Hunter fell wearily onto the couch in the Dalmatian living room.
Soon, two Cubs just as exhausted as he jumped with a bit of difficulty onto the couch and proceeded to lie on top of him.
He, in the company of these two puppies, had finally finished doing the day's chores at the 101 home on Dalmatian Street.
Now, as expected, they were extremely exhausted and their tired bodies only demanded rest.
"How ...?", Hunter heard Dan exclaim in exhaustion as he lay on his chest, "... how come Dylan and Dolly can do this every day ..., and still have the energy to do anything else?"
That was the million dollar question, Hunter also had a hard time understanding how those, Dylan and Dolly, could do all the chores in this home full of dogs ..., just the two of them.
"... they're monsters, "Hunter barely heard the quivering muffled whisper of Dixie who was lying face down on the section of his tummy.
Hunter and Dan found themselves nodding silently, both too tired to speak or bark, and fully agreeing with what Dixie had mentioned. Those, Dylan and Dolly, could not be anything other than tireless monsters to be able to do all the chores of this household together.
And even with that, Hunter suspected that the more monstrous of those two cubs was the one that went by the name Dylan.
As long as he had to supervise them, he would be the most demanding that he could be with everything they had to do, and never being completely satisfied when they finished, even going so far as to join them just to show them how things are done well or how is that someone so as wise as he in the art of cleaning would have done if he were in his position.
Whereas when Dolly is in charge of ... "supervising" them, it would be more annoying than anything else, falling asleep and making unnecessary and mocking comments here and now, never really caring if they did an exceptional job or even good enough.
In short, she would just rest in the closest comfortable place and make fun of them, 'the punished', while "supervising" them.
That puppy knew how to be as unbearable as possible when she wanted.
and while Hunter found both Dolly and Dylan unbearable in their own ways.
Dixie and Dan always came to prefer Dylan's presence over Dolly's when it came to unpleasant tasks.
He quickly and happily helped Dixie with a few helpful tips on how to treat her sensitive nose whenever she had problems that might arise from it.
Wearing a mask, or just trying to think of anything else that will help distract her from picking up nasty stuff like poop or vomit, was his advice.
Dixie at first quickly set out to follow Dylan's advice to the letter, not wanting to appear a worthless one who couldn't help, she did her best to distract herself while helping her brother Dan and Hunter to put together anything that stinks, always thinking about the fragrance of the flowers or whatever else she thought was nice to smell.
This did little to help her.
The smells were too intense! She always tried to avoid them in any way possible before being grounded.
That was the reason why whenever Disel was close, she would turn around and retreat as far away from him as possible. Diesel stank of many different things and made his nose ache whenever she caught its scent.
This, of course, made her very sad and made her feel worthless.
She really wanted to help her brother and Hunter ... But, her silly nose was too sensitive and it made her run away almost by instinct whenever she found something with an intense fragrance.
Dolly just shrugged and told her not to worry about it, and to let her brother Dan and Hunter take care of those things for her.
(Flashback)
"Meh, don't worry about it Dixie. Just let the peanut squad over there take care of it."
"We can heard you!" Dan exclaimed annoyed in Dolly's direction as he and Hunter did their best to clean up an ugly brown vomit stain that had dried at the end of the hall.
(End of Flashback)
This, of course, did little to help her. She just didn't feel good when she couldn't help her brother to do anything ... Her brother was always there for her no matter what ..., it would be fair that she too was there for him.
At least Dylan, contrary to his carefree stepsister, tried to help Dixie with her problem with some advice.
Dylan, after noticing how sad Dixie was feeling, gently approached her and told her that it was completely normal if he couldn't bear those kinds of smells, and that actually, he had a very similar problem when he was younger, And it had taken him a long time to get used to those kinds of stinky smells.
she, of course, didn't believe anything as she watched him silently and incredulously.
It was very difficult for her or any other puppy to imagine someone as organized as Dylan having trouble cleaning.
For her and Dan, Dylan had somehow been born from the very beginning knowing absolutely everything about how to organize and clean whatever he wanted.
