Courage for Hire
Chapter 1: A Dog in the House
It was another typical day for Courage, who was in Nowhere town with Eustace and Muriel Bagge on a typical day. For Courage, there was something new in town, a certain pet store opened up with some dog toys for him.
"Oh look Eustace, a new pet store has opened up" said Muriel.
"Yeah, looks expensive" said Eustace who was obviously being quite cheap.
"But Courage really doesn't have any toys" continued Muriel.
"Fine, we'll go into the pet store" sighed Eustace.
As the tree walked in, Eustace was right, things were quite expensive.
"Ten dollars for a toy bone?" cried Eustace, "This is highway robbery!"
"I can assure you our prices here are quite fair and reasonable" said the store owner.
Courage then spotted a large toy bone, the largest he had seen in his entire life, as the pink dog headed over there; Eustace felt it was also quite expensive as well.
"Stupid dog, that'll cost me money!" cried Eustace.
"Oh my, I am afraid Eustace is right" replied Muriel, "you know Courage, you will have to get a job and earn money yourself if you want something you want like this."
"I just wish I could get that now!" cried Courage.
"Sorry, but if you don't have cash with you, I am afraid I cannot give this to you" said the store owner.
About a few hours later, Courage was quite bored, even more than usual. The poor pink dog just wanted that toy bone that was really large.
"Courage, please don't look so depressed" said Muriel as she was busy in the kitchen making some meals.
"I say if that dog wants that stupid bone, he should get a job, and probably be far away from here as possible!" laughed Eustace.
"Well, there are not that many jobs here Courage can do" sighed Muriel.
However, as Courage wasn't so happy in not getting that toy bone, far from Nowhere, in civilization, for the Burtonberger residence, things were not going smoothly either. Poor Cooper Burtonberger, Kat was at him again this time he was running from one of Kat's hi-tech lasers which his father Burt and his sister Millie being quite clueless about Kat's true nature.
"This is getting to be too much!" cried Coop as he ran into his room.
"Get out here now!" roared Burt as he couldn't believe what a mess his fight with Kat had made.
As poor Coop headed outside his room, Kat was pretending to be quite innocent, with Burt quite fuming, and his face red.
"Son, this place is a total mess" said Burt.
"But dad, I was running away from him" replied Coop referring to Kat who was obviously making purring sounds to Burt.
"I don't believe how much damage you have caused here" said Burt, "go clean up this place pronto, and go to your room when you're finished."
As poor Coop went to work to clean up the area, Kat laughed at Coop.
"You may have won this battle, but you will not win the war" said Coop who was using a mop to clean up the area.
After a few hours went by, Coop decided he had enough, the best weapon against a cat was a dog but he knew his dad wouldn't let him just have one from the shelter or the pet store, so he decided to put out an Internet want ad. About a few minutes after Coop had placed it up online, it was then that Courage was on his computer back at his place.
"So, Muriel took the farmer's side?" asked the computer to Courage.
"Yeah, how did you know?" asked Courage.
"I just know these things" replied the computer, "by the way, I spotted a want ad on the Internet that would be perfect for you."
"Yeah, just what is it already?" asked Courage.
"Help, I am a boy name Coop who is having trouble with an alien cat, which no one else believes is an alien but me, I need a dog which will be a big plus you will be paid in dog bones for the job" replied the computer as it repeated Coop's ad to Courage.
"Yeah, that would be okay, I guess I am an expert in going after those sort of aliens" said Courage.
"Yeah, like those alien chickens" remarked the computer, "so why not go ahead and pack your thinks, you are going to need to travel there pronto."
As Courage was indeed doing just that after a few minutes later, Muriel noticed Courage was packing up which he then showed Muriel the job ad that was mentioned to her from the print out.
"Oh my, sounds like it's the right job for you" said Muriel, "well, I am going to certainly miss you having around."
"You mean that dog is finally going to leave?" laughed Eustace as he was going to celebrate with joy.
"Eustace please, Courage got his first job, it will be only temporary, and he'll come back soon" continued Muriel.
"Yeah, in the meantime, I don't want that stupid dog around here, I'm going to setup a security system to keep that dog from coming back!" laughed Eustace with joy.
As Courage waited for the bus to arrive at the house, Muriel gave Courage one more big hug goodbye, which was the right amount of time before the bus arrived at the house.
"Lucky you, we let dogs on this bus" said the bus driver to Courage.
"Yea!" laughed Courage as he hopped right on in.
Yet as the bus started off toward where a certain Cooper Burtonberger lived, a certain Kat was preparing his next plot against Coop, but also typically for world domination. He was quite unaware that a certain pink dog was on his way to foil his schemes, and help turn the obvious tide. Mr. Kat was quite busy contacting his overlords whom were pleased that his presence wasn't detected so far.