Man, the Milwaukee Bucks are really hot right now. They just swept the Miami Heat and are heading to the second round! They're gonna be facing the Brooklyn Nets, the best team in the NBA. It's gonna be a crazy series...and it's definitely going to seven games. Oh, and by the way, stay tuned for some...not so innocent, lovey-dovey romance between our two couples later in the month. It'll be interesting, let me tell ya. Anyway, this story is a little long for a "short" story entry but here it is!

the sugar cookie incident

written May 24th to May 31, 2021

It was a warm, midsummer night at Jake's Mountain. The pups decided to do something that they haven't done as a group in a long time: camping. It was a perfect time, with it being summer. Work was piling up, and the dogs needed a weekend to let their bodies rest and catch up with nature. The pups were all sitting amongst themselves by the fire, trying (and failing miserably) to scare each other with ghost stories. At this point, all the smores have been gobbled up, but Ryder had other plans. He secretly got them plans for dessert before they headed up to spend the weekend in the evergreen-laced woods.

"Ok, pups, I got you a little something for each of you. Be sure to thank Mr. Porter for making these when we get back." The boy spoke as he handed all the pups a small rectangular box. Their noses were filled with an aromatic scent that they couldn't deny. They all opened their respective boxes to reveal a surprise: cookies. But they weren't ordinary chocolate chip (it's a well known fact that chocolate is poison for dogs). All the canines gasped in surprise at what they saw, but three of them couldn't contain their excitement over what kind it was.

"SUGAR COOKIES!" Marshall, Everest and Rubble exclaimed in happiness. The trio didn't have to think twice as they started to chow down on the contents of their boxes immediately. The other pups and Ryder laughed at what they saw.

"Dude...all three of you are gonna get sick if you eat that fast." Zuma chuckled.

"I don't even know how they can even eat those things." Rocky observed with a hint of disgust in his tone.

"Sugar cookies? Don't mind if I do." Chase acknowledged as he 'calmly' took a bite of his cookie.

"Honestly, I could go for one. I burnt all my smores because I was listening to Chase's awful storytelling." Skye joked.

"Oh, that's your excuse?" The german shepherd replied back. The dalmatian, bulldog and husky already tore through their respective boxes of cookies. Marshall and Everest were completely filled up and couldn't have another bite.

"Uggghhhh...my stomach hurts." Marshall groaned.

"Me too...but I couldn't pass up the pink frosting rainbow..." Everest replied slowly.

"I can go for another box! Hey, can someone lend me theirs? Come on!" Rubble said eagerly, his stomach not even half-full yet. He had an appetite that was famous amongst the pups but had a deep cost against Ryder's budget.

"Yo, dude, have my box. I don't plan on eating mine." Rocky responded as he handed over his rectangular box. The bulldog cheered as he began to munch on his friend's cookies. "Hey, I wanna start a debate on sugar cookies themselves. I'll start. I can't eat sugar cookies. They taste terrible. They taste like cardboard." The mix spoke, gagging at the thought.

"I agree, dude. I only ate them, like, once. And I threw up that shit in my bowl, man. It was awful." Zuma asserted.

"Well, I don't care. You eat like one or two. You eat three, you'll get sick. That's why I'll eat just a few." Chase answered.

"I'll eat a couple of them, though. Sometimes, I need sugary junk food in my life, and this is a very easy way to do it," Skye replied. "And it seems that our three fellow eaters on the other side seem to enjoy sugar cookies on the other paw much more than us." she concluded.

"And that's a fact! These cookies are literally crack. They're super addictive. I had like two six-packs of these things on my first Christmas Eve and never looked back." Everest elaborated with a smile.

"You said it, Everest! These cookies are the BACKBONE of our nation. This great country can't survive without it! Myself included." Marshall grinned.

"Bruh, I don't mind sugar cookies much. Smores just haven't filled me up much, so I got a good substitute." Rubble spoke as he munched on his dessert. That was when the dalmatian saw something rather...odd. And peculiar.

