Chapter 34: Shaky Decisions

A few agonizing seconds after the click of the door was heard, a mysteriously loud clash quickly sounded out ...

Causing most of the animals in the break room to snap in sheer panic.

Seizing hold of the panic inside him, Skrillex began hopping erratically, knocking off even more papers from the desk. Glen popped out of his shell long enough to be shot off the desk by the crazy bunny and to land square on his back, spinning around and around in circles as animals of all sorts dashed madly beside him. Mary actually did faint this time, collapsing into a white ball of unconscious fluff.

"Wait, everyone! Calm down!" Felix tried in vain to assuage the group, but his extra weak, already shaking voice was drowned out by the rest of the others' screaming. "Everythin' is-"

"SOMEONE'S BREAKING IN!" Dona/Dina screamed out, leading to the animals around to break out into even worse panic. Every animal began screeching in fear, dashing around the room as papers rained down on them.

Bob ran around the small room, bumping and trampling anything close by as he barked out loudly and unintelligently with words not even Felix could make out in the frenzy. Gene cowardly hid in the corner behind the desk...and although it was far too loud to tell with the madness happening, Felix could've sworn he heard the pug whimpering out Ralph's name pleadingly.

Suddenly a set of calming, puzzled yet familiar human voices were heard by the doorway- causing Felix to jerk his head up ...

To relievingly see Stefanie was now standing in the door frame of the break room, her eyes bugged out behind her glasses. The pet shop's owner, Mr.Litwak himself, was right beside her- a nasty looking goose-egg forming on his forehead as he stared at the chaotic, fur-raising scene.

"What in the name of Sega's sakes is going on in here?!" The old man hissed out to no one in particular, seemingly unnoticed by the out-of-control animals as they continued their frenzy. "How'd all the animals get out?!"

"I don't know!" Stefanie choked out as she tried to desperately grab at the crazy hopping rabbit, the animal making the most mess. "They must've gotten out somehow!"

"They can't just get out!" The man called back as he quickly knelt before Bob to calm the labradoodle's loud, head-splitting barking. "Someone must've let them out! Their cages are wide open!"

Suddenly flailing his panicked eyes around the room, Mr.Litwak sighed as they landed on a scared, shaking Felix in the corner of the room- the poor corgi's face beyond traumatized.

Looking back at Stefanie, the man quickly went to scoop up the shaking corgi.

"We've got to get to the bottom of this haywire mess!"

-O-O-O-O-O-

Around a half hour later, the chaos once overtaking the break room was long over. Papers were now semi-neatly stack up back on the desk -including the reward papers bearing Ralph's face and info- and the lamp was now standing upright again.

All of the once frantic animals were somewhat calmer than before as most of them now sat in their respective cages and crates, silently shaking as they eyed their master in fear.

None of them felt completely calm. But were calmer, nonetheless.

When the last animal, Beat the parrot, was placed noticeably shivering inside his cage hanging off the ceiling, Mr.Litwak took a moment to rub the large, raised bruised on his forehead- caused by the once open door of said parrot's cage.

"I still haven't figured out how they all got out," his niece told him as she stroked a trembling Gene's head, cradled safely in her arms. "Or what got them so spooked."

"I don't know either, sweetheart," the man shakily told her as he shuddered slightly in his place. "But some weird things have been happening around here. First Ralph suddenly goes misssing, now all the animals have mysteriously learned how to get out of their cages..."

Down by his owner's feet, Felix continued to shake. He hadn't been able to stop shaking since he saw that news report, actually...so unsettling and flat out terrifying to the corgi's soft heart.

With Mr.Litwak here again, Felix knew he had no real reason to shake so badly or be so afraid at this point- but he honestly didn't care, nor tried to control his shake anymore. He just shook and shook, peering up at Mr.Litwak with pleading eyes that overly begged to be held and snuggled close.

As if reading the corgi's wide, telling blue eyes, the man picked up the shaking dog, stroking his head softly and reassuringly- yet Felix continued to shake. And despite receiving the affection he had been wanting, the corgi felt no calmer.

"I mean, why were all of these animals in their cages, snug and sound when we left... then, when we come back a little earlier than normal to catch the tail-end of that news story, all heck had broken loose?" Mr.Litwak asked as he peered down at the pup in his hands. "And why are they all still kinda of jumpy, even now? I just don't get it..."

Beyond worried, Mr.Litwak gently placed his fingers around the corgi's collar and gingerly jiggled it absentmindedly.

"I mean, I examined the front door to make sure there was no sign any possible... break-ins...," he continued with a gulp. "And we searched high and low, but nothing has turned up."

