Chapter 10: Panic Stricken

Trying not to break down the front door (or get permanently stuck in the small opening said door had), Ralph had just wiggled his head far enough through the doggy door when everyone inside finally started to notice him.

Every animal stopped dancing as the upbeat music playing was scratched to a stop suddenly. Light-hearted conversations and laughter ended abruptly and were replaced with twitching eyes and quivering lips as all eyes in the pet shop landed on Ralph.

At this point, everyone looked at the mastiff with a sense of shock or fear on their faces... or a mixture of both, Ralph really couldn't tell. He was too busy trying to get his head unstuck and the rest of his body through the doggy door.

Seeing that everyone had noticed at his unexcepted arrival, though, Ralph paused in his wiggling and sported a cheeky smile.

"Hey-Oh, everybody!" he called out as cheerfully as he could, despite resuming his struggling and groaning just to fit the rest of his body through the small door.

Everyone just continued to crouch in silence, bodies tense as they peered at him with gaped mouths- as if they all were still unsure as to what they were really seeing...

Before Ralph could pause to pant in exhaustion or say anything to put all the scared animals at ease, sheer panic at his sudden appearance seemed to hit everyone all at once. Pure chaos quickly ensued the once relaxed party as every animal in the pet shop began to scatter, screeching in fear as they sought protection from Ralph- causing Ralph's hopes to go crashing down.

On a high shelf, the turtles in their terrarium shrieked piercingly- causing the mastiff to cringe in pain. The hamsters and mice, despite safely out of reach to the large pooch, scurried frantically around and around in their cage. Up on the desk, Skrillex hoped out of sight, cowarding behind the desk chair. Even the beautiful angelfish in the large 100-gallon tanks -who had no real need to fear him- retreated to their fake castles to seek refuge from the intruding dog.

And that was just the animals high up, out of the 'danger zone'; there was even more mayhem on the petshop's floor, level with Ralph's huge head.

The mastiff watched in mounting horror as all of the various types of dogs once partying now disbanded into different directions, all seeking shelter from... him. Yet again.

"It's the bad dog!" Deanna (or Dina) cried as she backed away as far away as she could from the doggy door, terror and dismay in her voice.

As she scrambled backward, however, the beagle accidentally backed into a bag of opened dog food, spilling its contents everyone... just as Mary came yapping frantically through- and ended up slipping and sliding all over the dog food. Unable to get her footing, the maltese ended up tripping across the floor...

And right up Ralph's face, which was still the only part of him that was able to fit through the frame of the doggy dog.

Before Ralph could even speak a word, a terrified Mary quickly took off yelping in panic, running and hiding behind a large shelf.

"He'll wreck the party!" Bob the labradoodle exclaimed, trying to hide behind the fish tank stand.

"Forget about the party!" Pac-Man screeched, retreating behind a bag of cat food as he peeked around it. "He'll wreck us!"

"Now, now, everyone calm down!" a calm, level-headed voice suddelnly called out, full of a rich southern accent...

And instantly, as if by magic, everyone turned to see the owner of the voice -Felix the corgi himself- as he stood in the middle of all the chaos...and every shaking, nervous animal seemed to calm down and relax ever so slightly. Some blinked back scared tears and others just stepped a little further out from their hiding place. They all even seemed to smile a little, comforted and soothed by his calming, soft words.

Felix always had that kind of mystifyingly calming effect on others- and for once, Ralph was happy the corgi did.

Seeing all his friends in the shop were a little less tense, a little less stressed than before, Felix quickly pranced over to stand in front of Ralph's head- and turning towards the others as if guarding them from the guard dog himself.

"It's all ok!" the corgi continued loudly, trying to sound as confident as he could as a slight, gentle smile appeared on his face. "Everyone, just stay calm and breathe!"

Rolling his eyes mockingly, Ralph sighed in annoyance. Not this speech again.

As his dark brown eyes rolled back down, the bitter mastiff fully excepted to have his eyes land on Felix' perfect little corgi butt again- but he was shocked to see Felix had turned back to peer at him...

And that the small dog wasn't striking the same look of horror that the others were.

Felix' face wasn't steaming with anger at Ralph's appearance, either, nor was he nervous or panicked. Instead, the corgi's face was calm, cool, collected- as it normally was... and just when Ralph thought he saw a trace of actual, honest-to-goodness acceptance on his colleague's small, heart-shaped face...

It was chased away by that old, disgusting, marked look of pity Felix often sported in connection to the mastiff- which irked Ralph enough to flatten his ears at his humiliating situation and to shrink back a little bit.

"Everything is going to be ok," the corgi continued confidently as he turned back towards the group, "our party is ok-"

"No, it's not!" An annoying voice interrupted from the back of the room. "This is not ok, Felix!"

Every pair of eyes bounced from looking at Felix to peering at the owner of the other dog's voice. Looking around Felix himself, Ralph couldn't help but roll his eyes even more and shrink back a little further.

Why he felt the need to look to see who it was speaking, the mastiff had no idea. He didn't really even need to see who that voice belonged to; he already well knew who it was. No one else's voice made Ralph's fur crawl quite the way this pooch's voice did, after all.

Glaring, Ralph snarled as Gene the pug pranced closer to the middle of the room.

Of course it had to be Gene, the stinking low-down pug.

"Ralph is not welcomed here- and that's final!" the said pug hissed, his eyes shooting glares back at Ralph- obviously more annoyed with the presence of the mastiff than in fear of him. In fact, he was the only animal (other than Felix) not cowarding in fear or hiding behind anything...

Although Ralph secretly wished the pug had been. Of all the animals who could be cowarding behind something and afraid of Ralph, avoiding him, why couldn't it have been Gene?

The pug narrowed his eyes further as he stalked over to where Felix now nervously sat and where Ralph's head was. There was only anger and rejection and... pure hate in Gene's eyes as they glared down at Ralph.

"Can I speak with you for a minute, Felix... alone?!" Gene growled out as he approached, his dark eyes now pointedly sharp at a sheepish-looking Felix.

In response, the corgi quickly avoided the deathly glares the pug was now giving him and rapidly nodded his head in agreement. As the two small dogs quickly walked a couple of yards aside to speak privately, Gene made it a point to look behind and shoot Ralph one last look of true disgust...

Causing the mastiff to look away and resume his struggling to get through the small doggy door. He well knew that what Gene and Felix were going to talk about wasn't going to be good... and that was Ralph himself.