Chapter 12: Bowl Blues
Once again with mystifying ease, Felix hopped through the small doggy- though he looked quite more guilty than before as he lowered his head and ears. If he had a tail, it would've been tucked between his legs something awful as he lumbered slightly forward, gulping in order to make his sand-paper mouth wet again.
His shamefulness only increased as Gene came scurrying up to him. Cowering that much more, Felix winced when he saw how the pug's face was filled with eagerness- yet screamed doubt at the same time.
"Well?" The squished-up pooch asked pushingly, eyeing around the corgi a little too eagerly. "Did you get rid of-"
"Watch out!" Dina/Deanna shrieked suddenly, her voice beyond panicked as she darted away from her place by the doggy door.
Everyone watched in mounting horror as Ralph's humongous head suddenly appeared through the pet door, followed quickly by sounds of grunting and groaning as he pushed and contorted and forced his equally large body the rest of the way through. He amazed all present as he quickly and desperately twisted his neck, then stretched his huge paws, then somehow shoved his large stomach to fit through such a small opening- and for the third time that night, the petite doggy door cracked in protest that much more.
Hey, I'm getting quite good at this, the mastiff thought semi-proudly, his two incredible, powerfully strong front paws stretching and pulling almost the rest of his midsection through-
When the rusty hinges on the weakening, straining doggy door frame suddenly gave way completely. As it did, the doggy door frame broke off the front door- which made Ralph go tripping and crashing face-first into the pet shop floor.
Blushing beat-red in embarrassment, the mastiff stumbled to his paws and began trying to wiggle off the trapped frame around his step-section. He quickly got frustrated, causing him to resort to flopping down and pushing the door frame off with his massive back paws, pressing the door frame up closer to his head.
As he watched as his sworn enemy did so, an infuriated Gene stared mutely at the huge hole in the front door where the doggy door had been... before turning to glared harshly at Felix.
"This is not 'getting rid' of him!!!" the pug hissed out with tightly clenched teeth. "What happened out there, Felix?!"
Blushing at the scowling, Felix stared at the ground, unable to answer the upset pug except with a weak, helpless shrug.
Finally pushing it off with one last powerful shove, the dog door frame came catapulting off Ralph's head, landing on the floor with a loud, startling crash. Before him, everyone just froze in place and cautiously eyed each other- completely unsure if they should run or hide at the now free bad dog inside their home.
Not seeming to notice anyone's fears now, Ralph shook his head with a triumphant smile. As he stood back up to his full towering height, his intimidating size captured the attention of every animal there -even the glowering Gene and the weakening Felix.
"E-evening, Mel," the mastiff began to call out, leaning over to see the small papillion was hiding behind a shelf stacked with dog food. "Lucy, Bill, what's shaking? How goes it, er...Dina?...No, DONA!" Ralph suddenly connected and smirked at remembering her name- despite the hidden beagle mumbling that her name was actually Deanna.
As he politely said his hellos, Ralph ventured forward and accidentally stepped on a side of the thick doggy door frame- causing it to easily snap in half like a feeble twig under his hefty 243 pounds. When everyone winced and tensed up at his untimely mishap, the mastiff abashedly grimaced and cautiously tiptoed around the broken frame. He started to venture further across the pet shop floor- although he now wore a big, goofy grin as he eyed everyone.
The deeper the mastiff walked into the pet shop, and the bigger his smile got, the more Gene's eyes narrowed angrily at Felix.
"Why is he in here?!" the pug pressed the corgi that much more, his voice seething with rage.
"Uh... Ralph's just here for a few of the new treats!" Felix forced out, his tone as chipper as he could make it...and very loud so that the others could know why the massive mutt was inside their home.
At hearing the snooty pug's rude questioning, Ralph abandoned walking towards the others and came over to where Gene stood. Towering over him, the massive mastiff smugly glared down at the sour pug as he leaned closer to his squished up face.
"And I am a big part of the pet shop," Ralph mentioned casually, his voice near mocking the small dog. "Since, you know, I actually have a job as the guard dog here. So, technically speaking, uh... why are you here, Gene?"
As an irritated Gene squished up his face with that much more at the mastiff's obvious jeering, Ralph just smirked down at him with half-lidded, scornful eyes. The boastful large dog figured that as often as Gene had treated him badly these past five years, the snotty little pooch could handle tasting some of his own medicine- and get bugged and demeaned right back.