Unsure of what to think, the despondent man sighed and scratched his balding head, as if hoping it'd help produce some sort of an answer that would make sense.

"All I know is," he finally answered, "that I'm spooked at all this myself...and with news that more break-ins of pet shops are being reported..."

Worried at those reports as well, Stefanie bit her lip as she placed Gene back down in his little martini-print dog bed, watching as the pug snuggled deep into the pillow with extreme trembling.

"What if- what if those robbers do break-in here, Uncle Litwak...again?" the young girl asked with a gulp.

Her uncle sighed, clearly unsure of how to answer her. "I know, kiddo. I'm kinda worried about that happening again, too..."

"It's too bad you don't have some sort of a security system in place...," she muttered out loud, more to herself than him.

Chuckling sadly, the girl's uncle interrupted her line of thought.

"I've never needed a security system, with good 'ole Ralph around...," he shook his head as memories flooded into it. "Every robber in town had enough sense to not break in this place with him guarding it, especially after that one guy tried to and nearly got his leg bitten off..."

He sighed once again as a sad, nostalgic look came over his face, snuggling the corgi a bit closer to his chest.

Approached him cautiously from the other side of the room, Stefanie came closer. "But...with Ralph gone now..."

The man sighed in fear, in pain at her words as if he had been suddenly punctured in his lungs.

Mr.Litwak visibly thought as hard as he could, desperately trying to come up with some way, any way, to protect his pet shop and the precious animals it contained.

He could purchase an alarm system...but the pet shops broken into lately, he'd heard, already had such devices set up. They didn't seem to deter robbers from breaking in at all.

He could break down and buy some high-tech security cameras...but what good would they really do? Many of the other pet shops had that set up already as well- and it didn't seem to aid the police in catching the masked men robbing the animals.

Thinking deeper, Mr.Litwak realized that no alarm systems, no fancy security cameras could ever replace the work that a well-trained guard dog could do. They were usually the most proven deterrent of thieves, after all...

Finally beyond desperate for ideas to protect the defenseless animals under his care, the hopeless man even considered that he could actually get another guard dog...

But the mere thought of replacing his loyal Ralph pained Mr.Litwak deeply.

Plus, the man realized quickly, there's no real way to replace such a dog like Ralph, anyways...

Ralph was a good mixture -a perfect mixture, really- of strong protectiveness and yet easy gentleness rolled into one dog.

The bull mastiff could get defensive- but usually only when he rightly felt the need to be. He could even quickly become extremely dangerous towards an unwelcomed guest- but yet he wasn't a dog that loved to attack for no valid reason, as some guard dogs seemed to be.

Ralph seemed to have the unique sense of reading others and could tell whether a deep bite or a sharp bark or just a warning growl was best warranted...and Mr.Litwak trusted that judgment time and time again.

But the fact that Ralph had never even once become hostile towards him or Stefanie was one of the qualities Mr.Litwak valued most about Ralph. And on top of that, the man couldn't think of even one time when the mastiff had growled aggressively towards most of the customers of the pet shop- or even the animals it contained.

The mutt was really just a teddy bear most of the time, loving and extremely gentle around the more feeble customers and the tiny creatures of the pet shop. In fact, the only time anyone really ever got hurt by Ralph was when he accidentally stepped on their feet or clumsily bumped into them- which he quickly begged for forgiving by licking the victims' faces to death.

The fact was that Ralph was more or less a gentle giant towards most people and animals, balanced in his protectiveness and gentleness was extremely unique to Mr.Litwak. He knew such a balance of qualities was hard to come by naturally in a dog as it seemed to in Ralph..and it usually took years to train most guard dogs to have those qualities in a balanced way.

His heart suddenly paining him, Mr.Litwak realized that of all the different types of dogs he'd dealt throughout his life, Ralph was one the finest dogs he'd ever met...and was thankful to call his own...

Making the decision to replace the mastiff even temporarily to come to a quick dead-end.

Besides, Mr.Litwak reasoned, there's no way of guaranteeing that the dog I would get to 'replace' Ralph wouldn't be hard to train...Or worse- actually harmful towards Stefanie, the customers, the other animals...

Gulping, Mr.Litwak bit his lip, it suddenly clear what he had to do.

He had to do all he could to protect the animals...even if that meant...

No, he mentally denied, there has to be another solution. Anything but...

...the only thing he could think of to do.

After a despondent head shake, Mr.Litwak eyed the rest of the animals in his beloved petshop...and finally mumbled out words that struck Felix and the other animals straight to their cores:

"It might be best -and safest for the animals- to temporarily close the petshop down until we get this all figured out."