“Nah, you don’t know what you are talking about.” Saber
scoffed at his friend, Buffy.
She sat proudly behind her metal fence, licking the stray
dirt off her fur. “What’s not to get?” Buffy stopped her grooming to stare Saber
directly in the eyes. “You know where all your meals come from, you aren’t
throwing up the nasty food you ate from a dumpster, and you have a warm place
to sleep. Not to mention”—she glanced at her coat—“being brushed and pet and
played with. You’re the one who doesn’t know what you’re talking about. Living
with my humans is much better than being on the streets.”
“Sure, and you have to sit when they tell you to, do your
business where they tell you to—I’m able to pee wherever I want and no one
yells at me. Plus, the throwing up isn’t so bad. Two poodles thought I was tough when I yacked up a
ham bone I swallowed whole. You get to do that stuff here?”
Buffy turned her back to him as she sauntered off. “Boys!”
“Didn’t think so.” Saber eyed her fluffy tail for just a
minute more before heading down the nearest alleyway.
Looking for his next snack, he two-paw punched the nearest trashcan,
the contents filling the narrow aisle. The smell of garbage always made him
happy, so before he browsed for anything edible, he rolled around in it for a
bit. Clumps of chewing gum and old fruit juice now decorated his left ear, the
chewing gum looking like a fancy new earring. Saber couldn’t stand anything
fancy, so he tried to shake the offensive jewelry off his ear when he spotted
it.
“Jackpot,” Saber muttered to himself. There, right next to
an old banana sat a package of bologna. “If Buffy would just listen to me, she
could eat like this too. Dry dog food in a bowl! Seriously? Green bologna—don’t
mind if I do.”
A mouth of bad breath and a full tummy later, Saber decided
to give the poodles a visit. He was feeling mighty proud of himself for knowing
just where all the good food was and wanted to have some fun. The poodles were
always fun—and cute. About this time of day, they would all be down by the bank
of the creek that ran along the border of the city. A couple of the dogs from
the nearby neighborhood would usually jump the fence and come with them for a
swim.
When he arrived, the bank was completely dog free. Putting his
nose to the ground and smelling for his friends, he caught their scent and
followed it. Not more then ten feet away, the trail stopped cold. No longer did
he smell the poodles, Abby and Pancakes, nor did he smell the neighborhood
dogs, Widget and Hulk (Saber always figured a super hero-loving five-year-old
named that poor guy).
He did, however, see a set of very large boot prints in the
squishy mud of the bank. The paw prints from his friends were smeared and
smooshed in deep, like they were dragging something. Things just didn’t seem
right. They didn’t quite feel right, either. Saber thought his afternoon would
be better spent somewhere else. He’d catch up with the poodles later.
Tail high in the air and nose low to the ground, Saber
searched for a new adventure. Saber was about to find one.
Chapter Two
Blue hat perched near the back of his head, Tony waited
behind a group of trees. I knew he would
be here, he thought to himself. I
just knew it! All of the guys at the pound are going to make me their boss. Tony
wanted to be the boss for so long, he had been following Saber and his friends
for quite some time. Every dog pound in the area wanted Saber. No one had been
able to catch him. The street-smart stray had outwitted all of their best-laid
traps and plans.
Now I have you.
He watched Saber stick his nose in a few holes along the
bank, then jump back quickly as the occupant swatted him away. Tony quickly
turned and tried to hide his entire gangly frame behind the tree, as Saber’s
ears perked up and he began looking around at everything, almost as if he heard
Tony’s thoughts.
“Maybe that’s how he’s gotten away from us so many times,”
Tony said quietly to himself. “This dog has super powers. I can’t think about
him while he’s around. He can hear me think.”
Even if this were the case (which it obviously wasn’t), Saber
wouldn’t have much to listen to anyway, as Tony rarely thought about anything
and what he did think about would bore the fleas off any dog on the block.
Still, Tony kept mumbling to himself, instead of thinking
his ugly thoughts about this homeless adventurer.
Chapter Three
Saber heard a human close by. Although he had no idea what
the human was saying (humans never did learn to speak properly), he knew it was
a man, and that man sounded angry. Angry humans were never good to be around,
so instead of looking for a new adventure, he decided it was time to head back
home.
Saber was a fast runner—one of the fastest dogs on the
street. When he decided it was time to leave, and quickly, there was nothing
but muddy tracks left behind. He was running so quickly that he didn’t see the
net until it was too late.
His front paw went through the net, and his nose was
squished like a pig’s. As he tried to untangle himself, he heard the human
coming up quickly from behind him. Saber pushed at the net with his other paw,
but only managed to get it tangled up too. He could now hear the human
breathing. Saber was scared. Angry humans could do mean things to dogs. Saber
struggled and shook, growled and wiggled. Nothing he did made the net let go.
He felt a plastic loop around his neck. “Get off of me!” Saber
yelled at the human, but the human only seemed to become angrier and he
tightened the loop around his neck even more.
