“’Ey, howyoo feelin’?” whispered Ace from behind him.
“Sore,” the puppy replied.
“Awlmost dinna twime. Zippy, you ready fwor ‘Awpuhration Just Dessoit?'”
The greyhound pup tossed his head upward whispering, “Yo!”
“Operation 'Just Dessert'? What’s that?” the puppy asked.
“It’s howa we get da resta owah food. ‘Dat’s whawt you ate ‘dis mwornin’. ‘Dat dumbbutt Dawminic chases us awll awff and eats da rest. Zippy is owah ‘ninja’ smugglah. It’sa how we keepa from goin’ hungry.”
Zippy very quietly and watchfully made his way to the food bowls. He scooped as much food as possible into his mouth and quietly but a little more hastily returned to the little gang’s bed in their corner, dropped it under the blanket and sat down. Then without a sound another pup of many breeds came out of the shadows of Dominic’s corner and looked around with much curiosity. The puppy hadn’t noticed him before. After the new face receded into the shadow the pup asked Ace, “Who was that?”
“We cawlla him ‘Leak’ cawse ‘dat’sa awll he does: leak information on us ta Dawminic. He rats us out ta keep fr’m gettin’ beat up. He’sa gwunna getta his one day,” Ace said looking toward the corner very intently.
The puppy saw a newspaper spread out on the floor nearby he hadn’t seen before. “What’s this?” he asked walking to it?
“Newspapah. ‘Dey put it down fwor us if we gawtta do business in da nwight aftah ‘dey get done read’n’ it.” The puppy was looking at it intently. He didn’t know what a coincidence was but he was about to experience one. On the right side of the middle section was a small 2-paragraph article headlined “DOG DISPLACED FROM HOME FIRE”. And it included a photograph of the animal. The puppy was aghast. The article was about Dominic! He looked at the top of the page for the date. 3 weeks ago! He saw in paragraph 2, “An unnamed attendant from The West Bronx Animal Rescue Center said, ‘Dominic was pretty frightened and shaken up but we think he’ll pull through. The fire really terrorized him.’”
He ran back to Ace and asked, “How long has that jerk been in here?”
“Dawminic? Oh, just came in a couple days afta me. Coupla weeks. T’ree, maybe. Why?”
“I’ze jussa curious.” They looked at each other in complete surprise.
“Did you jussa tawlk like-a me?” Ace asked twisting his head sideways.
“I t’inka so. You must be rubbin’ off on me,” the puppy smiled. Zippy had made two more very discreet trips to gather food for the morning.
Then came the Woman with 2 fresh bowls of food. While she went through the process of opening the jail door and bringing the food in Ace and the others whispered among themselves watching her every move. After she'd locked the jail and left the room Dominic emerged from the dark corner of the cell. This time Leak came with him. "Eat!" Dominic barked and walked back into the corner. The puppies all hurried to the bowl to eat as much as they could as fast as they could.
After a few minutes he returned. Ace and his friends all ran to the bed without a yip. The puppy saw him approaching and slowly backed away from the bowl a few steps. Dominic stopped in front of him and stared at him. The puppy stared back. In a move too fast to react to Dominic grabbed the puppy's back by the mouth and hurled him against the bars... again. The puppy got to his feet and stared back at Dominic. The Doberman twisted his head questioningly and finally laughed at him. Then he ate most of the food.
The young one hobbled to the gang's bed where they all circled their dream zones and plopped down for the night. The Chihuahua
...to be continued...
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