It was a new milestone, not a way to farm rewards by repeatedly asking the same nightmare to behave.

The keeper opened the approved feeding hatch only after the observation partition was secure. Good Boy and Probably went through together, but Dazza ignored both and folded around the empty box with obvious satisfaction.

Cherry laughed. "You bought two expensive bowls for a creature with excellent taste in free furniture."

"The box had personality, and I supported a pet with affordable interests."

We used the keeper’s established signals and approved metal pieces. No surprise spell appeared to make Dazza devoted, no bond changed his species, and I had to repeat the stop cue until Old Mate began placing imaginary bets against me.

Cherry kept the praise warm and the timing simple. She noticed that Dazza responded better when I stopped adding speeches to every instruction, which was a criticism I had heard from an upsetting number of women.

After several attempts, he moved to the marked position and stayed there while the keeper counted the full minute.

I praised him with enough enthusiasm to embarrass everyone except the creature, then caught Cherry watching me.

"You look happy," she said.

"My dog had achieved one whole minute without threatening the building, and I intended to enjoy the parenting milestone."

[System: Two thousand EXP and ten IP, mate. Thirty-five thousand of a hundred thousand, two hundred ninety IP, and the local council remains tragically unaware of your application for father of the year.]

I accepted the reward and leaned close to Cherry, thanking her for making sure the visit happened rather than letting me replace a promise with another explanation.

She kissed the side of my head before the depot alarm interrupted us.

A small recovery drone had arrived at the outer equipment gate. Its displayed order claimed the pen had been reassigned under a freight collection agreement, and the machine extended a clamp toward a service anchor before the keeper could dismiss it.

The contractor account matched the one on our cooling-plant order.

I didn’t release Dazza. I didn’t need to, because the drone had provided a small visible clamp within my range and an excellent reason to dislike it personally.

Mine Now moved the separable clamp into clear space against my tail. I lowered it onto the floor, leaving the drone to continue a gripping motion with absolutely nothing at the end.

Cherry watched it try again. "It has your uncle’s approach to ownership."

"I appreciated the comparison, although the drone had shown more interest in doing its own work."

The keeper shut the outer gate and disabled the machine through his normal depot controls. Only the approved metal piece went through to Dazza afterward, and the creature accepted it with a noise that made the driver decide to wait outside.

[System: Your dog’s eaten the job application, cunt. That’s the most qualified rejection we’ve had all week, and he didn’t even ask about holiday pay.]

He had completed training and helped dispose of rubbish, which already made him more employable than Hansen.

The keeper showed us the drone’s job record. The contractor claimed authority from a family collection account, but the requested items included our paid pen and the club’s cooling plant, neither of which belonged to my uncles.

I sent the actual record to Lyra and Bridget, keeping the information route clear rather than assuming they somehow knew what I had seen.

The keeper reminded me that one good minute wasn’t permission to move Dazza into a room full of paying customers. I agreed before Cherry could answer for me, then asked which small step we could practice next time. She looked pleased by the question, and I discovered that planning a second visit counted as affection even without buying another ridiculous object.

Cherry took a photograph of the bowls safely inside the pen and sent it to Lyra. Probably had finally received some attention, although mostly because Dazza had discovered he could put the box over it.

I promised another visit after our immediate mess was handled. Longer travel would require paid care, actual keeper agreement, and checking that my idea of a boys’ adventure didn’t leave everyone else doing work I had volunteered for.

That thought stayed with me as we headed back to Ami.

The drone’s final instruction arrived while we were still on the transport. If the pen pickup failed, the crew was to proceed directly to the club utility gate, seize the cooling equipment, and bring the snake if he tried stopping them.