This is the fourteenth entry in a series created by brave kid and me, more of which he and I will be working on together in the future.(Pics of this story's characters are also now available on my blog, the Keeper of the Fun blog!) Please enjoy!(BTW brave kid, thank you very much for all of the story suggestions you've given me. I've had a lot of fun working on these stories with you, and I very much appreciate it. I look forward to writing future stories with you.)

It's a rainy day in New York City. Inside Dot's Puppy Pound, the roof is leaking, and the Pound Puppies and Kennel Kittens are doing all they can to patch it up. "Gosh, this roof's got more holes than Swiss cheese." Squirt says dolefully, as he quickly puts several buckets under the leaks.

"Mr. McLeish has been trying to buy a new one, but he doesn't have the money." notes a concerned Lucky.

Just then, Squeak enters the room, holding a large poster. "Look, you guys, there's a pet talent show being held in town tomorrow. The grand prize is a bicycle, a years' supply of pet food, and 100,000 dollars!"

The dogs and cats faces light up. "Ooh, that's wonderful!" Cupcake exclaims excitedly. "With all that money we could fix the roof!"

"Dot's been needing a new bicycle to help get pets to their perfect people, too." Cookie notes.

"And that food will be the perfect thing for all of the new puppies and purries." Squirt notes.

"There's only one caveat," Lucky muses. "Which one of us should enter?"

"Well, how 'bout me?" Niblet replies, as he balances on a unicycle and juggles a collection of brightly-colored hacky sacks. The big sheepdog wheels the unicycle faster and faster until he trips and flops over, dropping the hacky sacks all over the floor. "WHOOOOAOOOAOO! OOF!"

An unsure look crosses Lucky's face. "Or how about me?" Ace pipes up as he motions toward a small end table with a magician's hat on top of it. "Now, please watch carefully as I prestigadgi-uh, prestigoo-uh, preform an amazing act of magic, yeah!" He reaches into the hat and rapidly yanks out a long string of brightly colored cloth, until he reaches the end of the string, which has a pair of underpants with smiley faces on it(1) tied to the end. "Uhm, Ta-Da?" The other dogs and cats simply look at him oddly.

"Well say, how 'bout me?" inquires Squeak, who's holding a large, slightly beat up-looking accordion. He begins to play the accordion, which groans out a loud WHEEZE-WHONK! WHONK-WHEEZE! causing the other dogs and cats to hold their ears.

Lucky breathes a hearty sigh. "Huh boy, this is going to be harder than I thought!"

Just then, the front door opens and Dot Henderson, manager of the pound and owner of the Puppies and Kittens, traipses in. "Hi, guys!" she greets them pleasantly.

Upon seeing her, Rebound immediately begins hopping up and down excitedly. "She's here, she's here, Dot's here, Dot's here!" The little sheepdog pup then begins dancing around the room, merrily singing:

"I'm so happy, happy, happy that you're home(2),
And I'll never, ever, ever be alone,
Now it's time to have some fun with my perfect person,
There's nothing else I'd rather do that be at home with you-u-u-u!

If I'm feeling down,
I know that you'll come around,
You can lift me up, 'cause I'm you're perfect pup,
There's nothing else I'd rather do that be at home with you-u-u-u!"

The Puppies and Kittens look on in astonishment. "Wow, that was really good, Rebound!" Squeak notes. "You're quite a singer!"

"I-I am?" Rebound replies modestly. "Honestly, I had just made that song up on the spot."

"Folks," Lucky says with a smile. "I think we've found our contestant!"

"Me? Really?" The little sheepdog pup gets a wistful look in her eyes. "Oh bow, oh wow!"

Little did they know, however, that they were about to get some rather stiff competition in this match, because within the prison-like pound Shelter 13, the villainous Milton Feltwaddle's nephew Morton is showing him the poster for the talent show. "And they're givin' out free bicycles as pat of th' grand prize, Uncle Milton."

Feltwaddle scowls dourly. "Oh, of what merit is that? You already have a perfectly good bicycle."

"They're also givin' out a years' supply of pet food." Morton then turns to Feltwaddle's nasty pet cat Scarface Claw, who's standing next to him. "That sound good, Scarface?" The evil cat meows and licks his lips in anticipation.

"Scarface is too fat already." Feltwaddle grumbles.

"But they're also givin' out a prize of $100,000." Morton adds.

An excited grin spreads across the evil pound supervisor's face. "One hundred thousand dollars?! Oh Morton, you and Scarface simply must win that contest! It would be the best thing for me-uh, I mean you!"

"Do ya really think we got a chance, Uncle Milton?"

"Oh, most certainly, Morton! We'll be winning this contest the Feltwaddle way-by cheating!" Feltwaddle punctuates his sentence with a nasty laugh. "Now, Morton, I'd like you to go get your teeny-tiny little bag of dirty tricks."

"Sure thing, Uncle Milton." Morton then dashes over to a closet on the other side of the room and takes out an enormous heavy burlap sack.

(1)Resembling Tubbs' ridiculous looking underwear in the Pound Puppies 1985 special.

(2)She first sang this song in the episode, "Accidental Pup Star."