Plus, Ralph could tell by little twitch in Gene's eye that the mastiff had finally got under his skin, striking a little pug nerve there. And oh, did it feel great.
As the two just glared at each, silently daring the other to say something to challenge them, Felix's little legs tensed up beside them, hating the uncomfortableness hanging in the air. He had a feeling Gene and Ralph would have it out for each other if the mastiff stayed- and the sensitive corgi could tell it was only going to get worse from here.
Gulping, the orange-and-white pooch was about to wiggle his way between the two angry, glowering dogs to prevent anything else from happening- but found he didn't need to. Glen thankfully came in scooting a tall tower of dog food bowls into the middle of the room, capturing everyone's attention.
As if on cue, a happy, proud Mary came prancing out next, scooting a huge container of new treats with her as a smile traced across her mouth...which quickly disappeared the second her eyes landed on the unsightly presence of Ralph.
"Oh look! The treats!" Felix exclaimed quickly, elated for the distraction for everyone as he carefully weaved between the guard dog and the upset pug.
As the corgi eagerly bounced over to where the maltese stood, Ralph jealously watched as a few dozen much smaller animals -which thankfully included Gene- flocked around Felix and followed at his heels. Rolling his eyes mockingly, the mastiff lowered his head and followed in suit, lumbering behind the corgi's groupies.
As the group approached Mary and the new treats in the middle of the room, they saw Glen carefully sliding the tall stack of colorful, beautiful dog-food bowls close to where the maltese stood. Each bowl as a different color and unique from the ones stacked above and below them- and each was stunningly beautiful, festively decorated with fancy stickers.
"Well, I'll be dipped!" Felix gawked out loud as he approached the tall stack of colorful dishes, his ears back in awe. "You've really outdone yourself, Mary! These bowls look fantastic!"
Everyone else around him quickly parroted his reaction, oohing and awing over the beautiful bowls as well- making Mary's fluffy white cheeks blush slightly in embarrassment.
Easily able to see over the heads of all the animals in front of him, Ralph peered closer at the stack of bowls and found that even he was impressed with Mary's work.
"Yeah, nice work, Mary," he politely commended as he smiled slightly and tagged his tail.
As if suddenly remembering he was present, Mary started a little at Ralph's words... and caused everyone else to turn to stare wearily at the mastiff as well. When most silenced him with clear looks of annoyance -and that one sharp look of rejection from Gene- Ralph got the point and hung his head in shame.
You're really stupid for ever thinking you could belong with this group, Ralph, the mastiff hissed mentally to himself. You don't belong anywhere! Just keep your mouth before they finish kicking you out!
Deciding it was best to just ignore the big, blushing guard dog, Mary grimaced as Glen started to nose the food bowls one at a time in her direction.
"As you've probably noticed already, everyone's bowl is their favorite color!" the maltese began with a more natural smile and a slight wag of her curly tail. "Norward's is red, Blue for Bob..."
"Wait...How does that work if we're all color blind?" Pac-Man inquired, earning a light laugh from everyone gathered around- except Ralph, who that was a valid point of fact.
"Go by the name on the bowl, then," Deanna...er, Dona? whispered to the terrier with a grin as Mary continued to call out the names each bright, empty dish belonged to.
As Glen and Mary slid each bowl to the feet of the animal sharing its name, Ralph's eyes happily danced around to look at each festive bowls- and realized that each bowl really seemed to be made to perfectly reflect the animal it belonged to.
That one prissy pomeranian named Jane had a sparkly pink bowl decorated with pink tiara stickers- which perfectly fit her uppity attitude that Ralph knew she had. The bright purple bowl with even, consistent green stripes seemed to fit Lucy well, too- she was tidy and liked things a certain way, the mastiff had observed.
But when Ralph saw Gene had a nearly flat, chartreuse green colored bowl, the large pooch couldn't help but smile for the first time ever thinking of the pug. That bowl fit the pug beyond perfectly- because Gene was so shallow and snotty. Why wouldn't he have a snot-colored, depth-less bowl?
