Content: Indian in the Cupboard series & 101/102 Dalmatians; Parody/Fantasy; Rated K-plus for mild peril.
Summary: This story is a parody of the Aesop's fable "The Gardener and His Dog." I wanted to make it a crossover, so this is the best way I could think of doing it.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Gigigue and Daria Morgendorffer for beta reading my story.
Omri, Patch and the Watering Can
In a town in England, there was a boy named Omri. He had a magic cupboard that he and his best friend Patrick used to bring plastic figures and kids' meals' toys to life.
One Friday afternoon, after Omri and Patrick watched the animated movie 101 Dalmatians, Patrick told Omri that he wanted to bring his 101 Dalmatians toys to life.
"Why?" Omri asked his friend.
"Because I wanted to know, if they were to communicate with us, whether it would be in English or barks."
"I suppose that's okay. But on one condition."
"Which is…"
"That we only bring to life Pongo, Perdita, and the original 15 puppies."
"Deal."
"Do you know which puppies are the original 15?"
"Yeah, they're numbered 1 through 17."
"Good. The moment we find out whether we can understand them, they're going back. We don't want their humans to worry."
"Okay, okay," Patrick said stubbornly. So Patrick ran back to his house to get the plastic Dalmatians.
"I better check on my plant," Omri said to himself as he was leaving the living room. For the past two months, Omri had been growing a lima bean plant for school. He hasn't needed to water it since he potted the plant, and he wanted to know whether it was dry enough to get the watering can.
Omri entered his bedroom and walked over to the windowsill, where the plant was. "No, I don't have to water it yet," he said.
When Patrick returned, he put all the plastic dogs in Omri's cupboard. Omri locked the cupboard and quickly unlocked it. When Omri opened it, all 17 of the plastic Dalmatians came to life. When the Dalmatians saw the giant boys, some of them were scared stiff, others growled.
Omri explained the situation. "You're famous around here because your story was made into a movie. In the movie we hear you speaking to dogs and other animals in English, but the humans could only hear barking. We wanted to find out whether we hear you speak in English or only barks."
"Oh, boy! We're in a movie!" the puppy named Lucky exclaimed.
"Lucky, quiet! Why should we trust them?" another puppy named Patch said.
"I knew you'd speak English!" Patrick said.
Pongo and Perdita, the Dalmatian parents, said that they trusted Omri. Omri asked all the Dalmatians whether they were hungry. The puppy named Rolly said, "Yes!" and eventually all the other puppies said, "Yes!" So Omri fed them wet dog food. After Patrick told Omri that he had a lot of questions for the dogs. Omri said that the best way to ask the number of questions Patrick had was to bring the toys to life once a day. Little did they know how much trouble one puppy in particular would be.
The next day, Saturday, Patrick was in Omri's bedroom asking the Dalmatians more questions. When Omri walked into his bedroom, he saw that the top inch of soil was completely dry.
"It's time for me to use the watering can," he said.
"To use as a shower for the dogs?" Patrick asked.
"Very funny, Patrick."
"I wanna get wet! I wanna get wet!" Patch exclaimed over and over. Then the other puppies were saying the same thing.
"No, children," Perdita said firmly.
All 15 puppies moaned.
"I'm going down to the shed."
With the watering can in his hand, Omri went back upstairs and entered the bathroom and walked over to the bathtub. He placed the can underneath the tub's faucet and filled the can. Then Omri saw his mother stand outside the hallway.
"Omri, Patrick," she said, "it's time for lunch."
Omri set the watering can next to the sink and left the bedroom.
After lunch, when Omri returned to the bathroom, he saw that next to the watering can was one of his toy fire trucks. "How did this get in here?" he asked. "Was it one of the Dalmatians? It's only logical. What's a fire truck without a Dalmatian?" Then he looked in the watering can and saw that there was a tiny Dalmatian puppy drowning in it. It was Patch!
Omri put his hand into the can and pulled poor little Patch out. But while Omri was holding him, Patch bit him on the thumb. "Bad boy!" Omri said. "If that's your idea of gratitude, I'm sending you and your family back to your world right away. And so Omri abandoned the watering can and rushed to his bedroom. He explained the situation to Pongo and Perdita, who scolded Patch. Pongo told Omri to feed everyone except for Patch.
"Can I have Patch's helping?" Rolly asked.
"No!" Pongo shouted.
Omri fed all the Dalmatians except Patch and locked them in the cupboard. Then Patrick walked into the bedroom.
"What are you doing?" Patrick asked. "I had more questions for them."
Omri unlocked the cupboard. The Dalmatians turned back into toys. "Patch has been bad, and I think this is a fair consequence, and so did Pongo and Perdy."
Moral: Don't bite the hand that feeds you!