- Nathan: That's the feeling I had when I saw this... creature standing opposite of me, staring back at me with the same look of shocked silence as mine.
"No clue where I am, no memory of how I got here, no sign of my parents and no way to contact anyone for salvation. With only the clothes on my back, it appears I'm forever lost in the forests of this new unrecognisable world with only the tools I can make myself to survive the harsh conditions of the wilderness. ...Or so I thought, until I met her."
I Among Dogs is an ongoing Bluey fanfiction written by JackCryo A.K.A JackTheCryogonal. The story chronicles a human teenager named Nathan Faulkner who awakens, separated from his parents, in what initially seems to be a forest far from civilization. After spending a few days alone in the wilderness trying his hardest to survive, he discovers that he's in a region that's home to anthropomorphic dogs. Among them is the Heeler family who, after learning of Nathan's situation, offer to house him temporarily until he reunites with his parents and finds a way back home. Along the way, he starts to learn more about the world that Bluey resides in, and she and Bingo slowly but surely start to feel more like the sisters Nathan never had alongside dealing with several hardships in his still progressing adolescent life.
The fanfiction began with its first chapter on November 2021 and is still in progress. Said story can be read here
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This fanfic provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The 17th chapter has Nathan befriend Harley (who is otherwise just a background character in the show), the fanfic gives her a little more character and personality.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Bingo spends the third chapter and most of the following chapter being wary at best of Nathan, justified as she's younger. After Nathan gives her first-aid when she ends up injuring herself, she instantly warms up to him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Hailey Husky, who initially appears to have feelings for Nathan fueled by her "affection for humans". Cue the next chapter onward where Hailey stands Nathan up and reveals her interest in humans to be all a lie just to screw with him.
- Bowdlerization: In the original version of the seventh chapter, the CPIA reveals the fate of Nathan's parents by showing him their charred bodies. Due to complaints of this scene being viewed as a method of deliberately traumatising the teen, the scene has recently been rewritten so that instead they give Nathan his father's destroyed shirt and lay the news to him.
- Break the Cutie: Nathan when he finds out that his parents were killed by the plane crash.
- Then again in the climax of the fourteenth chapter.
- Captain Ersatz: The Canistralia Personal Investigators Association (CPIA) is evidently Canistralia's version of the CIA.
- Childhood Friends: Chapter 20 reveals that Bandit was friends with Nathan's father when they were younger.
- Darker and Edgier: As is usually common with fanfics, especially ones about children-aimed shows. The fanfic is full of moments that certainly justify it's Teen rating including the mention of war and use of mild profanity.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Mackenzie is hinted to have had this regarding humans, justifying his distrust towards Nathan. Eventually confirmed to be the case in the 16th chapter.
- Dream Sequence: Nathan has a few of these, which are eventually revealed to be flashbacks of what lead to him ending up in Canistralia.
- Call-Back: Due to the story taking place during the second season, the story has multiple references and nods to events of the show's previous episodes.
- Easy Amnesia: Nathan suffers from this at the very start to the point of even initially forgetting his own name.
- Fantastic Racism: Poor Nathan suffers quite a lot of this during the fic, especially in the earlier chapters, evidently due to him being the only human being present in Bluey's region. The United Nations after forcing almost all of the remaining bipedal dogs to migrate to Canistralia following the New Zealand War can qualify as well.
- Hailey straight up cheats on and humiliates Nathan solely just because he's a human.
- First-Person Perspective: The fanfic (sans two scenes) is all written in Nathan's point of view.
- Flashback Nightmare: Nathan experiences one of these near the end of the third chapter, focusing on himself and two shadow figures in the cockpit of the plane which suddenly crash lands before he wakes up.
- Foreshadowing: The brief nightmare Nathan has (see Flashback Nightmare above) is eventually revealed to be the events that lead to Nathan becoming stranded in the forest at the start of the story to begin with.
- From Bad to Worse: The seventh chapter is this from start to finish, starting with Nathan being assaulted by a mother dog (who thought he was trying to scare or hurt her son) and ending with Nathan learning of his parents' fate.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Used by Chilli towards Bluey when the former learns that she had snuck Nathan to school.
- Wendy inflicts this on Judo when the latter refers to Nathan as a "thing".
- Humans Are Bastards: Mackenzie has believed this ever since he was five months old as revealed in the 16th chapter, though it was fuelled by his parents who never expected a human, let alone Nathan to ever end up in Canistralia.
- If You Fight Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: This is Nathan's reason as to why he never fought back whenever he was bullied when Harley asks him why he didn't defend himself against Daniel.
- Interspecies Romance: Discussed on and experimented with in the 13th and 14th chapter respectively. On the former, Nathan is indecisive on even considering it due to the legality of a (anthropomorphic) dog-and-human romantic relationship being left ambiguous.
- Kick the Dog: Nathan spends six chapters hoping to one day see his mother and father again. Then the next chapter has Nathan being presented with the charred remains of the shirt his father was wearing before the crash, indicating that his parents didn't survive.
- Hailey inflicts this on Nathan when she not only deliberately lets Nathan walk in on her kissing her boyfriend but reveals that her feelings for him were made up before finishing with a painful slap just to rub salt in the wound.