Of course, Felix purposely had the best, shiniest bowl of all, Ralph's eyes then quickly saw- a perfectly round, metallic baby blue dish that matched the corgi's soft, baby blue eyes perfectly. His bowl was mostly free of the playful party stickers the others had...
Except it did have one huge, personalized label that literally said "GOOD BOY, FELIX!" on the side...
Which honestly stabbed a Ralph a little it despite him rolling his eyes mockingly.
Ignoring the hollow feeling overtaking him, mastiff quickly realized everyone had a beautiful bowl at their feet already- except for him. Eyeing back at the ones handing out the bowls, Ralph saw that the tall stack of colorful bowls was nearly gone and that there was only one available bowl left...
And when he saw just what the said last bowl looked like, the mastiff felt his stomach crash into the cold pet shop floor.
This bowl was clearly different from the rest and looked nothing like the others. It had no cheery stickers or labels on it, no fancy designs or pattern, either, as the other bowls had. This bowl was bland and embarrassingly stood out as distinct.
Instead of being a bright, jovial color, this dish was a nasty, dirty white- and not just because of the color. Ralph could tell where he stood that it wasn't clean whatsoever, and even though his eating bowl outside wasn't the cleanest food bowl in the world, this nasty party bowl made the large dog squirm. Just the thought of eating out of something so gross, so unsanitary-looking made the tough big dog winced and gag a little.
The bowl had clearly been dug out of the garage, too- some old dish used for scooping who-knew-what and then thrown in the trash where it rightly belonged...
And then had obviously been quickly tossed in with the stack of pretty, clean, new bowls at the last second. The nasty trash of a bowl didn't even have a name on it...
Which made Ralph's heart sink. Hard.
Surely this last, disgusting bowl wasn't for...him?
"H-hey, Mary..." the mastiff began to ask, a familiar queasy feeling spreading in his gut as he nodded towards the unsightly bowl. "Who's- who's that one bowl for? The, er, white-ish one there with no name?"
As Mary just blushed and tucked her chin in a little as a half-hearted reply, Gene smirked slightly as he strutted towards the bowl in question.
"It's for our surprised guest," the pug answered smugly as he casually slid the said bowl across the floor with one slight swipe of his small paw...
And everyone watched as the dirty, ugly, unwelcoming dish came to a permanent rest right in front of Ralph's very large paws.
Staring down at the bowl -now undoubtedly confirmed to be his bowl- between his paws, Ralph's stomach finish hitting the floor as he shakily gulped. His 'party favor' looked that much filthier and cheap under closer inspection, causing Ralph to cock his lip slightly in repulsion. He quickly pursed his lips together to prevent himself from gagging, however, when the dish's odorous smell ascended into his sensitive nose- although he couldn't help but take several steps back from the disgusting bowl.
Oh, come on! he complained internally, I know I'm unexcepted here at this party- but they really couldn't find me any better bowl? I mean, it's almost like this was intentional-
Coming to a mental halt in his line of annoyed thoughts, it all hit Ralph like a ton of bricks to the face, causing him to physically freeze.
Finding this dish -and choosing it for Ralph to eat out of- was no mere accident. It was too exaggeratingly and exceedingly different than the others. Too over-the-top in being trashy, dirty, smelly... bad...
And the bowl would naturally be disregarded, too, avoided by all around... completely unwanted...
Just like me...Ralph connected slowly...
And as he eyed the others beautiful, festive, colorful, clean...good bowls, each representing their owners' matching, closed-off, judgemental personalities so well...
It all hit Ralph a little too hard.
My bowl purposely fits me well... because this is how they view me, he gulped miserably. Just a smelly, dirty piece of unwanted trash...
Shaking his head hard and closing his eyes tight, Ralph prohibiting himself from showing any of his anger -or hurt- slowly bubbling inside him. Sure, he was more than slightly annoyed with the difference in his bowl and the rest.. and what it was not-so-subtly making clear. And yeah, it cut him deeply to think they viewed him like this trashy, worthless dish- or even worse, even lower than it, actually...
But the mastiff refused to lose his cool over it. He just told himself to quickly let it all go, that he was somewhat of a last minute party crasher, after all...
And he wasn't just a piece of trash- despite the fact others viewed him that way.
Opening his eyes, Ralph saw the animals before him were looking back at him- some uneasily tense, excepting him to flip out in reaction to the disgraceful bowl. Others -like a big-eyed Felix- looked almost embarrassed for the mastiff... which made Ralph squirm and ache inside even more.
