A Dog's Life (Patreon)

This was a story commission for one of the top tier patrons - hope you all enjoy!

KJ Apa was having something of a bad time. He was a relatively successful actor and undeniable teen heartthrob and yet nothing seemed to be going his way. It was frustrating to say the least, especially when he’d expected so much more after getting his big break on Riverdale. Perhaps he had been foolish in imagining that his newfound celebrity would produce hot blonde twenty-something babes throwing themselves at him or being invited daily to lavish parties but he still felt a considerable amount of disappointment at the reality giving him none of that.

Sure, there were some benefits. He had a pretty sweet place to live with his Riverdale co-star Casey Cott and he couldn’t complain about that. He also got to work a pretty easy job as acting as the pure-of-heart Archie Andrews really didn’t demand much acting skill. Those positives felt minor though when compared to the big picture of what he wanted from his life. 

The final straw came when his on-again-off-again girlfriend Melina finally called it quits for good. KJ didn’t consider himself the romantic type and his relationship with Melina had been mainly physical but that didn’t mean he hadn’t formed any attachment to her. She had broken the news over text too, not even having the decency to wait until they were face-to-face. Apparently she was off to “bigger and better things” which read to KJ as “I’ve found somebody with more fame and success than you”. He wasn’t sure he could even blame her.

With no girlfriend to turn to, KJ found himself growing irate at just how boring his life was. How was it possible that he could be a moderately successful actor and yet still feel like he was wasting away? It drove him crazy.

On the set of A Dog’s Purpose, his latest attempt to increase his stock in Hollywood, KJ was at least glad that there were some momentary distractions from his lackluster personal life. He had always been a big fan of animals and dogs in particular so the movie was a good fit for him, especially as he found himself often petting or cuddling the dogs after shooting was over for the day. It was more relaxing and soothing than any therapy session would ever be.

After receiving a message from one of his close friends that confirmed that Melina was now unsubtly draped all over Scott Eastwood. Despite his insistences that he was over her, the news caused a burning anger to brew in KJ’s gut. As if he’d needed any more reasons to hate Eastwood or think he was a douchebag, now he had a gold digger on his arm. For once KJ was thankful he didn’t get invited to the same Hollywood parties as the B-List actor did because he knew any sort of confrontation would be uncomfortable.

Settling down in the on-set kennels, KJ pulled Lucky into his lap. Lucky was a small golden retriever, only several years old, and full of energy. He was always bouncing around and licking KJ’s face, bringing smiles out of him even when he was utterly miserable. Puppies like Lucky didn’t know how frustrating the world could be at times because they only had a very small number of priorities in their lives - eating, sleeping, playing and walking. It actually sounded like a pretty glorious existence.

Petting Lucky’s forehead and moving down to the fur on his back, KJ let out a long sigh. He simply couldn’t understand why things weren’t going his way. He was good looking, funny and was packing some pretty impressive junk. By all rights he should be on top of the Hollywood mountain with a hot girl in every city but it simply wasn’t like that. 

“I think I’d rather be a dog at this point,” he muttered, chuckling softly to himself as he leaned down to kiss Lucky’s head. “What do you think, Luck? Do you think I’d make a good puppy?” He received a lick to the face in response, prompting him to chuckle. How was it that dogs were actually better company than the majority of his castmates? They were certainly less annoying, that was for sure.

“You’d make a pretty good human,” KJ decided, continuing to stroke the golden retriever’s fur. Even just the weight of the dog curled up on his lap was enough to be calming and it made the stresses of his day-to-day life see so insignificant. “Although I guess that’s why we call you guys man’s best friend.” Lucky was certainly a better friend than any guy KJ was currently hanging around with, both on and off-set.

KJ remained in the kennels for an hour, mostly playing with Lucky but also making sure to take the time to pet all of the other dogs in their spacious cages too. Lucky might have been his favorite but a puppy was a puppy and that meant they were all deserving of attention as far as he was concerned. As he finally head out back to his bike and took off him, he was in a decidedly better mood than he had been earlier that day.

Once he reached his apartment, KJ wasn’t really all that surprised to see dinner waiting on the table for him. Casey was a good roommate, even if he was likely only being nice because he was attracted to KJ. The darker-haired male had hardly been shy about how much he disliked Melina and now that she was out of the picture he seemed to be a lot happier. Unluckily for him that didn’t mean he suddenly had a chance with KJ because he simply didn’t swing that way but he supposed there was nothing wrong with getting a little pleasure from the situation. 

