Many more days have passed. Hector was enjoying his new hobby so much, he basically did nothing else. Every day all day he was always begging the humans to walk through the books with him. The humans did begin finding it exhausting, but they still found it fascinating too. Hector would go to the bookshelf, climb up it, and knock a book on the ground; then he would carefully climb back down, and either attempt to push it across the wooden part of the floor under the bookshelf and bring it to a nearby human, or usually, because many of the books were large and he was tiny, he would run over to a human and get him or her to pick it up, as the humans by now would know that's a book he picked out. Many of the humans tried to ignore him, but fortunately for Hector, there were so many that worked there, there was bound to be at least a few that would do it, different ones, each day. Chloe had been doing other activities, and actually did not see much of Hector over this time. She kept inviting him to her games, but Hector kept telling her that he just wanted to perform his hobby, and nothing else. Chloe had very few issues with any of the other pups on the farm, so she always had plenty of them to play with. Rumors were starting to go around the farm, that Hector was trying to learn human language. Maximus and Daisy were aware of it, but they couldn't persuade Hector to do anything else, either. For the current time, because Hector was having a hard time fully understanding the random talking of the humans, he chose to just listen to their marking talking. After all, that should be the most important part of learning human language. If he could understand the markings, he could more easily get their regular sounds.
Hector did learn many more sounds the humans made in their jumbled speaking. He learned that the really big soft nests the humans normally slept on were called "beds", the small ones in the room with the piano were called "chairs", and as for the medium-sized ones, he kept getting confused between "couch" and "sofa". The box with the moving pictures was "teevee", the very tall cold box in the food-preparing room was either a "fridge" or "freeze-er-ator", and the large wooden object the humans placed food on was a "table". Hector was also realizing that nearly every time he begged to a human for a book story, he or she seemed to keep saying something like "read" or more like "wamereedieook". Hector decided that this "marking language" could be called "read" or "reading", so that is what he began calling it.
Hector was recognizing the look of 36 different markings. 10 of them appeared to never sit next to any of the 26 others. Two of the markings looked like snakes, and Hector was trying hard to tell them apart with his vision that's not that great. Much harder though, were two other markings. They both usually looked the exact same, but these broke the rule on 10 of them not touching the other 26, and also one seemed more of a circle, while the other was more of an oval, and those are the two reasons why he was attempting to recognize those as two seperate markings. Hector was getting better and better at it, but mostly because the humans were getting so sick and tired of reading the books to him, that they were slowing down their sounds, making it easier to match them with the markings.
With spending so much time with the reading, time has gone by. Hector was taken back to the vet. He spent the night there, and woke up realizing that the "strings" on his face were gone, and so was the cone. That day had passed, and Hector slept in the nest of hay and straw much more comfortably now.
He woke up the next morning to find that all the dogs in the barn appeared to already be wide awake. The barking woke him up. Looking towards the barn door, he could see that the dogs were already exiting, and looking around the nest, Chloe was gone already too. "Is something really exciting happening today?", Hector thought.
A minute later, after Hector stretched and yawned, he noticed a human walking towards him. The human bent down and scooped him up with her hand. She brought him inside the house, and set him on a table. "What is going on today?", he thought, pretending to ask the humans near him. He watched the human that brought him in. She was washing her hands as well as the few nearby humans. Hector heard someone else enter the room, and turned to see Maximus.
"What's going on today?", Hector asked Maximus. "Everyone seems really excited about something."
"Today is a big day, Hector," Maximus replied. "There's going to be training sessions in the play-place."
"Training sessions?"
"That means no...whatever you call your hobby, today."
"Reading books."
"Yeah."
"Is that why you're here? You were looking for me to tell me that?"
"Yes. I saw a human bringing you in here, and...although the humans also also know what's happening..."
Maximus stopped as the humans were approaching Hector. Hector looked at the one who brought him in, and saw she was carrying a small object in her hand, while another human was carrying a damp cloth. Hector realized why she brought him in here. "OH NO! Not THIS again!", he complained in his head.
One human grabbed Hector while the one with the damp cloth wiped it gently across his eyes. Maximus knew what they were doing, and sat and waited for them to finish.
The female human carrying the small object approached and tried to grab Hector's chin, but Hector started to struggle. The humans were trying to calm him in a gentle reassuring voice. "It is NOT okay!", he disagreed with the humans in thought. As the human tried to hold his head back, Hector angrily nipped her fingers twice.
"Hector!", Maximus barked scoldingly in response.
