"Courage Saves the Day...er, Night"



Pam walked up to the front desk and signed her name in the book.

"Excellent," said Katz. "The East wing is all yours." As he said that, Katz got a good look at the other bus passengers. They looked pretty average...until he caught sight of the small pack of pets in the corner. There was a large, furry dog growling at him; a bizarre half-cat, half-dog thing (with the dog end growling at him); a sickly green dog with buggy eyes; and a robot dog with a metal cube for a body. Katz looked at Pam. "I'm sorry, madam. No dogs allowed."

Pam looked heartbroken, but as she walked away, she turned to the dogs and said, "I just can't stand to let you all stay out in the cold. Don't worry. Good old Pam will get you all in." Runt licked her on the cheek.

As the passengers went to get their suitcases, Pam got out two spare suitcases "for just such an emergency." Gir and Goddard got into one, while CatDog got into the other. Pam told Runt to stay behind her and the bags at all times. Pam successfully got the dogs past Katz and into their rooms. Gir and Goddard took one room. CatDog and Runt took the room next door.

A full moon was illuminating the surroundings outside.

Goddard stood on the bed and tried to contact his master, Jimmy Neutron. After a few tries, Jimmy finally responded on his computer.

"Goddard!" Jimmy sounded surprised. "Where have you been?"

So much had happened since he left home, that it took Goddard several minutes to answer that question via the Internet.

"Of course," typed Jimmy. "I remember installing that sixth sense converter. But when will you be back?"

"Soon."

"Soon? What am I going to do until then?"

"...invent a replacement...at least, until I get back."

"Are you sure, Goddard?"

"Positive."

"All right. I'll get right to work. Thanks for notifying me. See you later."

As Goddard talked to Jimmy, Gir was in the bathroom talking to Zim. A camera had popped out of his head and was recording himself to the main monitor in Zim's underground lair.

"Gir!" yelled Zim. "Where in the cosmos have you been??!! I've been searching for you all day!"

"Sir!" said the red-eyed Gir. "I am undergoing a secret covert operation!"

"Operation? What kind of operation?" asked Zim.

Gir's eyes turned blue again. "If I told yoooou, it wouldn't be a secret anymore!" laughed Gir in a sing-song voice.

Zim gritted his teeth. "Gir! I order you to return home immediately!!!"

"Awww...sure thing, sir...as soon as operation 'save the doggies' is completed! Over-and-out."

"Wai-!" shouted Zim, but he was cut off. At his house, Zim pondered where Gir could be. "Oh, I don't really need him right now...there's not much going on here anyway." At that moment, a roach walked up to Zim. It's antennae began to touch Zim's foot. Zim looked down at his foot and saw the roach.

"AAAAA!!! VERMIN!!!" So Zim dove into the toilet and closed the cover behind him.

Back at the motel, Cat and Dog were having a heated argument about Katz. Cat wanted to talk to Katz, since he hadn't talked to another cat in days. Dog, however, had a bad feeling about Katz.

"Cat," whined Dog. "I don't want to talk to that cat downstairs. He looks creepy."

"Well, you don't have to. I'll do all the talking," replied Cat.

"But, Cat..." said Dog, trying to think of an excuse. "...I have to go to the bathroom."

Cat sighed. "Fine. Make it quick."

CatDog walked over to the bathroom. Runt, who was sitting in the corner watching the argument, spoke up. "Hey, how do you do that?"

"Do what?" asked Dog.

"Go to the bathroom."

Cat, who was already in the bathroom, yanked Dog into the room and closed the door before Dog could answer.

Alone in the room, Runt lay down on the bed and sighed. He felt so out of place. If Rita were here, he could play hide-and-seek with her, or have Rita sing to him. He needed someone to play with...someone to stop him from being so bored. Sure, the bus passengers and those other pets were fun to hang around with, but right now, he needed some fun.

Runt suddenly caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked out the window and saw a spider crawling down the window pane. It was huge! Almost as big as the window itself!

Instead of feeling scared, dim-witted Runt felt excited. Finally, someone to play with! Runt watched as the spider squeezed through the window and into the room. Runt crouched down on the bed, his tail wagging like crazy. The spider crawled along the floor towards the bathroom. It sensed CatDog using the sink. "Fresh prey," it thought.

Suddenly,...

"Jump on the spider!" shouted Runt as he leaped off the bed and landed right on the spider. It exploded under him with a wet SPLAT.

