Scrappy awoke to Dominic’s snoring. He rolled to his belly and waited, looking toward the Office door. Right on schedule the Woman came out of the Office and went outside the play yard entrance for a smoke and some fresh, hot, mid-June heat-wave air. This was as regular as a religious ceremony every night. The best part of all was that she always left the door open! Scrappy pushed on Delbert’s head with his paw. “Delbert! Ace, Zippy,” he whispered them awake. They all stirred with enthusiasm. “It’s twime.” He nodded toward the elevated window with bars above the bed. “Meet yooze uppa there inna da alley by ‘dat winda, huh?”
They each split the food stash equally and ate it all. Then Scrappy reached under the blanket and removed the stolen cigarette lighter and then the stolen cigarette. He lit the cigarette being careful not to draw any smoke whatsoever into his young, tender lungs. He purposely dragged on it hard several times to get it to burn very hot. He walked to Dominic the Doberman’s bed holding the cigarette in his mouth. Ace picked the lighter up in his mouth and led the other two to the cage wall opposite their bed. Zippy carried the rubber ball as Scrappy had instructed him the day before.
Scrappy stopped at Dominic’s bed feeling victorious. He quickly remembered several of the events, pains and injuries both physical and emotional inflicted on him by this monster. Finally! The moment had arrived to demoralize this scourge like never before. While Dominic snored on, Da Scrappy Chihuahua bent down and pushed the burning end of the cigarette against the dry polyester fabric of the bed. He held it still. He smelled the pungent aroma of burning fabric all the way into his tiny sinuses. Then he saw little red embers burn in the edges of the hole that had begun to grow. Then he dragged on it rapidly and blew on it, feeding oxygen to it.
Then it happened. A little yellow flame popped up on the top surface of Dominic’s bed and began to grow. A few seconds later when he was sure it was strong enough to survive alone, he dropped the cigarette in it and turned and ran to join the others. The cigarette paper, filter and tobacco fed the flame while the deep sleeping Dominic snored on. As seconds passed the flame spread. Leak ran out from his bed in the dark corner and began to whine. He bent down to bark but was stopped by a watchful Delbert clamping his jaw on Leak’s shoulder. Scrappy softly barked at Leak, “Don’t doowit! Nawt a woid.”
Finally the flame had become a large, bed-consuming fire. Dominic awoke from it’s heat and smoke and howled in horror. He tried to escape but his injuries hindered him from getting up quickly. Delbert let go of Leak who looked at the fire with great worry. The Woman ran to the cell and unlocked the door in a panic. As the pups had expected she left the door wide open as was her habit at any time. She ran all the way into the corner to grab the terrorized Doberman and carry him to safety in the center of the cell. “Move!” Scrappy yelled to his friends as the Woman ran back to the corner to smother the fire. Ace and Zippy ran through the dog jail entrance. Scrappy stopped halfway to bark at Leak, “Choose! Now!” Dominic saw what was being attempted and barked his anger at the escaping dogs.
Delbert told Leak, “Fawllow Scrap! He wawntsa you out.”
When Scrappy saw Dominic looking directly at him while barking he knew it was time to go. “Delbert, step awnnit!” he barked running out to freedom.
Leak looked frantically between Dominic and the threatening Delbert. “But… but…”
Delbert snarled running toward Leak. Leak instinctively ran both away from Delbert and toward freedom through the cell door. Delbert was right behind him but the raging Doberman caught his shoulders in his jaws and slammed them together with crushing force. Delbert screamed in agony once. Scrappy stopped a few feet from the play yard exit and turned to see Dominic violently shaking the little Beagle pup from side to side. The crazed beast beat Delbert’s now silent body and skull on the concrete floor until the Woman shocked him with that zap-stick. He yelped dropping the dead puppy on the floor and reeled away from her. He tried to hobble out the door but she closed it before he arrived.
Now Scrappy was furious. He turned and bolted out the building exit hearing Dominic barking in angry protest. Scrappy ran along the fence behind the wildly growing bush and crawled down the hole Zippy had prepared. He patiently but determinedly pushed his way underneath the alley and up to the unfenced land where Ace, Zippy and Leak awaited. As soon as he poked his head above the surface his ears were met with the sound of the imprisoned Dominic barking furiously 40 feet away. Followed by his three breakout mates he ran down the alley to the little barred window at the base of the building but high above their former cell floor.
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| Zippy - Scrappy's Gardener, Landscaper, and Undertaker |
He looked in the window and saw Dominic standing in the middle alone, barking and searching. Then Dominic saw Scrappy in the window and charged him, standing on his hind legs and barking in Scrappy’s face. Only the thick iron bars kept them apart. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!" Dominic screamed. "I’ll hunt you down and kill you, you stoopid Chihuahua
Scrappy had lost 3 friends to this dog. He screamed through the bars in his little voice, “Licka mwy rump, you stray!” Then he hiked his right rear leg and let Dominic have it. He gave Dominic the Doberman the ultimate of canine insults. Dominic’s barking abruptly halted changing to coughing, gagging, spitting and clearing his throat. Softly he spoke to his arch-enemy, “Don’t… mess… wit’ Da Scrappy Chihuahua!” Turning away and breaking into a full sprint he yelled, “Twime ta move, bwoys!” Ace, Zippy and a reluctant Leak followed him many blocks down the Bronx alley thoroughly enjoying the rush of their new, long-coveted freedom.
They stopped to rest at a momentarily quiet street. They were out of breath but they were finally free! The only problem was now that they had no more bars and walls and Man ordering their lives, they all sensed the possibilities of much greater dangers in the outside world. But they were free! They had talked and planned and worked so hard for this. And they succeeded!
Finally having caught his breath Scrappy heard the rumbling of a nearby vehicle. He waited long enough to see which direction its headlights came from. "Bwoys," he called for their attention. "We awghtta celebrate our woik tonwight. Let'sa have a quick pawrty!" The other dogs wagged their tails and hopped in agreement. "Zippy, bawll!" Zippy released the rubber ball he had been carrying all the way from the dog jail to Scrappy. Scrappy grabbbed it, listened to judge the distance of the oncoming delivery truck, then tossed the ball between two parked cars into the street.
Leak bolted after the ball out of a second nature. Just as he shot out from between the two cars into the street Scrappy turned his head to avoid seeing what he knew he'd hear: a loud klunk!, "Yelp!", and large skidding tires. Scrappy looked at Ace first, then Zippy. "I trust yooze won't be rattin' awnna ma friends, will ya?" They shook and bowed their heads. "Gwood! 'Cawze yooze da only friends I gawt left now." They heard sirens in the distance knowing the NYSPCA was now hunting them. "Let'sa git." They ran opposite the direction of the sirens.
Eight blocks later they chose to crawl under a dumpster in an alley behind a downtown Bronx Chinese restaurant for the night. For the first time in ages Scrappy slept without interruption from some temperamental windbag's loud snoring. Liberty was something he looked forward to very much.
This ends the 1st epoch of A Scrappy Tale titled "The Rudder of LIfe". A Scrappy Tale will return soon continuing with his pre-mafia days. Join us to see how he built his reputation.
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