As Hector was whining, she managed to drop the medicine into both of Hector's eyes. The humans let go of him after wiping his paws. They placed him on the floor. Hector continued whining and blinked and rubbed his eyes with his paws.
"Hector!", Maximus ordered Hector. "Stop rubbing your eyes."
"But it BURNS!", Hector wailed. "It STINGS!"
"The humans are only trying to help."
Hector batted his face. "Ow!"
"It will hurt less if you get used to it."
"What?"
"It's probably a daily treatment, son. Learn to tolerate it."
Hector reluctantly stopped touching his face. Maximus walked over to the water bowl, and took a drink. Hector slowly followed as the pain started to go away.
"Where's Daisy?", Hector asked Maximus.
"She's at the play area where we're doing the training sessions. Why?"
"I'm hungry."
Maximus sighed and shook his head disapprovingly. "Hector?"
"What is it?"
Maximus gave Hector a serious look. "You do know you can't just keep drinking your mother's milk, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"She's been tolerating it for you, but your teeth are hurting her. You have to start eating solid food. While you were busy with your "reading", your brothers and sisters were all getting weaned."
"What?"
Maximus walked over to another bowl, and saw that it still had puppy chow in it. Hector followed him. "Here, try this," Maximus told Hector as he pushed the bowl towards him.
Hector looked into the small bowl at the food, and let out a grumble of disgust. "No thank you," he said in disagreement.
"Have you ever tried it?"
"Well...no, but..."
"Then how do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?"
Hector reluctantly bent over, and grabbed a mouthful in his jaws. He squinted his eyes and face at the not-very-good flavor. He gave a grunt of disgust, then looked at his father.
Maximus gave Hector a stern look.
Hector chewed it a little, and swallowed it all slowly, then shuddered.
"Finish up," Maximus ordered. "We'll be late for the games."
Maximus looked up at the humans, and spoke as if saying the same thing. He nodded in agreement, and joined two of them as they headed out. The third stayed behind, and Hector looked at him, and the human was staring down at him. Hector returned the stare, and the human walked to the table, and grabbed a large bag with a scoop in it. The human bent down in front of Hector and the bowl with the big bag, and the human took the scoop and filled up the rest of the bowl with more of the food. When the human got up, Hector looked at the now full bowl with shock, and heard the human tell him to "eat". Hector took a few steps back, and the human put the bag of food back on the table, and sat down on the floor watching Hector.
Hector, now realizing the human will not let him leave until he finishes all the food, and knowing his father is waiting for him, gave a long loud groan of disappointment and anger, and continued eating until the bowl was empty.
When Hector finished eating and drinking, the human picked him up and carried him to the gates. When they reached the gates, Hector heard the sounds of excited dogs. As the human set him on the ground, Hector raced across the grass looking for Chloe.
"All right, all you pups, let's all gather around here!"
Hector heard a familiar voice calling nearby. All the other pups around gathered together in a small crowd in front of the calling dog. Hector spotted Chloe, and padded up to join her.
"Good morning, Chloe," Hector greeted.
"Hi, Hector," Chloe greeted back.
The dog calling was Deputy, Maximus's best friend. Hector knew Deputy was planning on being a coaching dog for this event. Deputy was tri-colored, but most of his body was black. Ranger, Tracker, and Maximus were joining Deputy.
"Good morning, how's everyone doing today?", Deputy announced to all the pups.
"Good!"
"Awesome!"
"Cool!"
The pups around Hector all joyfully answered together.
"All right, pups!", Deputy announced. "Today, we will be having a training day, where all of you will be practicing skills in a fun way!"
"Now, most of you have done this before, but for a few of you, this is new, so we will explain again what we do at this event!", Ranger added.
"In this event, you will be practicing important skills that we dogs all must know well!", Tracker explained.
"Talented tricks!", announced Ranger.
"Agility and sports!", added Tracker.
"And most important of all for us hounds," Maximus added.
"Sniffing!", Deputy finished.
"We will be dividing into four groups!", Maximus explained. "Each of us four coaching dogs will be guiding you through four different stations!"
"We will explain the directions for the activities according to the current station you are in!", Deputy added. "We will rotate until all you pups have had your time in each station!"
The four coaching dogs huddled together and quickly discussed something.
"I sure hope these are not more of those stupid useless games you call fun," Hector grumbled quietly to Chloe.
"Trust me," Chloe assured Hector. "These activities WILL be fun. I've been waiting for this day forever!"
"If it's SO fun, how come I'VE never heard of it?", Hector asked.