"What was that?" asked Dog, drying his paws. Him and Dog opened the door and saw a sickening sight. Runt stood in the middle of the room with a sorrowful look on his face. A crumpled mass of legs stuck out from under his paws. Green spider guts were splattered all over the room. It was sticky and stunk.

"Spider go boom," said Runt, acting like a kid who'd been caught stealing candy.

"Eww. Looks like this place has a bigger bug problem than I thought," muttered Cat, feeling sick.

Dog was about to agree, when suddenly, a bunch of screaming was heard out in the hall. CatDog, Runt, Goddard, and Gir all opened their doors at the same time. They were greeted with quite a sight. Bus passengers were running down the hallways with giant spiders at their heels! Some people were whacking at the spiders with suitcases or purses. Through all the commotion, Pam could be heard yelling at the top of her voice, "Everyone back on the bus! Now!"

CatDog and Runt decided to follow her advice and began running down the hall towards the lobby, dodging spiders all the way. Gir, on the other hand, jumped on the back of a passing spider and began riding bareback on it like a cowboy at a rodeo. "Yeeeeee-haaaa!!!" he shrieked. Meanwhile, Goddard noticed some people were not getting out of their rooms, because they didn't want to leave their luggage. Goddard also realized the spiders couldn't harm his metal body, so he decided to help all those people get out of their rooms and retrieve their luggage.

Down in the lobby, it was utter chaos. People running and screaming all over the place. Runt and CatDog saw the front doors and the bus in the parking lot.

"C'mon!" shouted Cat to Runt. "There's our ticket out of here!"

But before they could escape, Katz ran up and blocked their way. "No one ever leaves the Katz Motel!" he shouted menacingly.

"Is that true?!" yelled Dog fearfully.

Katz thought for a moment. "Well, no...but my spiders were full last time. And now..."

"A-hahahahaha!!" laughed Gir, as he rode past Katz on the spider.

Katz watched Gir run off, and then continued where he left off. "And now, my spiders are most hungry."

With that, Gir's spider bucked Gir over its shoulders. Gir flew through a window and landed on his head in the parking lot. "Wheeee! That's fun!...I go sleep now!" He got up and ran to the bus, dashed down the aisle inside, and fell asleep in the rear of the bus.

Meanwhile, Gir's spider joined a pack of spiders that gathered behind Katz. They all began advancing toward CatDog and Runt.

"What do we do, Cat? What do we do?" shouted Dog.

Cat was just about to suggest pushing Runt into the spiders while he and Dog got away (not a good idea, but Cat's mind wasn't thinking straight at that moment), when suddenly, an out-of-tune Tarzan yell was heard. Then, a pinkish blur swung from a cable suspended from the ceiling. Like a super-fast pendulum, the blur slammed into Katz, who was sent flying into a cabinet, the door locking behind him.

"I wish you hadn't done that," muttered Katz inside the cupboard.

The pink hero swung around on the cable and eventually let go, landing between CatDog and Runt. The two toons observed a little pink dog with two black spots on his back. His eyes were wide and he was breathing fast. He screamed when he saw that the spiders were still advancing towards them.

"Do something!" yelled Cat to the pink dog.

Before anyone could do anything, though, a loud voice boomed above all other noise. The panicking people stopped running and listened. Some of them thought it was God, but it was only Pam. Standing on the front desk, the big, black lady bellowed. "Hey!!! Why are you all running around??!! Get back on the bus!! Now!!!"

The passengers were more than happy too. They ran towards the doors at full speed. The only problem? CatDog, Runt, Courage (the pink dog), and the spiders were in the way! Turned out, the dogs (and cat) were scooped up by the terrified people and they all trampled over the spiders before they knew what hit them.

Last out of the lobby was Pam, who was thoroughly disgusted with walking through the mat of spider goo.

Outside, a small helicopter swooped down carrying the last of the passengers' cargo. It was actually Goddard, who tossed the belongings into the side of the bus, and ran into the bus. He joined up with Runt, CatDog, the sleeping Gir, and the new passenger, Courage.

Pam finally got in the bus, closed the doors, and shouted into the intercom, "Is everyone here?"

Goddard made it know to everyone that he had checked the motel and was positive that there were no other passengers left.

Pam immediately gunned the motor and zoomed out of the parking lot leaving the Katz Motel in the dust.

The canines were so exhausted, they didn't feel like being introduced to this new pink dog. They fell asleep until the bus pulled into the next motel.



They weren't far from the Mississippi River. The dogs and passengers got out and once again chose their rooms...this time, at a Best Western.