This story is about how Chloe got Dipstick. I used my imagination of how she got him.
Before anyone leaves me negative comments, I know what autism is and am fully aware of it. I know all of them are effected differently by it. I go to the autism forums and have plenty of autistic friends.
It has been two years since Cruella's arrest. Chloe Simon has worked as a probation officer for four years. She has lived in an apartment since then and got herself a scooter when she had saved up. But there was one thing missing, she needed someone. She was alone in the apartment, had no boyfriend even though she had her boss but they were just acquaintances.
Chloe figured she wanted a Dalmatian. They are very loyal, very intelligent and they need lots of attention and plenty of she figured one would suit her.
After reading a story about how Dalmatian puppies got stolen and Cruella De Vil was going to make a fur coat out of them and they were rescued by animals. The police found them and brought them back to the city. Roger and Anita Dearly were dog lovers and took them all and moved out in the country after Roger sold his game. They bought the old De Vil manor and gutted out the whole inside, rebuilt the inside and moved in. They painted the whole outside white with black spots.
Now that they had over two hundred dogs, they needed to get rid of some of them. Even the older puppies who were now grown wanted to live on their own, have their own life, their own humans.
So Roger and Anita decided to start giving them homes by posting an ad in the paper all over the UK. They were rich people thanks to Roger's new video game so they advertised in different newspapers. People all over the UK were coming and checking out the Dalmatians and adopting one. But the rule was the dog had to adopt them. No human couldn't come and just select a dog and take it. Roger and Anita wanted their dogs to have a good home.
After reading an article about it, Chloe decided she wanted to travel out to Suffolk and check out the dogs and see which one will fall in love with her.
She even called the number that was left in the paper and talked to Roger about their Dalmatians. They arranged an interview and Chloe came out the following week.
She rode out on her scooter on her day off. She saw the manor painted black and white. Just like she saw in the paper. There were lot of Dalmatians, puppies and big ones running around and playing. Chloe pulled up to front of the house and parked her scooter. The dogs were looking at her. Few were even sniffing her. Chloe pet them all talking to them.
She walked up to the door and knocked.
The door opened and there stood Anita holding her baby boy, her second child.
"Hi."
"I'm Chloe Simon and I am here for an interview about your dogs."
"Oh yes Roger told me about you, he went to London to try and sell another one of his games. Come in."
Chloe took a step inside and looked around.
"You have a nice place," she said.
"Thank you."
"I read all about how you fixed this place up."
"Cost us over a million to fix it."
"Wow."
"Roger's game gave us a lot of money. We did not know that game would be so popular but it is. Everyone loves the villain."
"That wretched devil," said Chloe.
"My horrible old boss," Anita echoed. "Do you remember the time she killed that Siberian tiger at the London Zoo?"
"Oh yes, I cried."
"I didn't think she do a thing like that. I can't believe I worked for someone that terrible."
They both laughed. They had something in common.
"Do you want some tea?" Anita asked.
"Sure," Chloe said.
They went to the kitchen and Anita put her son in her high chair. She started making some tea.
"So tell me about yourself, what do you do for a living, do you have any dogs or any other pets?"
"I don't have any pets but I do want one. I am a probation officer and have been for the past three years."
"Why do you want a Dalmatian?"
"I have been reading about them after I heard a story about you guys and the popular game Roger made. They are very active dogs and hyper, need lot of attention and plenty of exercise. I read they are very intelligent and I am that kind of person who needs someone that will keep me company."
"What kind of place do you live in?"
"I live in an apartment in London."
Anita served Chloe her tea. They chatted some more about their lives. Anita told Chloe about her experience working for Cruella.
"Now how did you feel when you found out who Cruella really is?" Chloe asked.
"I was stunned," Anita replied. "Roger sure had her figured out and so did Nanny but none of us knew she was going to kill them. They just didn't trust her and I was the one who was clueless and after they were stolen, Cruella calls me the next day and tells me how bad she feels and I must be crushed. She was even worried about them too and Roger didn't buy it. Nanny didn't either. They said it was bullshit and she was lying and it was her. But they had no proof it was her you see. I didn't even want to suspect her even though she fired me."
"Why did she fire you?"
"I wouldn't sell her the puppies."
"How come you didn't want to sell her any?"
"Roger didn't want to so I took his side and Cruella didn't like it so she fired me."
"So what made you realize she did take them?"