But then his eyes landed on Gene smirking at him, his stupid pug eyes narrowed with one of his stupid pug eyebrows raised up in clear, mocking judgement...
Merely waiting for the mastiff to just get upset, for Ralph to get all riled up, for the unwanted bad dog to make a fool of himself yet again-
No, not again, Ralph quickly sighed determinedly, stubbornly. Never again! Just ignore it, Ralph!
Forcing himself to stand straight over his hideous dish again, the mastiff eyed Gene smugly before finally looking back at the maltese.
"Thank you for the bowl, Mary," he said a little too loudly for anyone to believe. "That was, uh, very thoughtful of you to get one for me, even though I was not excepted."
More like 'not invited', the mastiff huffed bitterly, biting his tongue hard to prevent himself from saying something he'd later regret.
"Uh...y-you're welcome, Ralph," Mary rushed out quickly, physically shaking as if scared Ralph didn't really mean those words and would attack her unexpectedly. "Er, Glen is the real one you should thanks, though; he knew you were, er, staying, so he grabbed an extra bowl from the- um, well, the..."
"Trash can," the monotone turtle hissed dryly, giving Ralph the same glare he had earlier. "I got it from the trash can. We didn't have any others."
Welp, THAT explains a lot, Ralph mentally hissed back as his blush deepened- but he somehow forced his thoughts to stay confined to his mind.
"Well then...thank you, Glen," Ralph muttered, his voice weak but refusing to weaver due to the embarrassing looks he was receiving. He then prayed silently for Mary to just continue so that everyone would get their examining eyes off of him. It was starting to get to be too much for the mastiff the handle.
"Er, anyway," Mary quickly spoke again, and as if reading Ralph's mind, everyone turned back to look at her instead of the blushing mastiff. "Everyone's bowls are going to be filled with the new duck treats Mr.Litwak got a shipment of today!"
Smiling happily, the maltese nodded towards to giant plastic container and then nodded in approval at Glen to begin the treats' distribution. In response, everyone -even Ralph- smiled in excitement.
"Everyone, pick up your food bowls and gather around the water bowl," Mary then directed, her voice overly cheery. "And Bob and Glen will get you the treats!"
In pure eagerness, everyone quickly scooped up their dishes and began to quickly form a loose circle around the large shared water bowl towards the middle of the room. And although he was very reluctant to put his ghastly food bowl in his mouth, even Ralph pushed past it and picked up his dish- though making sure only his teeth were touching it instead of tasting it with his tongue.
Ralph quickly found an unoccupied place in the make-shift circle and carefully and quickly set his bowl down, happy to get the foul dish out of his mouth. As he lifted his head back up, he was painfully aware of just how much he towered over the rest- even more so than he did most of the other dogs at the Bad-Dog meeting...
Forcing his mind clear of even the mention of that ridiculous meeting, the mastiff forced himself to think differently. Yes, that meeting had ended in emotional disaster- but he had a good feeling about this party now.
Not even a few days ago did Ralph ever think he'd end up just sitting among the other animals in the petshop. Never once did he dreamed he'd actually get to enjoy some delicious treats they seemed willing to share with him...
That had to be a great improvement, right?
Excluding his nasty party bowl.. and the whole issue with Gene, of course... and the now rarer looks of fear and repulsion that was still getting cast his way...
Ralph was actually starting to see some silver lining beyond all the dark clouds hanging over his depressing life.
Despite being so different and much larger than all the animals around the room, despite all that had happened earlier, over these past five years, even...
Maybe, just maybe, things were finally starting to improve. Maybe even Ralph could belong with these guys, with him by their side.
Maybe Ralph had finally, finally found what he was looking for, begging for all this time, really: pure belonging as just another good dog.
Allowing a rare, warm and fuzzy feeling to overtake his huge, slowly filling heart inside his chest, the mastiff smiled peacefully. Sitting down slowly and cautiously, Ralph eyed behind him one last time to make sure he wasn't squishing anyone unfortunate enough to get under his tail. Calm and relaxed, Ralph sighed in peace.
He hadn't felt this happy, this fairly accepted -this good- in a long while... And Ralph could only pray this feeling would stick around longer this time.