"Hey...Skye...he's eating sugar cookies…" Marshall whispered to Skye.

"What about it? I don't see anything wrong with it." Skye answered as she took note of her boyfriend's actions.

"You remember when we were super little? The time when he ate so many cookies and blamed us for it?" Marshall smirked. Her eyes lit up as she remembered it. It was a rather embarrassing moment for Chase that the german shepherd forgot somehow. But the dalmatian and cockapoo, his two best friends, would not let him.

"Oh my god...I remember that...let's roast him about it." Skye grinned with an evil smile.

"Say, Chase, you are enjoying those sugar cookies, huh? Liking the yellow frosting on them?" Marshall asked loudly.

"Yeah, these are pretty good." Chase acknowledged.

"You have a history with sugar cookies...and not a very good one, to be honest." Skye giggled. Chase looked at her with a confused expression. Then, it came back to him. The moment when he nearly lost his two friends. All for some cookies. He began to sweat profusely.

"Oh no. Don't bring that up…" The german shepherd groaned.

The other four pups' eyes widened with curiosity, while Ryder laughed to himself. The boy remembered this event fondly, as this was one of his first experiences with the german shepherd.

"Oh my god, what did he do?" Rocky asked, a smile growing on his face.

"It's...uhh...pretty embarrassing." Chase sighed, with his ears drooping.

"I don't know what's more embarrassing. You singing Ricky Martin and Kane Brown in the shower or stealing my swim cap when I was seven." Skye spoke with an evil grin on her face to her beloved.

"Oh god, please stop..." Chase whimpered as he covered his face with his paws in embarrassment. The pups and Ryder laughed at this.

"It's a pretty funny story. It happened back when it was just Chase, Marshall and I on the team. We were, like, 4 or five dog years old...we were so young. This was literally just a few days after I joined the PAW Patrol, actually." Skye reminisced. Rocky, Zuma, Rubble and Everest listened intently as the cockapoo recounted the story of... The Sugar Cookie Incident.

This is gonna be a long night...The german shepherd thought to himself.

12 DOG YEARS AGO (about 10 months in human time)

The PAW Patrol was...not even the PAW Patrol that we know just yet. Ryder was still the leader. Chase, Marshall and Skye were the only pups on the team at the time, and they were very young. The cockapoo, impressing Ryder with her flying ability, was granted a spot on the team just a week ago. The three pups became best friends rather quickly, and after a great week of excellent rescue work, Ryder wanted to give his pups a reward.

"Ok, pups, I have a surprise for you three for doing so well in your rescues recently." He spoke proudly.

"Oh my god, what is it? Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" Skye asked the boy.

"Is it a new chew toy?! Is it a new, shiny bowl for each of us?!" Chase asked excitedly.

"Isitnewpuptreatsthatnobodyonearthhastriedyet?!" Marshall blurted out. The others looked at him with blank expressions.

"These are from Mr. Porter. You can have two of them. Each." Ryder spoke as he gave them a small, rectangular box. The trio opened it excitedly, and low and behold, six sugar cookies sat, awaiting to be eaten.

"COOKIES!" The pups cheered as Ryder left the room.

"MINE!" Skye shouted as she grabbed the box with her mouth and tried to run off with it. Chase and Marshall got in front of her just before she got outside of the lookout.

"Woah, woah, woah. Nuh-uh. Not so fast. Remember what Ryder said. We have two of them. Each. All of us get two. Just hand both of us the two cookies. Seems like somepup doesn't know how to share." The german shepherd reminded her.

"Yeah, Skye. Like Barney says, sharing is caring!" Marshall preached. The cockapoo gave the dalmatian a confused look.

"But I don't care." Skye spoke blankly as she ate two of her cookies in no time flat. When the cockapoo wasn't looking, the fire pup took two of the cookies for himself and ran off. Chase and Skye stared at each other, with the two remaining cookies lying underneath them. Skye reached down for one of them, only to be stopped short by the german shepherd's right paw.

"These are mine. You had your cookies. Now I get to have mine." Chase spoke.

