A gentle breeze softly rustled the flush green leaves at the playground in Adventure Bay. This soft, soothing sound was soon drowned out by the joyful yips, barks and an occasional yelp from three of the PAW Patrol pups - Chase, Rocky and Zuma. They were all at play, taking turns on the roundabout and the slide.
"Wheee!" yipped Rocky as the grey pup slid down on his tummy.
"Lookit this, dudes!" Zuma called as he held onto the roundabout with his front paws and pushed himself with one of his hind legs, the other keeping him steady. "It's like surfing, but going round and round in cir... in circl... Oooohhh." Zuma faltered as he grew dizzy from how fast he was spinning, and found he couldn't hold on to the roundabout anymore. "Woooaaahhh!"
"Zuma!" cried Chase, as he saw the labrador fly off the roundabout.
"Ooof!" came the reply, as Zuma landed - into my outstretched arms.
"Gotcha, pup." I said softly, gently stroking Zuma as he looked up gratefully at me.
"Nice catch, dude!" Zuma remarked.
"You're welcome." I answered, chuckling as Zuma licked my face.
"Hey, do you wanna play frisbee with us, Luke?" Chase asked, wagging his tail and picking up the orange frisbee with his mouth.
"I'd love to! Who wants to play?"
"I do!" Rocky yipped "Me too!" Zuma barked "Mmmrrfff!" Chase answered, still holding onto the frisbee with his teeth.
I chuckled and strolled over to Chase, gently plucking the frisbee from his mouth. "Go get it!" I called, throwing it as best I could towards the open grassy area.
All three pups ran after the frisbee as I stood next to the roundabout and watched them, Zuma brought it back to me.
"Well done, Zuma!" I commended. "Right, here it goes!"
With that I gave the frisbee a much harder shot, with backspin to make it hover more. It flew right towards the slide.
This time, Chase ran up the slide after the frisbee - I'd seen him do this before. The day that Farmer Yumi had a bad infestation of bunnies at her farm. This time however, it didn't go the way Chase wanted. Half-way up he stalled, running in place as he kept trying to catch the frisbee that was hovering near the top of the slide.
"Huh?"
I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched Chase trying to run up the slide, but his paws just kept slipping out from under him.
"I got it!" Rocky yipped, as he reached the top of the slide and stood on his hind legs to reach the frisbee.
"Hey! What's going..." Chase began, though he didn't get any further as he fell on his tummy and slid down to the bottom. "Ow!"
I knelt down beside Chase and tried my best not to chuckle, clearing my throat as I put my hand on the back of his head.
"Are you okay, little buddy?"
Chase groaned and gingerly stood up, uttering a small yelp and lifting his front left paw off the ground.
"You're hurt!" I cried.
"It's nothing, just a little.." Chase answered, yelping again as he tried to put some more weight on it and immediately lifting it up. "Come over here, Chase." I said, sitting down on the grass.
The pup hesitated, but then gingerly limped over to me and rested in my lap. I gently held his front paws off the ground with my arm and softly stroked his bristly, brown fur.
"We'll have to tell Ryder..." Zuma commented.
"Can you pups go and fetch him?" I asked.
"Sure! Don't worry Chase." Rocky answered, as he and Zuma ran off towards the Lookout tower.
Chase whimpered as he lay in my embrace, and I gently cradled him and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"Shhhh, it's okay Chase." I soothed, softly stroking his back with my free hand.
"That move never failed me before..." Chase muttered, frowning slightly as he looked down at his limp front left paw.
"Can I take a look?" I asked, looking softly into Chase's brown eyes.
Chase turned to look at me and opened his mouth to speak, perhaps to protest - but then he sighed and nodded, stretching out his hind legs so I could inspect his pawpads.
"Hmmm..."
I squinted as I looked over both pawpads on Chase's hind feet, gently running my finger along his left footpaw. Suddenly Chase started to giggle uncontrollably, kicking his feet.
"Hahaahhhaaaa! That tickles!"
"Ooops, sorry kiddo." I answered, with a soft chuckle. This time I ran my finger above Chase's foot, inspecting the fur that grew between his pawpads. Taking my thumb I softly pulled on the fur, like I was sewing a thread.
"What's wrong, Luke?" Chase queried, tilting his head as he looked at me.
I let go of the fur and turned to face him.
"Chase, it looks like you've got a case of 'Sock Paws', buddy."
"'Sock Paws'?!" Chase repeated, "What does that mean?"
"Well... there's fur that grows between your pawpads. If it gets too long, your feet won't get as good a grip on slippery things."
Chase sighed and lay his head on my knee. "So that's why I kept slipping."
"Yup, and there's only one cure."
Chase perked his ear up, turning his eyes to look at me.
"It'll have to be trimmed."
"Great..." Chase pouted, with a heavy sigh.
A minute later, a familiar siren could be heard.
"Marshall?" Chase asked.
"This is the perfect opportunity to test out your new E.M.T truck, Marshall." came Ryder's voice.
"Ryder!" Chase yipped, momentarily forgetting about his sore paw and yelping again as he tried to stand on it.
"I'm here, Chase!" Marshall called, as he jumped down from a shiny new version of his puphouse with a white ambulance-style rear end.
"Hey, now. That's pretty cool." I remarked, gently stroking Chase under his ear.
"Let's take a look at that front paw, Chase. Ruff - X-Ray screen!"
With that a handy dandy tool came reaching out of Marshall's new pup-pack, the screen activating as it scanned Chase's paw.
A moment passed by as Marshall looked over what he was seeing on his viewscreen.
"It's definitely not broken, and I don't think it's sprained either." Marshall answered.
"Then why does it hurt?" Chase cried, yelping softly as he put a little too much weight on his paw and lifted it up off the ground.
"Can I take a look?" I asked again.
Chase looked unsure, "You won't tickle my paws again, will you?"
"I'll really try not to, little buddy."
Chase gently lifted his paw up and turned it over so I could get a better view, allowing me to gently hold it. I had a magnifying glass in my pocket and hovered it a few centimeters above the pawpad on Chase's front left paw.
"I think I found the culprit... a splinter."
"A splinter?!" Chase exclaimed.
"Yup, I think that's what's causing all this fuss. Have you got anything that'll help with this, Marshall."
"Ruff, tweezers!" Marshall barked, with the aforementioned tool coming out of his pup-pack.
Soon, the offending splinter was removed from Chase's paw and he shook his head in disbelief.
"It'll be tender for a little while, but at least it shouldn't hurt so much now." Marshall said.
"Thanks." Chase sighed, though he still looked sad.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I inquired.
"Everyone's gonna think I'm..." Chase faltered.
"What, that you aren't a big, brave police pup?"
"Yeah! I mean, a splinter of all things!"
"They hurt, buddy. There's no shame in that."
Chase breathed deeply and uttered a long sigh, but he raised his head and gave me a smile.
"There, that's better now. Just be more careful until you get those 'Sock Paws' seen to."
"'Sock Paws'?" Marshall repeated, "What's that?"
I chuckled and explained everything to Marshall. Even Ryder had to chuckle.
"I keep forgetting to do that." he admitted.
- The End -