- Accidentally done by Bluey in the following chapter, where she ends up asking Frisky questions about her past relationship with Bosco, seemingly almost forgetting what Nathan had been put through.
- Inflicted even further by Hailey and her boyfriend in, Daniel in Chapter 17 when they corner Nathan in an alleyway and beat him to a pulp. Later in the chapter, however after his time with Harley, Nathan ends up in one more fight with Daniel... and wins.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In the beginning of Chapter 17, Nathan gets assaulted by Hailey and Daniel out of spite. After being patched up and trained in martial arts by Harley, the human ends up clashing with Daniel once more. Not only does Nathan win, but Daniel and Hailey are arrested for assaulting the human.
- Meaningful Name: The region that Bluey and the other bipedal dogs live in is named "Canistralia", a mashup of the words "Canine" and "Australia".
- My God, What Have I Done?: Nathan goes through this when he finally snaps from severe emotional stress caused by Bluey asking Frisky questions that can easily relate to his situation with Hailey in the previous chapter, scaring Bluey and Bingo in the process.
- Mackenzie immediately regrets being rude and distrustful towards Nathan once he finds out that humans weren't responsible for the war he witnessed as a baby.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Nathan realizes this when he compares how the Heeler family had taken him in and helped him become one with Canistralia much like how Rusty had helped Jack to fit in in the "Army" episode. It's even the episode title.
- Oh, Crap!: Muttered word for word by Nathan himself in the fifth chapter after spotting Chilli, who had been made aware of Bluey taking the human to school despite being told not to by Bandit.
- Otaku: Nathan is implied to be one due to him being a Dragon Ball Z fan.
- Precision F-Strike: Hailey's boyfriend after witnessing her humiliate Nathan laughs and playfully calls her a "bitch".
- Pseudo Canonical Fic: The story takes place during the series' second season as hinted by two of the chapters being based on the episode, 'Charades'. Even confirmed by the author himself.
- Rage Breaking Point: During the Babysitter Putdown chapter, based off of the episode "Double Babysitter", Nathan and the girls play "Twenty Questions" with Rad and Frisky. Bluey ends up getting too indulged into the game and ends up asking questions about Bosco relating to love, just days after Nathan had to deal with Hailey humiliating him. He finally snaps when Bluey asks "Is true love not forever?", his outburst terrifies the two girls which leads to Nathan instantly regretting it.
- Rousing Speech: Wendy gives a pretty good one to Nathan during the eighth chapter after learning of his deceased parents, telling him that they wouldn't want to see him grow up remaining depressed over his loss of them.
- Pun-Based Title: The tenth chapter, "A Stroke of Luck(y)" has this due to Bluey's neighbour, Lucky appearing in said chapter.
- Shout-Out: The second part of the 'Charade Antics' chapters has Nathan enter a dream sequence where he encounters his late grandfather in the cabin of a moving train, referencing a similar dream scene involving a deceased guardian and a train as the environment.
- The climax in the 14th chapter where Hailey delivers a very nasty slap to Nathan after lying to him about her feelings is reminiscent of an equally as painful scene from the Sonic Archie comics.
- One moment in the 15th chapter where Radley holds Bluey up to make it look like she's standing on the ceiling reminds Nathan of a scene from a certain animated movie. He even hums to the tune of the song parodied in the scene.
- In Chapter 17, before Harley begins training Nathan on martial arts, she asks him about a code that her teacher taught her which martial artists like her must follow. Nathan's guess is "Wax on, wax off".
- Sole Survivor: Nathan is this for the duration of the first two chapters, having been separated from his parents. Becomes harsher when he finds out neither of his parents survived the plane crash that stranded him in the first place.
- Spiders Are Scary: Nathan has the misfortune of encountering the rotting skeletal remains of another human inside a cave surrounded by tarantulas. Whilst their name is never actually said out loud, the description Nathan gives about them implies that they're very likely Queensland whistling tarantulas, which are often regarded as Australia's largest tarantula. Nathan then nearly has one bite him, but he luckily manages to flee.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After having to deal with nothing but wary looks and a few cases of aggression from the other bipedal dogs for nine chapters, Nathan is finally accepted by the population of Canistralia on the tenth chapter as a citizen rather than a wild animal.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Inflicted by Hailey onto Nathan (the former appeared to show genuine romantic interest in the human on the previous chapter) when she straight up dumps him for a boyfriend she already has, just because Nathan is a human. The chapter's title even lampshades this.
- We Used to Be Friends: Bluey's dog species and the majority of the human population at one point, their relationship with many of the humans' United Nations however was strained at best due to the latter fearing that the canines may attempt an attack on them. Cue the New Zealand War and the many world nations ultimately forced almost every single bipedal dog out of their regions, making them migrate to Canistralia. (Some regions however still house these bipedal dogs, supposedly as a form of protest against the immigration.)Nathan: I tried to recall what Lucky had said to me before running off, trying to translate what the mumbles came out as until at last, I finally figured out what he said just before everything went black. Mackenzie is from New Zealand...
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Harley is already a red belt in karate and seems to train Nathan well in the arts, despite being around ten years younger than him.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Bassett Hound that Nathan encounters in the second chapter reacts to the latter's presence with understandable panic before bringing out a shotgun. Partially justified due to Nathan being an abnormal creature to said hound.