"What?! Those are MY cookies. I touched the box first!" Skye retaliated.

"The rules are the rules. And I help enforce them." The police pup spoke, slightly growing irritated.

"You're not the boss of me! Those are my cookies!" Skye shouted in defiance.

"No,they're mine!" Chase retorted.

"MINE!"

"MINE!"

The two were shouting and arguing over the two remaining cookies when Ryder saw what was happening. They were in each other's faces now, and with one wrong move, there was going to be a fight.

"Alright, alright, break it up, you two! Marshall, can you help me explain what's going on?" Ryder asked as he had to separate Chase and Skye, both growling at each other with nasty looks in their eyes. The dalmatian stood a distance away from the two, as he didn't want to get between them.

"Well, Skye tried to run off the cookies. Me and Chase stopped her and tried to tell her that it wasn't fair. She didn't listen. I got two cookies when she wasn't looking. Chase tried to tell her to not eat the last two cookies, the two got into a shouting match and, well, she's simply not being fair to my best friend." Marshall spoke as he put a paw around the german shepherd's back.

"I see...Well, Skye, it seems like you need to learn a bit more about sharing." Ryder remarked. Skye groaned as she and the boy left the lookout to talk things over.

"Hey, thanks for sticking up for me." Chase smiled with relief.

"No, problem, buddy. That's what friends are for." Marshall replied as the two hugged it out.

"And THAT's the closest time I ever came to punching a woman." Chase acknowledged. The four other pups gasped.

"Woah, dude...that's a bit messed up." Zuma spoke.

"If you were there, and if Ryder didn't break it up, it would have gotten pretty ugly." Marshall added, cringing at how accurately he remembered that day.

"So, when's the embarrassing part? I wanna hear where Chase takes the massive L." Rubble asked eagerly.

"Anyway, the next day after that, Ryder got us a new batch of cookies, and he put it on the top shelf of the kitchen, where we couldn't get them unless we asked him first. The day after that, Ryder noticed something mysterious…all of the cookies were gone." Skye foretold.

"I wonder who did it…" Everest pondered aloud, giving an evil smirk to the german shepherd.

"Ryder got us a new batch of cookies the very next day. He assumed that Marshall did it, because he LOVED sugar back then. It was basically cocaine to him." The cockapoo smiled.

"Oh, god. I remember the first time I had sugar. Ever. Ryder gave me and Chase a full cage of sugar, and next thing you know, I got a massive sugar rush and crash head-first into a tree. Fun times." Marshall grinned.

"And guess what?! The next day, the cookies are gone. Again!" Skye announced.

"Really liking the buildup of the drama, girlfriend!" Everest cheered to her best friend.

"Thanks, girlfriend!" Skye shouted back.

It happened yet again. The cookies have disappeared overnight for the second night in a row, and the young fire pup was the first to notice the next morning. He quickly ran to Ryder, who was in the garage, with an alarmed expression.

"Ryder! Ryder! Ryder! The cookie bandit has struck again!" Marshall cried in sadness. The boy got out of his ATV and had a mix of confusion and suspicion in his eyes.

"Again? Geez...I know at least ONE of you has been eating them…" Ryder groaned as he got into the kitchen and looked at the rectangular box's insides. Sure enough, every cookie was gone. He quickly summoned Chase and Skye through their pup tags and sat them all down for a meeting. "Now, I think you all know why you're here…" Ryder began. "It's because one of you pups have been eating sugar cookies overnight the last two days, and none of you has fessed up yet! I know at least one of you is lying."

Both Marshall and Skye's eyes widened in worry, and Chase tried to keep his cool, whistling randomly. "It was Marshall. He loves sugar way too much. He's faking it like that because he's a good actor!"

"Whaaa?! You're doing it! I mean, you think you're all innocent?! Hello?! Who's whistling over here?!" Marshall barked back.

"It definitely wasn't me either, Ryder. Honest. It uhh...seems like Marshall's playing the victim." Skye shivered.

