"Son, if you keep this up, we'll have to put you in mental therapy," joked Roger's father, Jason Klotz, totally unaware there actually was a talking dog. He tucked his son in and held up a teddy bear. "You want your Pooky-bear?"
At first, Roger said, "NO!" and punched the bear out of his dad's fist, but once he had it beside him, he dropped off into a deep slumber...
Roger found himself falling out of the sky. He landed in a room full of caged animals.
He was in an animal shelter!
"Oops, missed one," said a shelter employee, tossing Roger into a vacant cage and locking it so he could not get out of there.
"Hey, looks like we have a new neighbor!" someone shouted.
"Who said that?!" Roger asked nervously, looking around.
"Over here," said another voice.
Roger looked in the cage beside him and found Ren the Chihuahua and Stimpy the cat. How they ended up here is a total mystery.
"Hey, get out of here, ya Nicktoons!" Roger yelled, mean on the outside, but getting tense on the inside. Sort of like how a rare steak hides it redness on the inside with hot and brown on the outside.
Stimpy farted.
"Stimpy! I swear to God!" said Ren disgustedly, trying to fan the smell out of the cage. "I thought I told the owner to separate us!"
"I'm warning you!" Roger's voice cracked.
"Hey, shut up! I want to watch TV!" Roger looked in the cage under him and saw the mutt from the park, and it had snuck a wind-up portable television into its cage.
"Stop it! Right now!" Roger warned as he tried to keep his voice steady.
"SHUT THE HELL UP, KLOTZ!" barked a parrot that was residing right above Roger.
Roger broke out of his cage and ran out of the animal shelter screaming and crying.
Roger woke up with a mixture of sweat and tears on his face and pillow.
It was 5:00 in the morning, not even dawn yet. It was still very dark outside.
Roger, unable to fall back asleep, decided to get up and get a before-breakfast snack.
Dawn broke outside as he made himself some milk and cookies.
Jason walked into the kitchen to make his morning tea and noticed his carrot-top son at the table nibbling at oatmeal cookies.
"What are you doing here?" his dad asked, smiling. "You don't need to get up for at least two hours!"
"I had a nightmare about TALKING ANIMALS!" blurted out Roger, still a little frightened.
"Oh, the nighties, eh?"
Their conversation was briefly interrupted when the teapot emitted a shrill whistle, then began to whistle "Forget Your Troubles, Come On, Get Happy," and Jason had to run over and attend to it. (Yes, things like this happen on a regular basis in the cartoon world of Doug.)
"Yeah," said Roger, dunking his cookie into his milk.
"I hate the nightmares!" Jason poured the tea into a cup, and took a long sip. "Well, when you're finished with that, you should try to go back t ok sleep for a little while longer. Then you can get up and get ready for church."
"Church?"
"Son, we always go to church as a family on Sunday morning. Remember?"
After he said that, the teapot promptly began to whistle "Some Sunday Morning."
"Awwww," groaned Jason, burying his face in his hands. "Maybe I should've worded that sentence a little differently."
Roger finished his cookies and milk. "I'll take care of it, Dad," he said, getting up from the table. "Shut up and cut the show tunes, jackhole!" And with that, he knocked the teapot off the stove. It broke and shattered all over the floor, but at least it faltered whistling when it did.
Wow, he's cranky today! his father noted silently. "Uh, son, maybe you should go back to sleep," he said to his son aloud. "Then you can get up and get ready for church.
"All right," said Roger, putting his dirty plate and glass in the dishwasher, "as long as they're aren't any TALKING ANIMALS THERE!" Then he ran out of the room and up the stairs, causing his father to raise an eyebrow suspiciously.