It was very difficult for someone like Dixie to imagine Dylan having the same problems that she has when it comes to cleaning up unpleasant things.
She still remembers how she had only smiled and nodded at his every word as she proposed to follow her advice.
Lie or not, Dixie thought. Dylan didn't seem to have bad intentions, so she didn't see any problem in following his advice.
His quick tips proved very helpful and now she was better able to help her brother and Hunter a lot better with housework.
Doing all the housework really started to open the eyes of both puppies as they understood how much their older brothers Dylan and Dolly actually did for them every day.
Telling bedtime stories, cleaning everything up when they're done playing, keeping up, taking them all out for a walk, etc, doing all of those things in one day must really have drained a lot of the free time Dolly and Dylan had to enjoy their own hobbies.
With that in mind, Dixie and Dan came to a silent agreement on their second day of being grounded, and they set out to help Dylan and Dolly more with housework from now on even when they stopped being grounded.
His older brothers did too much for all of them.
If Hunter decided to join them in this, it would be like a hundred times more incredible.
He was much smarter than anyone would have thought.
Seriously ... Hunter, he was a completely different person than any of them had come to know when a screwdriver or any kind of tool came into his hands.
The form and time it took him to disassemble and improve the kibble dispenser left both Dylan and Dawkins with their mouths wide open.
It was a lot of fun to watch for Dan.
"¡Tell mom about that, Dawkins!"
When asked why he did it, Hunter just shrugged, grab his two assistants into his arms, and continued to do the next part of his chores on the second floor ... in total silence.
The truth is that Hunter only did it because he could not bear to see so many errors in a machinery together, that thing looked like it was about to explode at any moment in Hunter's eyes every time he had to use it every morning just to serve them breakfast these Dalmatians.
He had already drawn up the plans for a croquettes dispenser much more efficient than the one in the home of the Dalmatians in the past, when he wanted to uselessly impress his great-aunt by proudly showing her the inside of the container that he had designed where all these 99 puppies would be well treated while they were carefully transported to Sweden.
The same container ..., full of his inventions where he would be locked in total solitude for six months.
Hunter was silent throughout that day as with his distant and cold eyes, did the chores of the Dalmatian household in the company of Dixie and Dan.
He had just optimized the kibble dispenser out of sheer instinct. In that container ..., that machine that he had happily created was the only thing that kept him from starving ..., when he could not bear it anymore and began to eat kibbles between tears and laughter.
That was the precise moment when Hunter's mind began to fragment.
The moment he saw himself more as a faithful pet rather than a true family in the eyes of his great-aunt.
That night, he fell asleep on the Dalmatian sofa with the constant fear that his nightmares would surely haunt him when he closed his eyes, taking him back to that container so that he could remain even longer in total solitude.
He had no nightmares that night.
He quickly found out why, when he got up and was amazed by the incredible and very gentle number of dogs he was buried with.
Apparently, not only two puppies sleep on the couch.
Hunter discovered it on his fifth day.
Unknown to Hunter, while he slept that same day in hopes of having horrible and not at all pleasant nightmares, Dan and Dixie managed with some difficulty to convince some of his many brothers and sisters to sleep on him, becouse they thought it was bery cold, and he didn't stop shaking in his sleep, not letting them rest in peace.
That was the excuse they gave him.
The truth was that some puppies were very grateful to Hunter for having improved the kibble dispenser, causing some of them to show their affection in the only way they could to someone as melancholic as Hunter almost all the time.
A hug
many of them still couldn't show their affection as openly as they were usually used to when it came to Hunter.
Many cubs still avoided him or ran away as soon as he was around, Hunter didn't seem to mind as he just looked away, but Dixie and Dan, on the other paw ...
... They cared, they really care a lot and had no qualms about showing it by spending most of their little free time in Hunter's company to make the other cubs understand that he was completely harmless.
They were glad that their efforts have had a positive results.
from that day on, Hunter would go to sleep alone in the company of the two of them, but when he got up, he would find himself buried in a pile of puppies that grew bigger and bigger with each passing day.
Dan had to contain his desire to laugh like an evil genius, his master plan had had the results he expected!
(To be continue)