"Are you serious?! You're onto me, too?! I DIDN'T DO IT! I'M INNOCENT!" Marshall exclaimed in anger.

"If Marshall didn't do it, then Skye must have done it!" Chase elaborated.

"There is NO WAY I DID ANY OF THIS!" Skye shouted.

"Everyone, calm down! SOMEONE is clearly lying, and nobody is gonna tell me...I think I know how to solve this...sugar cookie mystery." Ryder stated to his pups. He then turned to his german shepherd-who was secretly his favorite pup and ushered him off to the side. "Chase...I have a job for you." He began.

"Yes, Ryder sir? What is it?" Chase asked with curiosity.

"I have been testing some spy technology that can help you see in the dark. You know, for missions at night. I am trusting you to stay in the kitchen all night tonight to catch whomever has been eating these cookies." Ryder spoke as he handed the police pup some goggles. It would become the Super Spy gear that Chase would later wear on a regular basis, but for now, it was a prototype. But still, he loved his new gear.

"Thank you, Ryder, sir! I won't let you down, I promise!" The german shepherds dutifully replied, licking his owner affectionately.

"That's great. You be here in the kitchen an hour after your bedtime with the night vision goggles. Got it?" Ryder asked.

"You got it, Ryder sir!" Chase cheered as he walked off. He ran into Marshall as he was walking. "Alright, buddy...I'm watching you, dude." He grinned as he walked outside the lookout.

"Why are you guys so MEAN TO ME?!" Marshall huffed as he stormed outside the lookout while Skye shrugged and laughed to herself.

"That night...as everyone was sleeping...at one in the morning...all was very quiet in the lookout...not one creature was stirring...but one lovely shepherd…" Skye narrated.

"Oh my god, just get to the point when Chase gets caught! I can't handle this buildup." Zuma stammered.

"Patience, my friend. Patience. Anyway, the moment he got caught was so hilarious looking back. And...well...Chase was caught by yours truly." Skye spoke with a wink. All four of the other pups' eyes widened again while the german shepherd cringed. Oh god, here it comes. He thought with dread.

1 AM

It was an unusually cold night at the lookout, and Chase got incredibly bored inside the tower. He had been sitting in the same exact position for 5 hours now, waiting for nobody to come in. He was pretty sure that nobody would come in at this hour. Ok...coast is clear...nobody's coming...these cookies are mine! He pondered to himself. He jumped onto the kitchen counter and gazed to the top of the cupboard. The rectangular box of cookies was put up there by Ryder so that NO pup could reach it. But he tragically underestimated the athletic ability of his quickly-growing shepherd. Chase jumped as high as he could, grabbed the box with his teeth and landed back on the ground like a cat. He opened the box and his taste buds shivered in delight. Oh my god...this is gonna be awesome...He thought with glee as he began chewing the cookies. Meanwhile, inside a pink pup house, a cockapoo was awoken by her own body. She was thirsty. Every night before she went to bed, she filled up her water bowl with water, so in case she got thirsty during the night, she wouldn't go inside the lookout to fetch some. She looked at her water bowl and groaned in disappointment.

"Ugggghhh...I forgot to fill the water bowl again...what time is it...wait...it's one in the morning? Who is even up this late?" She wondered aloud. Skye got up on all fours with the remaining strength she had and walked outside the pup house, holding the water bowl with her mouth.

The german shepherd was having the night of his life. He discovered that there were two boxes of cookies instead of one, and was eating them all, one way or another. OH MY GOD, THESE COOKIES ARE SO GOOD. GOD BLESS AMERICA! He thought with joy. He was tearing apart every single last cookie in his possession, eating them like a cookie monster, not even stopping to pay attention to anything else.

Skye walked into the lookout feeling more drowsy than ever before. She then heard the familiar sound of a shepherd, but couldn't tell what he was doing. "Chase...is that you?" She groaned. The police pup didn't hear and kept going on those poor cookies. She turned on the lights.

Instantly, her eyes went wide to the limits of her canine body, as she immediately dropped the bowl from her mouth. Chase, who was in the middle of eating one of the cookies, immediately stopped with his mouth closed. Both stared at each other in complete shock.