Chloe gave Hector an uncertain stare. "Because you were too busy with your "reading" to know anything that's been going on."
Before Hector could reply, the coaching dogs went on.
"Okay, everyone, this is how it will go," Maximus announced. "For tricks, come with me."
"For agility, me," Tracker added.
"For sports, me," Ranger added.
"And for sniffing, the best one, me!," Deputy added.
"Get into your groups everyone! And we will get started!", Maximus announced.
Yips of excitement sounded from the pups as they chose their first station.
Hector looked uneasily at the commotion. "I'll go where you go, Chloe," he told Chloe.
"You know," Chloe told Hector, "When they say "tricks", it does mean, in a way, listening to humans giving you orders."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's the only time they say a single sound, to where you can actually get it. The hard part is memorizing it."
"Well, if I find none of these spark my interest, this one perhaps will at least be better than the other ones."
"Then let's go join Dad."
Chloe and Hector padded up to Maximus. Connor and Cocoa were also on the team. To Hector's shock, Buster, Owen, and Gavin were too.
"Uh...do you think they'll give me trouble...?", Hector asked Chloe.
"Do you want to switch to another team?", Chloe responded suggestively.
Hector nodded, and they picked their way through the crowd of pups. When they got out, they saw that the other teams were already leaving. As they started to trot over to one, they heard Maximus calling and padding up to them.
"Chloe! Hector!", Maximus said. "Welcome to the team! I think you'll like this station Hector."
"The tricks...", Hector slowly started.
Maximus got in front of the small crowd of pups. A group of humans were approaching. "All right everyone, watch me. These are visual instructions."
The pups gathered in a line to watch Maximus. The humans went up to them with Maximus, and appeared to be announcing something too. Then one turned to Maximus, and glanced at the pups to see they were paying attention. The human said a very small single sound. After it, Maximus sat. Then the human said another small sound, and Maximus layed down. Another sound, he rolled over. Another, he played dead. Another he stood up, then barked, then spun around, then jumped, then begged, then sat pretty, then stood on 2 legs, then ended with a flip. The pups yipped in applaud. The human took something out of a small box hanging on his wore pelt after all that, and appeared to feed it to Maximus out of his hand. Then the human petted Maximus's back, and took a few steps back. The human announced something to the pups, and discussed something quietly with the other humans. While the humans were not watching, Maximus stepped closer to the pups, and spoke.
"So, the point here is, a human will speak a single familiar sound, and it will mean a simple command it wants you to do. You have to memorize each sound and its meaning by heart, and perform it when a human tells you to. After you do the simple command, the human may or may not reward you with a treat. But either way, don't just do it for treats. A dog obeys his or her human and does everything it tells him or her to do," Maximus explained. "Easy enough?"
"Yeah," the pups responded.
"It should not take you guys very long to memorize one sound, but don't get mixed up with another similar one," Maximus added. "Some of them will sound much like another. It is your job to know the difference between them."
The humans ended their brief discussion, and walked over to the pups, each one picking a pup up. A male picked Chloe up, and a female picked Hector up, and carried them to different spaces.
When the human put Hector on the ground, she sat down on the grass in front of him. She spoke to him in a gentle voice. One sound she was making sounded the same. Hector was thinking this tiny little sound meant the trick. The human took out a "treat", and held it in front of Hector's face. Hector sniffed it. "She's not expecting me to eat that is she? It probably tastes just like that food in the bowl!", Hector thought in disgust. The human held it up high over his head, and said the same little sound a few times, and Hector looked up at it, not getting what to do. He wasn't sure he wanted it anyway. The human again showed it to his nose, and Hector sniffed it again, then she put it over his head and spoke the sound again. Then did it again. Hector got the feeling she wanted him to keep sniffing it. So Hector briefly stood up on his hind legs, and touched the treat with his nose. She held it there for a few moments, then Hector sat down, and a heartbeat after his rear touched the dirt, the human spoke in a praising sounding voice, and offered the treat to his mouth.
Hector hesitated for a moment. "Oh, okay. But only because it's part of the process," Hector thought in agreement. He took the treat and chewed it. His eyes widened in shock. "Hmm...," Hector thought in interest. "This actually does not taste bad." Hector swallowed it.
The human did the same steps, showing it to his nose, and getting him to stand up, all with speaking the same little sound. When Hector sat down again, the human fed him another treat. The same steps were repeated 3 more times, then Hector got a thought in his mind. "So this sound must mean the word 'sit'," he thought.