"Well, Nanny and I were talking one day about our two dogs taking off and Nanny was saying she wouldn't be surprised and she has a terrible temper. Our dogs didn't like her either you see the first time they saw her and Nanny said they have a good sense about people. They can smell if you are bad or not."
"Criminals must have a different scent than normal humans."
"Then I remembered my new design and had to look for my portfolio. I found the design and realized she did steal the puppies. Roger and I went to the police and showed them the design and that was the proof right there. They searched her residence and found the Siberian Tiger fur and boy did I feel nauseated."
"That must have been awful for you to go through all that."
"We'll it's all over and behind us. We have a whole new life out here in the countryside. I was thinking about writing a book about our lives with our dogs but then our daughter started to have problems."
"What happened with her?"
"Oh she was babbling and doing everything that normal babies do but then one day, she stopped looking at us, talking, responding, and started doing different body movements and playing with her toys differently. We didn't even suspect a thing at first but Nanny told us she might have autism because she has read about that condition before. Nanny seems to know everything. She even knew Perdy was going to have puppies and then she figured out I was going to have one too. What a surprise."
"What is autism?" Chloe asked.
"It's some disorder in your brain and it keeps you from talking and connecting to people. Our daughter started to throw real bad tantrums and biting us and scratching and banging her head and throwing things. We had to take her to London for tests and she got her diagnoses. Now we have to keep taking her down there for therapy to make her better. It is real hard for three of us. All these dogs, our son, our daughter, the house to take care of. It's just too much so we have to get rid of some dogs. Our biggest worry is people won't want any of our dogs and Roger and I would have to fix them all so we don't get any more puppies."
"We'll I am interested in getting a dog."
Anita picked her son up and Chloe and her went outside looking at the dogs.
"So where is your daughter now?"
"Nanny has her in London at one of her therapies because I knew you were coming."
Chloe kept looking at all the dogs. Then she saw Dipstick. Chloe made a comment about his tail.
"That's Dipstick. He is one of the fifteen puppies."
"Oh the one Cruella stole to make a coat?"
"Right."
"Oh Dipstick you must have had an adventure," Chloe told him. "What was it like escaping from her? Too bad you can't speak human." Then she turned to Anita. "So how old is your daughter?"
"Maria is two and a half years old. She doesn't speak, respond, everything has to be the same for her, her food, her toys, everything. She doesn't play with them the way a normal two year old does. She prefers puzzles, lining up her toys, taking her stuff apart, she plays with things that doesn't involve imagination. Roger and I try and play with her, we play with her toys and have her watch and she mimics our moves. She has made some progress but she has a long way to go."
They kept talking about her daughter and then Anita jumped onto another subject. Their dogs.
"This here is Perdita, my original dog."
"Oh hi Perdita," Chloe said as she kneeled down and rubbed her.
"And she is not to take and neither is Pongo."
"So how did you two meet?"
Anita told her the whole thing. (You have seen the movie so I don't need to explain the details, if you haven't, go watch it)
Chloe laughed about Roger mistaking his dog for Anita's.
"When I saw him taking her, I thought he was some crazy guy who liked stealing dogs. But it turned out he was looking for his own and he thought mine was his."
"How can someone not know what their own dog looks like?" Chloe asked.
"He was a silly guy, that's one of the reasons why I married him. He may be goofy sometimes but he is a real nice guy and I notice how he doesn't let anyone push him around. I saw how he dealt with Cruella."
"What did he do to her?"
"He wouldn't sell the puppies to her and he didn't show any reaction to how she treated him. Boy she treated him bad. Wouldn't shake his hand when they met, made fun of him about his job, shoved him aside when she came in our house when the puppies were born."
"I am so sorry."
"Don't be, she is in the past. Besides, if it weren't for her, we wouldn't be out here with all these dogs and our new house."
Anita introduced the other dogs to her. Chloe was surprised Anita knew every name of each dog.
"You know the names of every single dog you have?"
"It's starting to get hard because we have so many of them, and it's just hard to come up with names for every single one of these dogs."
Then she saw Wizzer. "That's Wizzer right over there, the one with two black ears."
"Why is he Wizzer?"
"When he was a puppy, he liked peeing all over the place."
Chloe chuckled.
"You give your dogs logical names?"
"Roger and I are very logical. We don't understand why people name their dogs and the name has nothing to do with them. We like to name our dogs with something that fits or give them a human name."