"You were the one who ate the cookies?!" Skye gasped. Silence. Chase had nowhere to run. He was caught red-pawed. And he knew it. He was screwed. The pilot got mad. Really mad.

"I'm telling Ryder on you." Skye quietly fumed as she walked to the elevator doors. Those five words were the dagger that tore through the german shepherd's heart. He had no idea how the boy would react when he found out that his favorite pup committed such a heinous act. Tears ran down his eyes as he ran to her, blocking her from the elevator door in desperation.

"Skye, no! Please! I'm begging you! Please don't tell! I-I-I'll do anything! I'll let you do make-up on me! I-I'll watch your stupid girly shows with you for a whole month! I'll do anything…" Chase sobbed as he tried to embrace her. Skye was not going to put up with any of it, as she shoved him away from her.

"Get off me. You're getting what you deserve." Skye hissed as the elevator went up inside the lookout. The cockapoo dragged Chase by the collar to Ryder's bedroom and knocked on the door.

"Gahhh….what? It's one in the morning." Ryder moaned as he woke up. He walked towards the door and opened it to reveal a pissed-off cockapoo and a shepherd who was emotionally in shambles. One look at his owner caused Chase to burst into tears.

"I found out who ate the cookies." Skye grumbled, pointing to the guilty police pup. Ryder gasped in surprise as a disappointed look crept onto his face.

"Skye, you can go back to bed. I'll take care of this." Ryder whispered. The pilot left his presence and went down the elevator without another word. "Come inside. We need to talk." Ryder spoke, trying his best to stay calm. Chase walked inside the bedroom, ashamed at what he did. Still in his pajamas, the boy sat next to his pup. "What you did was terrible. You not only lied to me about not eating the cookies, but you threw the blame on Marshall to hide your actions." Ryder acknowledged in an irritated tone.

"I'm sorry I did it! Ryder, please forgive me! Don't kick me off the team!" Chase cried as he embraced him, crying on his shoulders.

"Chase...relax. I'm not gonna kick you off the team for this. But what you did was horrible. You lied to me. Simple as that. And I trusted you. I wanna tell you something, and it's important. Always tell the truth. Even if you would get in trouble. You understand?" Ryder asked sternly.

"I understand." Chase whimpered as he wiped his tears.

"Good. Now, I need you to understand that you will get punished for this. It's the only way that you'll truly understand the impact of what you did." Ryder spoke as he stood up.

"Ok...what's the punishment?" The shepherd asked quietly.

"There's three things. The first thing you have to do is tell Marshall what you did and apologize to him first thing tomorrow morning. Before you do anything else."

"Yes, sir."

"Second, I want you to wash Skye's helicopter, Marshall's fire truck, my ATV and your police cruiser every day for two weeks." Ryder stated.

"Yes, sir."

"Lastly, you can't watch Apollo for a whole week." Ryder concluded.

"Wait, WHAT?! Dude! The Apollo Super Marathon is tomorrow night! All new episodes?! Come on, Ryder! Give me something else!" Chase pleaded.

"Chase! This is for your own good. There's an idea called recording an episode, you know. Now, go to bed." Ryder commanded calmly as he got back into his bed.

"Yes, Ryder sir." The german shepherd sighed sadly as he walked out of the room.

"Wait a minute! Let me get this straight! You actually cried in front of her?!" Everest giggled. The german shepherd sighed in defeat. He couldn't lie.

"Yep. It's true." Chase confessed. All the pups laughed as Chase looked on in embarrassment. Just then, he realized something odd. Marshall was laughing just as hard as the other four pups.

"Wait, I thought Skye told you about it." Chase spoke to him.

"She never told me! That's why it's so funny!" Marshall laughed with delight.

I'm never touching a sugar cookie ever again. At least there's oatmeal raisin cookies. Those are pretty good. Maybe I'll switch to that. Chase thought to himself as the others continued to laugh at the police pup's embarrassing predicament.