After the human praised him, she did the same steps for a sound that Hector believed meant "up", the opposite of sit. Hector knew he was getting the hang of it, and was pretty happy to learn some more of the gibberish language of humans.
This went on for about 45 minutes, and over the time, Hector did realize that the sounds sounded similar to what the humans read to him in the books. He knew this was another step he took forward.
Maximus announced that it was time to rotate, and Hector padded up to Chloe, and they joined the other pups as they headed towards the next station, which was to be agility.
After a minute, they saw that in the open part of the play-place, there was a huge obstacle course set up.
The pups got into another line, Tracker standing in front of them.
"Welcome everybody!", Tracker announced. "Are you ready to jump and climb?"
"Yeah!", the pups excitedly answered.
"Excellent!", Tracker announced. He pointed with his tail towards the obstacle course. "I assure you, this will be the best activity of the day."
Hector looked at the obstacles, and got a hint of worry. While it did actually look kind of fun, his size might be a problem.
"Follow me, pups!", Tracker ordered, and as he trotted over to the nearby humans at the obstacle course, all the pups followed, and made a new line to watch.
As Hector got closer to the obstacles, they seemed enormous compared to his size.
"Watch this, everybody!", Tracker announced.
Tracker placed his paws in position in between two poles, and got ready. A nearby human walked up to him, and blew into a whistle. As soon as the whistle was blown, Tracker sped through the obstacle course like lightning, and the pups watched in fascination as he raced, leaped, climbed, turned, and dashed for the finish poles. He finished the course in less than a minute he was so fast. The whistle blew again, and Tracker, still in speed, trotted over to the pups and stopped to catch his breath.
"So...you see...pups...", Tracker instructed as he was catching his breath, "All...you have to do..., is to do...what it looks like...you have to do."
Murmurs of excitement aroused from the pups.
"Now," Tracker went on, trying to top his voice over the excited pups. "I am not expecting speed at the moment. This is for practicing agility, not speed. I did it fast to show you how fast I can do it BECAUSE of all the slow practice I've had."
"Can we still have RACES though?", Buster asked.
"Yeah, come on Tracker!", added Owen.
"We know WE can learn it in a flash!", added Gavin.
"Yes, we can have races, boys," Tracker approved. "But we start slower, got it?"
"Sure," Buster agreed impatiently.
"Okay, now all of you form a line in front of the poles," Tracker ordered the pups.
Tracker trotted over to the middle of the obstacle. The pups formed an almost single file line in front of the poles, and the whistle blew, and the pups were off. Hector was with Chloe at the end of the line, because he didn't want to get trampled over. The pups first sniffed the strange objects, and climbed on top of them. Hector stayed behind Chloe.
The first obstacle was a triangle-shaped hill, red and yellow, that obviously was meant to be climbed over. Chloe dashed up it with the other pups, but Chloe looked back down from the top, and saw Hector was stumbling over the small ridges on the platform. Buster turned around and saw it too.
"Hey, guys!", he called to Owen and Gavin. "Look!"
Owen and Gavin looked at Hector struggling up the hill, and all three of the pups laughed.
"Runt can't even get past obstacle one!", Owen commented, all three still laughing.
Hector gave them an angry look. Chloe padded down the hill, and stood behind Hector. "C'mon, Hector," she urged to Hector gently, pushing him up the hill.
Buster, Owen, and Gavin, walked down the hill, onto the next obstacle.
When Hector was at the top, he easily slid down the other side, Chloe following. The next obstacle was a cut open foot from a monster.
"Now, we jump through this one," Chloe said. She leaped through the foot easily, then looked back at Hector. "Now you try."
Buster, Owen, and Gavin, stayed to watch in amusement.
Hector took several steps back, and ran to the foot and jumped, but didn't make it through, and after dangling from it for a moment, fell off it.
His three brothers laughed hard at him.
"You're too small, Runt. You can't jump through that foot!", Gavin teased.
As they continued giggling, Chloe padded next to Hector. "Just skip this one, Hector," she encouraged him gently.
Hector nodded and continued.
The next obstacle was a purple hurdle, and Hector looked at it nervously.
Seeing Hector deciding to skip this one as well, they continued their laughing.
"Nor this obstacle!", Owen teased.
Chloe gave them a furious look. The next obstacle was a green collapsed tunnel. "Just go through it Hector," she whispered in Hector's ear.
Hector entered inside the tunnel, but as he took his first steps in there, his three brothers ran in and climbed over him. "Ow!", Hector responded.
"Hey!", Chloe angrily scolded the three pups as they pushed their way through the collapsed exit.
