CHAPTER 11: A Horrific Discovery
"R'up roo, ree,r'our; r'up rooo, ree, r'our." The Great Dane paced dutifully back and forth in front of Laura Whitney's property, watching the blonde woman n the first pass, then watching the street for the Mystery Machine's approach on the second pass.
"R'up roo, ree,r'our; r'up rooo, ree, r'our." Suddenly, he stopped, mid pace. His nose began to twitch as a strangely familiar smell wafted through the air. He cocked his head and sniffed the air. "Rala?" he thought, but this scent was different; strangely similar, but different. Intrigued by the mysterious odor, Scooby began to follow his nose, walking stealthily; he stopped behind the tool shed and posted watch.
From his hiding place, the giant dog carefully watched Laura's actions. Her gardening lay tools nearby, as did several burlap bags thrown carelessly to the side. A series of tiny whimpers caught Scooby's ear, followed by several, louder whines. Scooby inched closer, his eyes focusing on the bags and their mysterious contents; there was something funny about those burlap bags, and Scooby instinctively knew that whatever was in them was not supposed to be there.
Unaware that she was being watched, Laura dragged the burlap bags closer to the hole she had just dug. I'll teach that idiot to allow a champion dog to mate with a mutt! she fumed to herself. "I hate to do this," Laura sneered, "but you four rats are a disgrace to the Great Dane breed and to my reputation as a breeder. Believe me, this is for your own good." She paused, then added with an evil cackle, "well, my own good, at least." She emptied the bags' contents into the hole and began covering it with dirt.
Kala watched the scene, helplessly. Barking wildly, she lunged at her chain, trying to break free to rescue her puppies. Laura glared at her dog. "Say goodbye to these little rats," she sneered, "Because this is the last you will ever see of them!"
From his hiding place, Scooby watched as the sinister woman mercilessly tortured his mate. Uttering a low growl and bearing his teeth, he readied for an attack. Yet, in spite of what his instincts told him, he knew that he could not execute a rescue without the aid of his human friends. He barked, loudly, as if to alert Kala and the puppies that help would arrive.
"What the hell…" muttered Laura, as the sound of Scooby's barking reached her ear. Scooby quickly stopped his alert, and ducked behind the tool shed, standing on his hind legs so that he would take up less space.
Laura walked around the side near the shed. "I could've sworn I heard a dog."
Scooby flattened himself against the back of the shed, holding his breath as Laura neared his hiding place.
Huh, must have been my imagination, she muttered to herself, as she turned and walked back to her job in the garden.
Seeing her departure, Scooby let out his breath. "Whew!" he breathed, wiping his brow with a paw. Satisfied that Laura was gone, Scooby made a mad dash back to the street and resumed his barking from the safety of the sidewalk.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Great Dane was jumping up and down, barking and gesticulating wildly as the Mystery Machine pulled up to the curb. "Hey, like, what's with Scoob?" asked Shaggy, noticing his dog's odd behavior.
"He looks like he's trying to tell us something" suggested Velma.
"Yeah, but, like, what?"
Scooby continued to bark and gesture, trying to talk at the same time.
Daphne stepped out and knelt beside the dog, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Scooby, calm down," she whispered, softly. "Now, why don't you tell us what's wrong?"
"Rala," he yelped, desperately. "Relp. Ruppies…rone!"
A look of exasperation came over the redhead's face. "Gone?" she asked, in disbelief. "What do you mean they are gone?!"
The Great Dane engaged in a bizarre game of charades with his human friends, trying to describe what he had witnessed. "Raura..r'hole…rigging," he explained, desperately.
"Hole? Digging?" Daphne pieced together the dog's description with her thoughts from earlier in the day. "Oh my God," she gasped, "then I was right!"
Velma and Shaggy looked at the redhead, perplexed. "Right about what?" queried the bespectacled girl, "Daphne, what's going on?"
"I'll explain later, right now, we've got to save those puppies!"
Fred reached out and grabbed the redhead by the collar of her dress. "Whoah, whoah, whoah, slow down, Daph," he said. "We can't just barge onto Laura's property like this; we have to wait until she's not watching or until she's not there."
"That could take hours!" objected Daphne, trying to squirm free of the blond man's grip. "We don't have that kind of time!"
"I know, Daphne, but we can't just show up unannounced; that's breaking and entering."
"I don't care, Fred," she countered, intensifying her efforts to break free. "Let me go!"
"Like, we may not have to worry about breaking and entering, Daph," said Shaggy, watching from the passenger's side of the van. "Check it out."
The gang pressed their faces to the window, watching, as Laura Whitney climbed into the cab of the rental truck and backed it out of her driveway.
"Okay, gang," said Fred. "Here's the plan; we have to work quickly, because we don't have much time. Shaggy, you, Velma and Scooby check out that hole in the middle of the yard; Daphne and I will free Kala."
The blond man kept his eye on the street, waiting until the truck had turned the corner and was out of sight. "Alright," he ordered, motioning with his hand. "Let's go."
* * * * * * * * * *
Kala lay in front of her doghouse, her large head resting on her front paws. She whined softly as Fred and Daphne approached her. Daphne extended her hand in a friendly gesture. "It's okay, Kala," she whispered, calmly. "We're not going to hurt you, we're here to help you."
The female Dane whimpered softly as Daphne ran her hands gently over the dog's chest. "Freddie," she said, her voice tinged with concern. "Look at this poor thing; she's so thin you can see her ribs!"
"What a way to treat a so-called 'two time national champion,'" Fred scoffed in disgust. He bent over and unhooked the chain from Kala's collar. "There you go, girl," said the blond man, "you're free now."
The female Great Dane wasted no time in running to meet her mate. "Rala!" Scooby barked, nuzzling the giant, golden yellow dog.
Kala whimpered in response, pawing at the ground. Acting on the message that only he could understand, Scooby began digging furiously, his blunt claws easily tearing through the sun-parched earth. Suddenly, his nose began to twitch; that same, strange scent he had detected earlier that day was even more prominent than before. Spurred on by the scent, he stepped up his digging efforts, accompanied by Kala.
Then, he heard it, a faint whimper coming from under the dirt.
The four humans stepped back from the hole, gaping in horror at the sight before them. Even the normally stoic blond leader was visibly shaken by what he saw.
"Oh God!" gasped Daphne, putting her hands over her mouth in
shock. "No!"
Scooby wasted no time in initiating a rescue, leaning over the side of the hole and retrieving the puppies from what minutes earlier had been their grave. They were covered in dirt and grass, shaking in fear, but otherwise unhurt.
"Zoinks," cried Shaggy, "like, this is utterly gruesome, man."
"Those poor, innocent creatures," commented Daphne, shaking her head in disbelief. "How could anyone be so heartless?" She threw her arms around Fred and hugged him, burying her face in his sweater and crying, softly. The blond man gently escorted her aside, holding her in a reassuring embrace.
"Like that woman ought to have her head examined," said Shaggy, scooping up one of the pups and gently brushing off the dirt.
"I think we ought to have these guys examined too," said Velma. "But first, I think we should notify the authorities to tell them what we found."