Have You Seen My Dog?

[Tarondal]

He's black, about so high, and answers to the name "Woofie."

I finally finished the new Advanced High Performance Dog-Bot kit, after *weeks* of work. Knitting together the central processing nets, wrapping wire coils for electro-stimulated fluid pumps, gluing on 532,976 hairs in precisely the pattern that best deflects energy blasts... the new Woofie was a lot of work! Still, the work was done; all that was left was to test him out.

I chose a quiet spot near Lush Hills Resort. Nothing large enough to be threatening was nearby; I wanted to be sure of Woofie's basic responses before trying him in combat. Tool set down the crate, I levered it open, and Woofie took his first few steps on the fresh green grass. "Woofie, sit!" I commanded, and he sat. "Stay!", and he stayed. "Roll over!", and he practically backflipped in the air.

I picked up a stick, and tossed it a little ways south. "Fetch!"

Woofie stood, looked at the stick for a moment, and started running at high speed. To the NORTH. "Woofie, wait! Come back! WOOFIE!" He was a black streak zooming along the grass, headed the wrong way. In only a few seconds, he was out of hearing.

I got in my yalm, and flew after him. It was pretty easy to follow the trail by the torn-up grass and the occasional knocked-over sapling. North, and a bit west.

I lost track of Woofie for a time at the southern border of 4 Holes; anti-aircraft fire makes it a bit tricky to fly over that area anymore. However, I did manage to get a camera image of him from the outpost in southern Stret West; he'd gotten ahold of some Unionist's leg. Too bad it wasn't slowing him down.

I've been asking around. Deb Moore (aka "Dmom") in Borealis thought she'd seen the local animal control people chasing a dog like Woofie, but the animal control office didn't have anything useful to say-- they were busy, one of their vans had blown up or something.

So, if anybody's seen my dog, could you please contact me?

[Dabblez]

I think I spotted him in Newland, chasing Berael up a tree.

Dabblez

[playboyfixer]

if he did i'd like to see that ;p

[Bikkja]

How dangerous is this dog?
Its sounds like there are a big error in the AI programming. How can I trust that dog wont jump into my trought and bite my head off.

I want to know. If not, I probably going to blast it into oblivion if I see it.

[Dasubervixen]

Is that the dog that's been leaving little piles of batteries all over Borealis? I almost stepped in one.

[Gimpeline]

Hope you find it soon. Dogs are dangerous and mean creatures, and a dog on the loose is bad news for everyone.

[XzSwiftcurse]

Miss,

Omni-Pol recently received an anonymous message which contained this curious picture, taken from inside of one of our battle stations.

At first sight we thought it was PBF in a hilarious suit in attempts to gain secret military information but after reading your message we believe it also could have been your "woofie".

picture

[playboyfixer]

your battlestations?

and i wouldn't dare try to sneak in for secret info or would i...

[Astera]

Miss,

Omni-Pol recently received an anonymous message which contained this curious picture, taken from inside of one of our battle stations.

At first sight we thought it was PBF in a hilarious suit in attempts to gain secret military information but after reading your message we believe it also could have been your "woofie".

picture

((thats too funny. ))

[Tarondal]

Well, it seems like I won't be getting my dog back, whatever else happens. I just found a doggie-size hole chewed in the Outzone wall beyond northern Mort, along with a big pile of dead banescales.

[Nuser_]

((LMAO Choppy. That picture was GOLD!))

[Binarybits]

((Proves dogs do sense danger... that dog's expression was pure "OMFG I see a I.E.D.!"

but on topic)

You threw south but the dog went north? Perhaps the AI miscalculated the distancing information and the animal went to the stick from the other orientation, speaking globally. I wouldn't be too surprised to find the animal sometime soon, covered in the red dusts of the outzones, having journeyed all the way circumnavigating Rubi-ka to retrieve the stick.

[Moondawg]

I think Copperneedle may be correct. His theory reminds of an old Earth experiment that went a rye. A group of AI programmer wanted to teach an early robot how to stack blocks. They spent many hours programming its computer with as much information about the task as they could. But when they set the thing in motion. The poor programmers could only watch as the machine tried to place the top block in the stack first and works its way down.

So I wouldn’t give up hope Tarondal. Your dog may return to you yet. I hope it records what it sees along the way. That would be very interesting data indeed.

[Tarondal]

Following Copperneedle's advice, I went back to the forest in Lush Hills, set up camp by the stick I had thrown, and waited.

At two in the morning, I heard a noise outside. I crawled out of my tent, and lo and behold, it was my Woofie! He was dragging along what appear to be the remains of a large shark.

Joyfully, I called out, "Here, boy!" He ran straight up to me, dropped the shark, picked up the stick...

... and turned and scampered off to the south.

I think he's following the same route that he took going the other way. If you see Woofie, please don't try to stop him, I'm sure he'll get back here to deliver my stick sometime around next Tuesday. Besides, getting in the way seems to be hazardous.