What was a blowjob between bros anyway, right?

Casey certainly appeared surprised when KJ undid the zipper on his jeans and spread his legs while sat the dinner table, but the red-headed actor could see the excitement bubbling under the surface. “What are you doing?” Casey asked in a shaking voice as he eyed him up nervously.

“Isn’t it obvious?” KJ retorted, freeing his semi-hard cock from the restraints of his boxer briefs. He was tired of having to get himself off since Melina had left him and Casey was the only one with a warm and willing mouth around so why the hell not?

The lack of immediate movement from Casey was a slight irritation to KJ. Couldn’t he see that he was finally being offered exactly what he’d secretly wanted for the past several months? This was a once in a lifetime opportunity as far as KJ was concerned because he didn’t plan to make sexual relationships with guys a regular thing. “You’re joking, right?” the other male asked, causing KJ to roll his eyes.

“Would I really have my cock out if I was joking? Get your mouth over here before I change my mind!” KJ growled, pleased to see that his words had the intended effect. Mere seconds later and Casey was on his knees before him with his lips wrapped around the head of KJ’s cock and his hand massaging his testicles, further stimulating him.

Thanks to Casey’s dutiful work, KJ was able to collapse into his bed with a smile on his face. All those whispers he’d heard being spread on set by the stunt guys about Casey being great at sucking cock had turned out to be true, although the lead actor still wished it had been a hot babe polishing his rod rather than a male castmate. Oh well, a blowjob was a blowjob and at least he’d finally managed to work up a good sweat from something other than a gym session for once.

KJ’s dreams that night all featured him running in a wide open field. He didn’t know why he was running, he just knew that it was fun and felt so freeing and good. There was nothing to make him stop or slow down, he could just keep running for as long and as fast as he wanted without consequence. It was a refreshing break from the stress-fuelled nightmares he had unfortunately become so accustomed to over the recent months.

The bed didn’t feel nearly as comfortable as KJ remembered when he woke up. He still felt groggy and was reluctant to open his eyes but he knew immediately that he wasn’t laying on his own bed. The material simply wasn’t right and he couldn’t feel any sheets covering him. He did feel something keeping him warm though, he just couldn’t identify what it was and he was too lazy to open his eyes and investigate. Sleep seemed so inviting…

It was the sound of paws from surprisingly nearby that woke KJ from his slumber once more. He could identify the sound of a dog immediately, he just couldn’t work out why one would be so close by when he and Casey didn’t own one. He was hardly going to complain about a dog being present in their apartment, it just seemed strange. Perhaps this was Casey’s way of trying to get him to cheer up? Maybe he’d even brought Lucky to him!

Finally forcing his eyes open, the actor was met by a surprising sight: the bars of a cage. What? Immediately KJ believed he was the victim of a prank but in the seconds that followed he realized something was very, very wrong. His eyes didn’t seem to comprehend color the way they should, with everything appearing in shades of blue, yellow and grey. No matter how often or how hard he blinked, the missing colors didn’t return. His troubles only continued as he craned his head to closer inspect his surroundings.

The most noticeable features were a number of other cages around the room, all of them with pillowed floors and housing very familiar puppies. There were a variety of breeds and sizes but they were all resting peacefully on the pillows in a very familiar room. It only took KJ seconds to realize where he was - the kennels on the set of A Dog’s Purpose!

“What the--” KJ begun, only to be stunned into silence. The words hadn’t come out. In their place, he had barked - high pitched and adorable, but definitely a dog’s bark. “No, no, no!” More barks. No matter how hard he tried, KJ simply couldn’t get any human words out. He knew precisely what it meant and he was terrified, unwilling to accept that he had woken up in the body of the very dog he’d jokingly wished to be the day before.

Even pushing himself to his feet was suddenly a challenge as he adapted to walking on four legs and at a much smaller stature. He was a mere fraction of his normal sight and seeing the world from a much smaller perspective managed to be both terrifying and entertaining. 

This has got to be a dream, right? A really messed up crazy dream but totally a dream. KJ desperately tried to rationalize it in his mind but as he took hesitant steps forward onto his paws he knew it all felt too realistic to be a dream. He was unsteady on his legs and all but collapsed back onto the pillowed surface before opting to stand incredibly still.