The man pulled backward on the loop and Saber struggled even
harder to get away. No human was going to get him. They had tried before, and
he had always gotten away. He knew he could again. But the more he struggled,
the more tangled he became.
The game was over. Saber couldn’t see how he could get out
of this mess, so he lay down peacefully to see what would happen to him next.
Chapter Four
“I got you! I got you!” Tony on the tip of his toes.
Tony did not like this dog, not at all. For a few minutes, he thought the mutt
was going to escape. He became very angry and pulled hard on his lasso. The dog
stopped squirming and lay very still. Tony didn’t trust the dog. He was a very
smart, mind-reading dog. He had to be careful with this one.
“Just don’t look him in the eye, Tony. That’s when he will
be able to control you,” Tony said out loud to the trees. Since the dog was no
longer struggling, he was able to get his front paws out of the net Tony had
set up hours before. The net had come in handy. He used it to catch two dirty
poodles earlier.
“Never underestimate Tony, dog.” At these words, the muddy
dog looked up at him, tilting his head. This scared Tony and he almost dropped
the lasso. He dragged the dog behind him, yelling all the way to the van.
“I did it! I caught him!” he was screaming. “No dog is a
match for the best dog catcher in the world!”
By now, Tony was getting a rather large head. He thought now
that he was unbeatable. This caused Tony to make one very large mistake.
He threw Saber into the back of his van, but forgot to lock
the door. As the truck bounded along the road, he heard a loud bang and looked
at his side mirror just in time to see Saber jump from the back of the truck.
“NOOOOO!”
Tony slammed on the breaks, causing people behind him to say
very nasty things and do things they would never do in front of their own
mothers. But Tony ignored them all, leaving his truck running in the center of
the road.
He saw Saber disappear into an alley where a trashcan had
been knocked over. The contents completely covered the space, and he slipped
and fell face-first, his nose landing right in the middle of a very old, very
smelly banana.
Tony, now furious, picked himself up and slid through the
remainder of the garbage. Saber was a full block ahead of him and flew over the
ground like he had sprouted wings.
“Stop, you stinky
mutt!”
I’m never going to be
the boss if I can’t get him to the pound, Tony thought bitterly. He can’t get away! Tony didn’t care if Saber
heard him right now. All he wanted was to get the dog.
A few blocks down, he saw the stray dog jump a fence of a
very nice home. Tony knew he had the dog cornered. The dog was sitting by
another dog who was watching him as she cleaned herself. Tony opened the gate
and approached the dog cautiously. As he drew near, the new dog stepped in
front of the mutt and bared her teeth at him, a low growl reaching his ears.
“Nice, doggie. I just want to get that dirty creature away
from you. Then I’ll leave. I just need to take him with me,” Tony said to the
nice-looking dog, who was now barking loudly at him.
The front door of the home burst open and a man and woman
rushed out.
“What’s going on here?” the man demanded to know.
“Buffy! What’s the matter with you?” The woman looked at her
dog and then at the scruffy dog with a piece of gum dangling from his ear.
“I need to get this stray out of your yard, ma’am. He’s a
menace. He needs to be locked up. He’s a mind-reading, evil dog. We have to get
rid of him!” Tony was now shaking. He was so close to capturing his prize.
The man and the woman had never seen Buffy act like this
before. She was guarding this scruffy dog like he was one of her own puppies. The
dirty dog was sitting behind her with a very curious look on his face, almost
as if he were enjoying the whole thing.
The woman knew this dog looked familiar. She had seen him at
her fence before playing with her Buffy. Eying the dogcatcher she said, “I’m
sorry. There’s no stray here. This is our dog.”
“ARGH! Preposterous!” Tony yelled at the woman. “I’ve been
chasing this dog for weeks!” He looked quite frightening now. His eyes were
red, and he had spit dangling from his bottom lip.
“Sir, I’m afraid you’ll have to leave. We’ll be sure to keep
him in the yard from now on,” the man said, bending down to stroke the dog
behind Buffy.
“This isn’t over!” Tony stomped out of the front gate,
slamming it noisily behind him.
Chapter Five
“I told you there was nothing better than letting a human
take care of you,” Saber said around a mouthful of bone. “You can wrap these
people around your paw in no time flat.”
“Yea, you sure told me.” Buffy laughed. She snuggled in
tightly to her best friend. She was scared at how close she had come to losing
him to a very crazy human. She knew her humans were the good type: the kind
ones who would never let a dog down. She remembered loving them from the first
moment she had laid eyes on them. She was just a lost stray herself then. They
had adopted from the nearby shelter.
She had been where Saber was. She knew how hard it was
living on the street and how much better her life was now she had a good home
and a good family to take care of her. Now Saber knew it too.
“There’s something I still have to do,” Saber said to Buffy
as he got a nice scratch from his male human.
“What’s that?” Buffy wanted to know.
“I still have to get Pancakes and Abby. That angry human got
them. I know he did.” Saber had a glint in his eye that Buffy knew meant
adventure was just around the corner.
If anyone could get those two crazy poodles free, it was
Saber. And Buffy would be right by his side.