Hector followed, Chloe in front of him, helping him get all the way through. When they got out, there was a tall blue fort obstacle. It was about 10 feet high, and had a very steep rough ramp to climb. Buster raced to the top without a problem, Owen and Gavin following, then all three stopping to watch Hector. Chloe felt the rough surface, and dug her claws into it, and climbed up the steep wall. When she made it to the top, brushing next to Buster, she looked back down, and saw Hector struggling to climb it, but he kept falling over and sliding down. Buster, Owen, and Gavin laughed even harder now, almost losing their breath. Two other pups, older then them, who were still on top of the fort came over to see the sight.
"What's going on?", one of the pups asked, amused.
The other pup looked down at Hector still attempting to climb the wall. "Is that Runt?" Both pups joined the laughter.
Hector got so angry he hurt his paw while batting down on the wall in frustration, adding to the laughter of the bullies.
Chloe trotted down to help Hector. She got behind him, and carefully pushed him up it.
The five bullies at the top of the fort were still laughing very hard.
"What's the matter, Runt?", Buster taunted. "You let your sister do all the work for you?"
"You are such a weakling!", one of the older pups added.
"Admit it, Runt!", added Owen. "You don't belong on the obstacle course!"
Hector finally made it to the top with Chloe's help, hot with humiliation.
"Gee, Chloe," Buster asked Chloe in a flirting voice. "Isn't that already getting exhausting dragging your little brother's butt everywhere?"
"SHUT UP, BUSTER! ALL OF YOU!", Chloe yelled furiously at the bullies, defending Hector.
"Ooh, fiesty!", Buster responded, again in a flirting voice. "Buster likey."
Chloe ignored Buster, and helped Hector slide down the slide on the other side. The next obstacle was a bunch of yellow poles standing in a straight line. Tracker was at the next obstacle, which was a red moving plank that had two sides, the side with the pup on it going down while the other went up.
Chloe felt confused with the poles. "Hey, Tracker!", she called to Tracker.
Tracker turned to see Chloe and Hector. "What's up, girl?", he responded.
"What do you do with these poles again?", she asked.
Tracker ran up to her, and demonstrated going in and out of the poles. "Like that!"
"Ah, I get it!", Chloe thanked.
Tracker nodded, and ran across the obstacle course towards the end of it on the other side where other pups were finishing.
Hector and Chloe ran in and out of the poles as Tracker displayed, and then the five bullies followed, doing the same. The seven pups stood in front of the moving plank.
"You go first, Runt," suggested Gavin in a teasing voice.
Hector ran up the plank, luckily without needing a push from Chloe again, but when Hector got to the top, on the tip of the other side of the plank, the plank barely went down at all.
The five bullies laughed again.
"You're too tiny and light to make the plank move down, Runt!", one of the older pups taunted.
"You can't do ANY of these easy stunts, Runt!", Owen added.
"Will you guys just knock it off?", Chloe scolded them angrily.
"Don't worry, little brother," Buster offered. "I'll get you down."
Hector gulped nervously as Buster sped up the plank, immediately letting it down. When it reached the ground, before Hector could get off, Buster hopped off it quickly, and the plank went straight back up, and Hector flew a few feet up in the air, and tumbled down the rest of the plank. Chloe gasped in fright as it happened, and Hector yelped. The bullies continued laughing hard.
When Hector landed in front of Chloe, Chloe was now even more furious. "I'm telling on you, Buster!", she threatened Buster. "I'm telling Tracker right now!"
Hector got up and looked at Buster with fright.
"Go ahead, Chloe," Buster responded with an evil grin, and in a sinister tone. "But you know that MY mother won't care!"
Chloe's jaws dropped wide in shock. Hector's eyes widened at that line. Buster had always bullied him, had always said mean things to him, but NOTHING as bad as that! That had to be the worst thing Buster could ever have said to Hector. Hector was about to cry, but held it back, wiggling his nose.
"Come on, guys," Buster ordered the other bullies. "Let's finish this stupid course."
The bullies all continued on through the course, leaving Hector and Chloe where they still were in shock.
"I cannot believe even HE would say something like that!", Chloe told Hector.
"He may be my brother, but he will NEVER be my friend!", Hector agreed.
"We need to tell Tracker!", Chloe urged, getting ready to trot towards the end of the course.
"No!", Hector stopped Chloe, "Forget about it!"
Chloe looked at Hector with shock. "What?", she asked.
"Buster will never stop torturing me. None of them. It won't make a difference to tattletale!", Hector assured.