"Me too," said Chloe.
"I thought you didn't have a dog?"
"When I was a kid I did and then it died. So how did you come up with the name Perdita?"
"Well she was a lost puppy. My friend and I were out one day and we were heading back and we see this puppy who is hiding in a dustbin. I pick it up and she is all skin and bones. She had blood on her and bruises. It looked like she had been abused so I took it with me. It made me so sad to see a puppy get abused. I took it home and washed it up and my friend went to the store and got some dog food and a dog bowl and we fed her. Of course I took her to the vet and the vet said she will be okay and she has no rabies or anything. He said to feed her plenty of food and he guess her to be about two months old. I never returned her to the original owner, I got her her licence and I gave her a home. I named her Perdita which is Latin for lost. But I call her Perdy for short. I am surprised the original owners never tried looking for her. I figured she probably took off and she got lost or they just dumped her."
"It makes me so mad to see people doing that to their dogs. I don't understand why they can't try and give them homes. The pound would be the last thing I do."
"Yeah me too," Anita agreed. "That' why we could not turn away eighty four dogs."
"But why did you keep them all instead of trying to find them homes?"
"We fell in love with them. Our house was crowded for a while and it did draw us attention from the neighbors. They thought we were all crazy for having that many dogs. But yet none of them heard Nanny shouting when the two men locked her in the cupboard and took our puppies. How could any of of them not see the men?"
"Maybe they were all inside and didn't even look out the window," Chloe suggested.
"Or came outside," Anita added.
Then her son made a mess in his diaper. Anita felt it happening and said she had to go inside and get him changed.
Chloe followed her back to the house. She followed her to his bedroom. It was a big nursery with Paddington Bear painted on the walls and circus animals painted on one side of the room.
There was a crib and a playpen, a changing table, a rocking chair, toys, books, tricycle.
"This is a beautiful nursery," said Chloe.
"Thank you," said Anita.
"I like the paintings."
"I drew them and painted them," Anita said as she put her son on the changing table.
"You are very good. Are you usually an artist?"
"I opened a shop in town and sold my paintings there but then our daughter started having problems, so I don't do it anymore. Now I run my shop up here and the people have to come up and look at the paintings."
"You're not a fashion designer?"
"Nope. Cruella ruined it I suppose. She said I'd never work in fashion again and I tried getting another job but no one would take me. So I had to look for another job and then I decided to use my talent to make a living. I made it with designing clothes so I decided to make it with drawing and painting."
"How long have you been an artist?"
"I started when I was three. Nanny says I started earlier and it was coloring on the walls. I could not be left alone with a crayon or paint brush she said. One time I did it with feces and boy did my dad have a big mess to clean up."
Chloe felt sick. She stuck her tongue out of her mouth and made the "ugh" sound.
"Yeah sorry," Anita said as she finished changing her baby.
"How old is your son?"
"Fifteen months."
Anita pulled her sons pants back up and snapped them shut and continued showing Chloe their dogs. Chloe pet each of them and the dogs circled around her. Dipstick looked at Chloe intently. She had a nice smell on her. But what was the smell?
He followed her around the yard.
Soon, Chloe had to head back to London, it was getting late. Anita told her she would let her know if they have decided to let her have one of their dogs. Chloe gave her her phone number.
That evening Anita told Roger all about Chloe.
"We had something in common, she loves animals, she also hates it how they get treated by humans; dumping them, abusing them, taking your pet to the pound would be the last thing she do," Anita said.
"Where is she from?" Roger asked.
"London."
"London, that's where we lived, remember the times?"
"I do. It was fun but I think it would have been tough living there with seventeen Dalmatians. The puppies would have grown and the house would have gotten too small."
"What does she do for a living?"
"She is a probation officer and we discussed our lives. I told her about my old job and Cruella and then my new one."
"Let's have her come back and she can keep spending time with the Dalmatians," Roger said.
So Chloe kept coming back and spending time with the Dalmatians. Dipstick took interest in Chloe and she took interest in him. He liked following her around and putting his paws on her when she be sitting down.
"I think I really like this dog," she said.
"And I think he picked you," Nanny said.
So Dipstick was adopted that day. All the dogs, Nanny, Roger, Anita and their kids, watched Dipstick leave on Chloe's scooter. The dogs barked after him saying "good bye" and wishing him luck with his new human.
But Dipstick is going to get lonely and would want a partner of his own but that is another story.