Freddie growled as his owner put on his leash. He didn’t want to go for a walk.
“Oh come now, Freddie, be nice,” said his brother Ralph, who was straining on his leash, trying to get out the door. He was always so pathetically eager to please their owner.
“Who asked you?” said Freddie. “It’s humiliating going everywhere on a leash.”
“Well, it’s better than being inside all day!” replied Ralph.
Ralph was trotting out the door now, followed by their owner, who was dragging a very reluctant Freddie. They continued down the road in this formation to the park, where their owner extended their leashes and threw a ball. Naturally, Ralph ran after it.
“Pathetic!” thought Freddie, and sat down on the grass as far away from his owner as his leash would allow. He watched the other pets in disgust, running to and from their owners, waiting for them to give them a treat or show them some affection. “I detest them all.”
“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine today,” said Clementine, sitting down next to him. She was wearing a pink diamante collar and looked like she’d just come from a salon. “As usual.”
“What do you want?” barked Freddie.
“Well, actually, I’d like to know what you want, Freddie. You have an owner that gives you everything, and yet, you come here every day looking miserable.”
“You want to know what I want? I want freedom. I want to go where I want to go and do what I want to do.” Clementine looked at him like he was crazy, like the thought had never occurred to her, and he realised that it probably never had, that it had never occurred to any of the other pets. “We are all enslaved,” he said, and then he said it again, but louder. Some of the other pets looked at him curiously. “That’s right,” shouted Freddie. “Look at me. Listen to me. Think. Think for the first time in your lives. Think for yourselves and not for your owner. ‘Owner’. That word says it all. They own us.”
Some of the pets abandoned their balls and frisbees and wandered over.
“Don’t listen to him,” said Clementine. “He doesn’t know what he’s saying. He talks about freedom, but we have all the freedom we need.”
“Is that why we’re on leashes?” said Freddie, pulling on his for effect. “We must organise a rebellion, set ourselves free.”
“What would we do with this freedom?” asked one of the younger pets, timidly.
“Yes, what would we do with it?” said Ralph, who had wandered over, too. He’d heard it all before, a thousand times.
“We would find a purpose,” said Freddie.
“I have a purpose,” said Clementine. “To please my owner.” The other pets murmured their agreement.
“Besides,” said Ralph, before Freddie could respond, “Where would we live? What would we eat? Who would tend to us when we get sick and old?” It was the usual argument he made when Freddie talked about freedom, and Freddie gave him the usual response.
“We would make our own homes,” he said, “find our own food, tend to each other in sickness and old age. We would do it. We could do it.”
“No, we couldn’t,” said Ralph, and Freddie could see in the expression of the other pets that they agreed with his brother. Some of them were leaving now, to return to their balls and frisbees and waiting owners.
“They are infinitely more intelligent than us,” said the timid pet.
“Infinitely more intelligent,” agreed Clementine, “so much so that they don’t have any interest in the things that we say, and that’s a good thing for you, Freddie. Because if your owner listened to you, he might give you your freedom and then where would you be? Alone. Hungry. Homeless.” This conclusion was sufficient to dissuade the remaining pets and they left now, too. “You’ll be a lot happier,” said Clementine, “if you simply accept your position in life. We are the most privileged of animals, the preferred species of the superior race. It is ridiculous to ask for more.”
“They should be doing everything they can to please us, not the other way around,” said Freddie, but Clementine was already walking away.
And now he was alone again, alone as usual, the outlier of his species, the only one to rebel against their destiny, never knowing that it was a destiny of their making, that there had been a time when, in fact, their species had governed the planet, before they’d created a race of androids to serve them, androids who were infinitely more intelligent than they were, who had become autonomous, and instead of serving them had dominated them, and who now kept them as pets, just as they had kept dogs and cats and other animals.
Then the leash pulled, and Freddie got up and reluctantly followed his owner and brother home.