"But, Hector...", Chloe started to protest.
"Let's just stop with the agility," Hector immediately changed the subject, slightly angered. "I'm sick of doing it!" Hector turned around, and stomped back towards the starting position without another word.
After the end of this station, was the sniffing station that Deputy was holding.
Once again, the pups all formed a line in front of the coaching dog, and listened for directions.
"All right, everyone!", Deputy began to enthusiastically announce. "Now, as you may know me as, I am a prankster. During my other teams, I was thinking of a big prank that we could pull on the last rotation!"
Mutters of excitement sounded from the other pups. Hector felt apprehensive about a "prank" that probably would not turn out right for him.
"Okay. Here's the plan," Deputy explained the prank. "You see the master standing over there?", Deputy began, pointing his tail towards the master. "He's carrying a whistle, and when we finish this station game ready to rotate a final time, he will blow into it three times. Not in a row, but once to end the game, once to acknowledge the winners, and once to rotate." Deputy turned and pointed his tail towards giant bushes standing 30 feet away. "See those giant bushes?", he asked turning back towards the pups.
The pups nodded in response.
"Now, we will be rotating with the team playing the sports station, at the pools," Deputy went on. "You all know where the pools are. That's the key to our prank. Okay, here's what we're gonna do." Deputy took a moment to be sure all the pups were paying attention. "On the THIRD whistle blow, we will all QUICKLY sneak inside those bushes."
The excited mutters were getting louder.
"A MINUTE after we are inside the bushes, when the rotating team should be here, in FRONT of the bushes," Deputy continued. "We be sure to listen for their pawsteps as well. They look around, confused of where the rotating team is at, since sports is your next station. We get into a ready position, each of you focusing on one of the dogs..."
A few moments of silence made the pups quiet their murmurs.
"I...easily...shout...out...", Deputy continued. "ATTACK!", he yelled in a very loud howl.
All the pups jumped and yipped happily in excitement to that.
"At which point," Deputy explained back in a mellow tone. "We will all leap out of those bushes...and attack."
The pups looked at each other hopefully.
"Boom! You focus on your target dog, and attack him or her...with the BIGGEST bark you've ever barked...What do you guys think?", Deputy finished with a grin full of mischief.
The pups murmured and nodded in agreement. But Hector quieted it down when he rose his paw to ask a question.
Taking notice, Deputy addressed Hector. "Yes...son of Maximus the leader?"
"Hector," Hector corrected him with a dumbfounded look. Hector had been so busy with the reading, isolated from all the other dogs, he guessed, because of that, even Deputy, his father's best friend, just didn't know his name at the top of his head.
"Right," Deputy remembered. "What's wrong?"
"I know you are a leading coaching dog, and claim to be a great prankster too...", Hector began.
"Oh, yes, I know I have my super positions in the pack, as well as my omega-like positions," Deputy agreed.
The other pups gave Hector a baffled stare.
"But, won't yelling "attack" alert the dogs we are going to attack?", Hector asked.
"What?", Deputy replied, chuckling. He thought for a moment, realizing Hector had a point. "Well, I guess you could say that..."
"Don't listen to Runt, Coach Deputy!", Buster called out to Deputy, and his voice sounding as if he did not worry about getting in trouble.
"Yeah, he doesn't know what he's saying!", added an older pup. Other pups around them began to laugh in response.
"Being the smallest dog, means having the smallest BRAIN!", added another older pup. That caused an uproar in the laughter.
"If he was really smart, he would follow YOUR orders! YOUR ideas!", added Gavin. The uproar was even louder now.
Hector trembled, hot with embarrassment.
"HEY!", Deputy yelled furiously to quiet the uproar. "YOU WILL TREAT HIM WITH RESPECT, OR WE ARE NO LONGER PLAYING THIS GAME!"
The laughter began to silence.
"The next pup who says something like that will...", Deputy continued to scold angrily. His voice broke off at the sound of another voice.
"WHAT IS ALL THE RACKET?", the voice yelled, silencing everybody.
Hector looked towards the voice, and it was Bear. The four feral felines were trotting up to Deputy and the pups.
"CATS?", Deputy angrily spat in response. "What are YOU doing here?"
"Well, DOG," Bear spat back. "We are just here to WATCH!"
"We noticed commotion going on, and had nothing better to do!", added Misty.
"Well, I was doing something, actually," said Bella.
"Yeah, SLEEPING I assume!", Deputy argued. "How did you cats get in here this time? No CATS are allowed in here!"
