The Dog House

First came the drought. Then came the plague. After that came the rain that refreshed the Earth, but the problem of the dogs and birds remained.

In the Year 3003 when the surface of the Earth had started to look like a burnt potato crisp, water and food had become a problem even for the well-heeled nations.

Those who were fully paid up members of the Steam Punk 13 Cult who were endowed with scientific minds came up with solution. It was a pill that transformed humans into pets.

They had observed that many cults that were considered as highly developed and resource wealthy preferred dogs to children, parents and siblings and would take good care of them. People also liked birds and would invest in nuts and bird seeds to keep them chirping in their gardens.

Dogs drank less water and could exist on scraps and birds didn’t need much sustenance. So, it seemed both logical and sensible to offer the long-term prisoners the chance to become dogs or birds for the duration of the drought.

Rain had been predicted for 200 years later, but the prisoners might starve before then and that would be considered inhuman, however heinous their crimes might have been.

At that point Cult Steam Punk 13 had assumed that 200 years would provide enough time for them to invent another pill that would reverse the process and hopefully by that time the prisoners might have reformed as well. In theory, it was a good idea, but as with all drugs there were problems. In this case the prisoner's personality remained the same. Therefore, a murderous human being became a dog that killed or a bird that pecked out eyes. Fortunately, they only killed other animals.

The Dog House

Well, that wasn’t fortunate for the animals, but at least they weren’t savaging their owners. It appeared as if they had the sense not to bite or peck off the hand that fed them.

Sadly, after the drought, a plague spread transmitted by the dogs and birds which only affected the scientists who were members of Cult Steam Punk 13. As they died so did the research that would have transformed the convicts back into their human forms.

As with many catastrophes there were some people who benefited and one of those was Steam Cult Punk Member No. Three-million, also known as Woof. He was far from the brightest member of the Cult pack, but he was able to make birds and dogs obey him.

This was just as well because as soon as the rain fell and water became plentiful, the pet owners began to abandon their vicious pet dogs and birds.

The Cult decided that the only solution to the problem was to make Woof into the President of the Dog and Bird Fanciers Society and give him a building where all the returned pets could continue their prison sentences without decimating any other form of wildlife.