But that rare feeling of happiness popped abruptly when the mastiff turned to see that it was Gene, of all animals, that had decided to take a spot right beside him. Cautiously eyeing the pug as he silently set his snot-colored bowl on the floor, Ralph found himself being filled with a strange feeling of eeriness now growing inside. All due to the pug's close presence.
Gene usually couldn't stand to be ten feet close the bull mastiff... so why would he suddenly choose to sit right beside him now? Especially since Ralph was near the opposite end of where Felix was, who was near the beginning of the entire circle, no less?
Just what is this sneaky, manipulative pug planning? the mastiff couldn't help but think in worry.
Forcing his mind to think positively, to consider it just a coincidence (or possibly even an odd sign of a peace treaty from the pug), Ralph decided to ignore the weird choice Gene had made. He instead focused on Glen and Bob as they worked together to hoist up the treat container.
The group -with Gene and Ralph at the tail end of the circle- patiently waited as Glen and Bob the labradoodle slowly went around and poured the delicious, multi-colored treats into everyone's individual bowls. Felix, of course, was first in the circle, so he got the freshest, unbroken treats the container had to offer.
"Why, thank ya, friends!" the corgi commended kindly as his bowl was filled up- and seconds later, he had already started digging into his treats, wagging his little stubby tail in happiness.
Soon after, Bob's own bowl was filled, then Mary's, then Deanna's, then Lucy's, so on and so forth. None of them waited for the others to get their treats as well; each just dived in snout-first into their full bowls of delicious food.
Hungrily licking his chops, Ralph felt his stomach growl loudly in protest at the smell of the mouth-watering food. Staring fixatedly on the plastic container that held the duck-flavor treats, the mastiff regrettably realized that each pet in the group was getting a ton of treats poured into their bowl... and the container was running out. Fast.
Slyly eyeing down at Gene still sitting beside him, Ralph saw that the pug didn't seem to be concerned by the depleting treats at all, however. Instead, he was just sitting still with his wrinkled, squished up face as calm as could be...
Which was starting to make the mastiff worry a little bit more.
The pug was planning something- and Ralph didn't have to be very intelligent to slowly piece together what it could be.
When Bob and Glen finally came into the last stretch of empty bowls, Ralph saw just how little was left in the container of treats. The last bit of the bone-shaped snacks left inside were broken and crumbly- and bearly looked like they would satisfyingly fill even one small food bowl now.
Staring intensely as they poured some of the scarce, precious treats into Gene's food bowl, Ralph gulped and pleadingly eyed Bob and Glen.
Please, please don't pour it all out, he mentally begged, please, please don't give it all to-
But Bob and Glen were already setting the container upright once again- with a few crumbly and ashy leftovers still inside to spare.
Sighing in pure relief, Ralph smiled widely. He wasn't asking for much; even just a few little stray pieces of broken treats or bits of flavored dust would suffice for him. Anything would be better -and less embarrassing- than having the only empty bowl here.
Forgetting who he was sitting beside, Ralph turned to a happily wag his tail down at Gene- only to see that the pug wasn't even looking at him.
"Can I, uh, have a little bit more in my bowl, please?" Gene asked, his voice filled with mocked innocence. "It's not completely filled."
When Bob and Glen eyed each other cautiously but then complied, Ralph allowed himself to become slack-jawed.
You have got to be kidding me! the mastiff screamed internally. I knew Gene was up to something! He's trying to steal all the treats that are left!!
But as he watched two animals worked together to tediously pour a tiny bit more into Gene's bowl -while being purposely careful to make sure there was at least a little bit for Ralph- the mastiff smiled gratefully at the turtle and labradoodle. They could obviously see what Gene was trying to here... and it looked like they weren't going to give so easily-
"Just a tad more, please," Gene continued to press in his pushy way, sliding his bowl a little bit closer to them in an inviting and convincing way. "My bowl is almost full, so might as well top it off, guys."
Eyeing down at him in sheer disbelief, Ralph glared down at the pug, feeling his uncheck temper raising. Turning to silently beg Bob and Glen not to give in, the mastiff watched as the two exchanged worried looks...
And then finished pouring the very last bit of the food in Gene's chartreuse bowl as Ralph looked on in stuporous disbelief.