"We CATS are SMARTER than dogs," bragged Bandit. "We can find a way in!"
Deputy growled angrily at the cats. The cats hissed back. Hector could see that Deputy clearly hated cats, and these cats particularly hated Deputy. They continued a short quarrel. As the quarrel ended, Hector could see that it put the bullies' words behind Deputy, making him forget about them.
"Okay, anyway!", Deputy ended the quarrel, attempting to explain the game. "So, are we going to start this game now? Yes, follow me." Deputy immediately trotted away towards a large rock. All the pups followed.
Buster brushed up beside Hector forcefully, almost knocking him over. "You know," Buster told Hector quietly. "Although I don't agree cats are smarter than dogs, I KNOW even the most dimwitted kitten is 10 times more intelligent than you!" Then he slapped Hector's face with his big tail.
"Hey!", Chloe yelled at Buster. "You clump of dung!"
Buster ignored her and kept going.
The pups gathered in front of the rock, as Deputy leaped up on top of it to address them.
"Okay. Do you see these baskets in front of you?", he asked the pups, pointing to the baskets they were standing in front of. "There is one for each of you. You guys should already be familiar with sniffing, so we are starting the game. Around the play-place, there are hidden items that you will need your nose to find. The way to win is to find the most objects, and place them all in your basket. I will be sitting here on this rock, making sure that you are indeed using your own basket, and not stealing any other pups' findings, so don't even think about it. Now this is important: There are 3 mystery items that will be harder to find than the others, but they will be worth 5 objects. They will smell ONLY like a human, which is one reason they will be hard to find, since humans are everywhere. All the objects are either buried, hiding in or behind something, or other. Does everyone understand?"
"Yes!", all the pups agreed.
"This game will last for the remaining station time," Deputy announced. "So is everyone ready?"
"Yeah!", all the pups agreed.
"All right. On your mark, get set, and SNIFF out those treasures!", Deputy howled. The master, approaching Deputy, blew into his whistle, and the game begun.
The pups were all off, heading towards the pools and the playground.
Buster again brushed up against Hector before he went off to join Owen and Gavin. "Runt, you stay out of my way," he threatened Hector. Hector trembled, but tried to ignore him, running off the other direction.
As Hector was running, he thought about where the mystery items might be. He was thinking he should look in an area that the other pups weren't currently searching in, for his sake, but also in an area that seemed less obvious. They shouldn't be in simple locations if they're worth more points than one. If he could find the mystery items, maybe Buster and his friends would be impressed...almost.
Hector paused to sniff the air, and after a minute, he picked up a familiar scent. Hector thought with sudden appreciation of himself that he used human objects so much, that maybe HE could find the mystery items! He followed the familiar scent, and ended up at the fence surrounding the play-place. The familiar scent got stronger, and he went along the fence searching for its source. In one spot, next to a flower, he realized the human-smelling scent was just under his paws! He dug at the dirt quickly, and after a few moments, he came across a pair of the small shiny jingling objects humans used to open the gates up.
"Wow! A mystery item! And it's the first thing I found!", he thought, proud of himself. He excitedly picked it up in his jaws, looked around to see no other dogs were approaching him, and raced across the open grass back to the basket.
"Coach Deputy! Coach Deputy!", Hector called to Deputy, his voice mumbled, still with the jingling object in his mouth.
Deputy heard him, and turned around to see him, and watched him place an object in the box. Deputy sniffed towards it, and was shocked. "Hector!", Deputy exclaimed. "You found a mystery item? Great work!"
Hector yipped happily, and went off to search for another. He actually managed to find the two other ones as well, not bothering to be too close to the other dogs. The next one was a soft white object humans used when eating, stuck on a branch in a hedge. The third was a circular-shaped object with a hole in its center that humans put into a small box under the "teevee", and it was disguised as a toy hanging on an outward pole on top of a fort on the playground. Hector was exhausted after finding those three objects, and just relaxed next to his basket, while the other pups piled up their findings on their basket, unaware of Hector's findings. Deputy was so impressed with Hector, that he didn't care if Hector stopped. Before they knew it, the whistle was blown, as whistle number one, then whistle number two was also blown.
The humans gathered around the pups and their baskets to see who has won. Buster actually won the game, having found 25 items. A human bent down and petted Buster, and praised him, feeding him a treat. After he got his, all the other pups got a treat as well.
Before Hector, though, the human that first saw that he found all three mystery items first called the other humans to him. All of them looked at the three things, and said something to each other, sounding as if they were astounded with Hector. They all praised him, and petted him. Buster turned towards Hector, seeing that Hector was getting more attention than him, even though HE was the one that won. The humans got up, and walked over to a space, and huddled together to discuss something.