“Hello?” A bark. The other dogs were beginning to take notice of him, one or two even barking back. If they were trying to talk to him then he couldn’t understand it and he was uncertain if they understood him either. The whole thing was a mess and if it really was a dream then KJ was hoping and praying that he would wake up soon. Perhaps it was funny for the first few moments but he hadn’t been serious about his desire to be a dog. He didn’t loathe being a celebrity that much!

For what felt like hours KJ paced the circumference of the spacious kennel, slowly growing steadier on his paws. He fought back his disgust to drink from the water bowl in order to combat his thirst and tried not to think about what he would do when he eventually grew hungry. The progression of time made him anxious, reluctantly accepting that this wasn’t a crazy dream and was actually his reality at that moment of time.

What happened to the real Lucky? It had been easy to identify exactly which dog he was by glancing around the kennels and realizing his didn’t see his favorite golden retriever, but the whereabouts of the real dog was unknown to him. Is it possible that… no, don’t be silly. It wasn’t like Lucky could actually be in his body, could it?

The dog trainers arrived sometime later and coaxed two of the dogs from other cages out, probably to go shoot some scenes on the set. KJ began to panic. He knew he was due on set today - the real him, not him in his current Lucky form - so if they were already filming did that mean somebody had turned up in his place?

Food came around shortly after and KJ found himself hungrier than he could ever remember being. The disgust he felt at the prospect of eating dog food was quickly overwhelmed by that all-encompassing hunger and he dived into the meal, surprising himself at just how much he liked it. Hell, it was one of the tastiest meals he had ever had! In fact he was so distracted by his gourmet-level meal that he didn’t even here the door to the kennels open and close. It was only when he felt a hand against his back and fingers tracing through his fur that he realized there was a human in the room.

A sight craning of his neck confirmed that it wasn’t just any human - it was him!

“Who are you?!” KJ tried to exclaim, only to feel disappointed when the words once more came out as barks. How the hell was he supposed to get any answers when nobody could understand what he was saying?

His doppelganger’s mouth was moving but the words sounded entirely foreign to KJ. He was able to make out a couple such as “buddy”, “good boy” and “Lucky”. The fact he could no longer understand himself though was terrifying. First he could only see in a limited amount of colors and now he could only understand certain human words. Was his mind truly adapting to that of a dog? Would he lose himself entirely?

Thankfully the sensation of his former human self stroking down from his neck to his bottom was soothing enough to distract KJ. He supposed his first few hours in the body of a dog hadn’t been too bad - he’d had plenty of sleeping and the eating had been great. In fact he was hungry or me already! The cuddling and stroking was just an added bonus. He felt great!

The presence of his replacement simply didn’t last long enough and as he watched his body retreat back out the door, KJ whined and howled in misery. It wasn’t even because he desperately wanted his body back, it was because he missed the gentle hands of the human against his fur. He’d loved the attention whether he’d realized it or not. 

Finally giving up on the howling when his human didn’t immediately return, KJ collapsed down onto the pillows and invited sleep to claim him.

When he awoke later in the day day he was still in Lucky’s body and yet he didn’t feel quite as upset about it. In fact it meant he was likely closer to dinner time and hopefully another visit that would provide him with more cuddles and attention. Sure enough both arrived in quick succession, with KJ halfway through enjoying his meal when his replacement joined the trainer in the room. They spoke with words he didn’t understand while he continued to eat and only when he was done did he sit patiently at the edge of his cage, waiting for one of them to pay attention to him.

Finally the cage door opened and he was scooped up into his own arms. He could hear something being whispered to him but only several words stood out - “good little doggy”, “my favorite Lucky charm” and finally “take you home”. The last one had KJ’s tail wagging. The thought of being taken home and provided with more cuddles than he could possibly ask for was amazing!

At that moment KJ was finally able to let go of the last traces of his humanity. He had already come to accept that as a dog there was no way he could trigger a reverse of whatever had swapped him and Lucky, but the thought of being adopted as a pet once filming of A Dog’s Purpose was over solidified the thought in KJ’s mind. He had wished for the peaceful life of a puppy and he’d gotten his wish. 

He wasn’t KJ Apa anymore, he was Lucky and he didn’t have any regrets about that either.