During a high school reunion, Ashley Scholl sneezed and became her fiancé’s Shih Tzu. Sneezing again, she returned to her body in time to stop it lapping at a glass of butterscotch schnapps. The engagement did not survive the evening.

For a time Ashley believed the incident was a one-off, perhaps something to do with the schnapps. She walked peacefully through a zoo with her new boyfriend, sneezing without incident until she reached the dingo enclosure. When she came back to her human self, she found herself sniffing the zookeeper’s crotch, and agreed with his diagnosis that she needed help. She conducted cautious experiments in her apartment, while her new boyfriend took copious notes for his psych assignment. Creatures other than dogs were never the subject of her transformations. Unfortunately, Ashley had been prone to sniffles since she was a child.

“It is not fascinating,” she told her new ex-boyfriend. “I have a problem.”

She visited doctors and pharmacies, evangelical churches and shamans. At the office of the last shaman in her state, she was instructed to bathe in urine during a new moon. At that, she gave up. No one could alter her condition.

That day, she bought a Labrador and named it Maggie, making sure to have her name and address engraved on the tag. Maggie was cream-coloured, with an ancient air, and never moved if she could help it. Ashley kept the dog with her wherever she went.

She continued changing, but she never sniffed anybody’s crotch again. And that, she figured, was the main thing.

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Image courtesy of gotdogsonline.com, found at CreativeCommons.org