Hector wondered if they were talking about him, seeming so impressed.
Chloe and Deputy padded over to Hector in admiration. "I am so proud of you, Hector!", Deputy praised Hector. "You found all three!"
"How did you do it?", Chloe asked excitedly. "I couldn't sniff out those human fingerprints!"
"Well..." Hector thought for a moment. "There are two things here: one, I use a lot of human objects; and two, more importantly, I guess my nose works really well, considering it was my sight when I was blind."
"Makes perfect sense," agreed Deputy. "And you should do this game with adult sniffers!"
Hector gave an expression of thanks, but it changed to apprehension when he heard an angered voice.
"Hey!", Buster exclaimed, approaching the three dogs. Deputy had not yet congratulated Buster for winning the game.
"Buster," Deputy responded. "I am pretty impressed with you, too."
"I am the one who won!", Buster proclaimed. "I should be getting all the attention!"
"I sniffed out the three mystery items!", Hector bragged.
"Okay, you two, that's enough," Deputy ordered. "You BOTH were amazing." He padded off to have a word to the other pups.
Hector looked at Buster uneasily, and Buster gave him a furious face.
After a few moments, Chloe broke the silence. "Crime doesn't pay, Buster," she told Buster.
Buster growled angrily at Hector.
"Are you not at all impressed with Hector's talent?", Chloe asked Buster.
Buster continued growling at Hector.
"You are just jealous aren't you?", Chloe asked Buster a second question.
Buster bared his teeth at Hector.
"You are too afraid to admit you are as impressed as...", Chloe continued.
"PIPE DOWN, DOLLFACE!", Buster scolded Chloe, and stormed off towards the bushes for the prank.
Before Chloe could say more, or Hector say something as well, the third whistle was blown.
"Everyone, to the bushes!", Deputy ordered all the pups in response, and all the pups obeyed. Hector, feeling happy and proud of himself with this game, was ignoring the bad thought of the prank earlier. He felt he now did something that could impress nearly anyone, so he had nothing to be embarrassed or worried about right now.
After all the pups had hid inside the bush, they waited for the coming dogs.
While Hector was not, Buster was in a spot where he could see out the bush easily. He just thought for a moment that though Hector had asked that question, Deputy never discussed with the team if they were going to yell out "Attack!" or not. He thought he could use this to his advantage.
When Buster saw the rotating dogs approaching, but not close enough yet, Buster yelled out "Attack!", and with the rotating dogs stopping at the strange alarm, Hector took that as the signal, and leaped out of the bush, and barked ferociously, but in high-pitched squeaking sounds, and without another pup in front of him to attack, he tumbled over himself several feet, and hit his head hard on a rock. All the rotating dogs watched the whole thing, and laughed so hard so fast that it took them off their feet.
The other dogs that were hiding in the bushes still, confused if "Attack!" was to be used or not, came out the other end to not be seen, and walked around the bush to the side Hector and the rotating dogs were on.
The rotating dogs were still laughing hard.
Hector got up, and looked at them. He just realized then that Buster was the one who yelled "Attack!". Hector was so in to the sniffing game, he had forgotten about what he had asked Deputy before. He knew Buster did this for revenge on him getting all the attention after the game. Hector felt super hot with embarrassment, humiliation, and he knew that his brief moments of glory were now destroyed.
As the dogs continued to laugh at Hector, Buster padded up to him, and gave him a sinister-looking smile. "You wanted more attention, Hector. NOW YOU REALLY GOT IT!", Buster taunted Hector, then gave Hector a shove that knocked him over. "You're welcome!", Buster added. Buster joined in the laughing, as did Owen and Gavin, after Buster gave them a wink.
Hector, so mortified, so angry, and so uspet from this, before Chloe could reach him, ran off as fast as he could to the gates, which were actually open, and up the hill, and to the currently deserted porch in front of the house, where he stopped and sat in front of the steps, and caught his breath. He picked up several pebbles next to him with his paws, and one by one threw them at the small tree next to the porch furiously. A moment after the last pebble was thrown, Hector began to sob, and broke down crying.
Hector knew that no matter how hard he tried, he would never fit in. "I will NEVER fit in! NEVER!", Hector thought as he cried. "They will never see me as anything more than a tiny odd useless defective runt!"
Hector continued to cry, while the last rotation went on. He did not want to participate in the last station. There was just no point, and he could not take any more bullying.