(AN: Wow, another long hiatus! Sorry guys… On with the show, then…)
"You couldn't get us in first class, could you?" Garfield complained.
Winnie stuck her paw out to counter Garfield, but hit it on a suitcase before she could move it very far. "You know very well that animals can't ride up front. We have to be stored down here, with the luggage."
"Yeah, but Jon sometimes disguised me an' Garfield as kids so we could ride up front," said Odie, bent in a very strange position between a large suitcase and something that looked like a guitar case.
"Wouldn't that look weird, we'd have no parent with us," pointed out Arlene, with hardly any room between the bag she was on and the ceiling of the luggage compartment.
"Shaggy here could have pretended to be our mother. She's the biggest." Schwartzkoff was actually the most comfortable of the animals, for he had actually unzipped a suitcase and was nestled in some sweaters. Looking at his current nestling place, he grinned. "Somebody's going to find a lot of cat hair when they open up their luggage. Hope they have a Russian Blue at home, otherwise they're going to be very confused."
Gizmo's small, flat nose suddenly perked up. "I smell something strange," he said.
Clay began to sniff too. "It's… it's a CAT!" he hollered.
"Be quiet, Clay!" snapped Winnie. "And of course it's a cat. There's three of them in…" Winnie sniffed the air too. "Wait. You're right, it is a cat. A different one, too." She pointed her paw off to the corner where Garfield was crammed. "It's over there!"
"I don't see any Port-a-Pets," said Garfield, attempting to crane his neck to see if there were any cat crates anywhere. "Wait…" He sniffed the air, and although his sense of smell wasn't as in tune as the dogs' were, he could still smell a very familiar, cute smell.
"You're got to be kidding me," he marveled. He grabbed a small package that said, "MAIL TO ABU DHABI".
"Garfield, there wouldn't be a cat in there," said Arlene. "Stop wasting your time."
"I can't believe I'm doing this, but…" Garfield ripped open the package and…
"For the love of Ol' Roy!" cried Winnie. "There's a kitten in there!"
"Garfield!" gasped Nermal (come on, you all knew it was him) gratefully. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you!"
"Garfield, did you try to mail Nermal off again?" cried Odie.
"I swear, it wasn't me this time," said Garfield frantically. "I knew it! I knew at least somebody else would want to mail this kitten off!"
"I was so scared!" moaned little Nermal. "I was with this couple, you see, he was doing so photo shoots with me for a new calendar, and he loved me, but his wife didn't! And so she packaged me up in this little box! At first I thought that you told her to do it, Garfield, but I was in Denver, which is pretty far from Indiana!"
"More proof of the Communists' plot," growled Schwartzkoff.
"I can't believe anyone would want to mail off something so cute!" cried Gizmo incredulously. "Even if it's a kitten!"
"You saved my life, Garfield!" cried Nermal, giving Garfield a big hug. "How can I ever repay you!"
Shaking Nermal off, Garfield shuddered and said, "By leaving me alone and never coming to visit me again."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Nermal. "And who are all these people?" He suddenly spotted Odie. "Hi, Odie!" he cried happily.
"Hey, Nermal," said Odie, waving his paw as best he could.
"We're going on a mission to rescue some St. Bernard puppies," said Winnie. "And boy, am I going to have a lot of explaining to do when they find out I've got eight people with me instead of two."
Clay very slowly counted Gizmo, Garfield, Arlene, Odie, Winnie, Schwartzkoff, and himself. "Uh… there's only seven of us," he finally said. "Unless you're counting the kitten."
"And you'd better not be," snapped Garfield.
"Of course I am!" cried Winnie. "I'm not leaving a poor, defenseless kitten in this airplane all by himself. Besides, we've already got seven. What's one more?"
"You're rescuing puppies?" cried Nermal incredulously. "I would hate to leave puppies all by themselves! Especially if they're as cute as me!"
"Help me," moaned Garfield.
…………………
It took hours, but the eight animals had each other for company, and besides, Schwartzkoff found some food in the suitcase he was in. Still, they were all happy to get out.
Until they felt the wind chill.
"Jeez, it's like being locked in a freezer!" cried Odie, shivering madly.
"Come on, how would you know about that?" shot Garfield. "Now me, I would know. I was stuck in our freezer for three days. If we hadn't had all that ice cream in there, I would have been a goner."
"Uh…" Clay held up a finger in mild protest. "I've changed my mind. I want to go home."
"Too late for that," both Winnie and Garfield sniffed.
Nermal trembled crazily from the cold. "I… I hope th-this coldness doesn't aff…affect my cuteness," he said, his teeth chattering.
"Come here, you little cuss," said Arlene, pulling the shivering kitten close to her.
"Now what?" Gizmo asked Winnie hopefully.
"Well." Winnie pulled out her sheet of instructions. "An IRD dog is supposed to be meeting us at—"
"I'm glad you're here," said a voice, cutting them off. The eight traveling companions looked up and saw a golden retriever standing before them.
The golden retriever scanned the animals in shock. "Hmm… I was told I'd only be meeting two dogs," she finally said. "And never in my wildest dreams did I expect to actually meet cats."
"It's a long story," sighed Winnie. "I'm Winnie, this is my assistant Odie, and… all these guys kinda just tagged along for the ride. I take it you're the dog I'm… we're… supposed to meet?"
"Johnny, tell our contestant what she's won," muttered the golden retriever sarcastically. "Follow me."
The golden retriever executed a 180 degree turn and trudged her way towards a small shack to the side of the runway. "I'm beginning to wish I'd stayed home too," admitted Garfield quietly, hoping that no one heard him.
"Yeah, I'm almost beginning to think that staying in that old abandoned restaurant was actually safer," mused Schwartzkoff.
The golden retriever pushed the door of the shack open and moved aside so the travelers could gratefully stumble in the relatively warm room. "This is an IRD outpost," the dog explained, motioning her paw around the room. "Zeke over there sends out dispatches and the like. Lady answers distress calls. Bonny and Hershey do a lot of investigative work. Oh, and I'm Bailey, by the way."
"Do you guys get paid?" little Gizmo piped up.
"Well, we don't get paid money," said Bailey, "but our owners are actually rescue workers and on the occasions when they learn of what we've done, they give us a few extra dog treats." Bailey shrugged. "Not that I'd have much use for human money, anyway."
"Who's that?" asked Nermal, pointing to a large St. Bernard flopped miserably in a corner.
"That's Louisa," said Bailey. She gave Winnie a nudge. "Better go over and talk to her and get the exact location of where her puppies are."
Winnie nodded dully and motioned for the others to follow her. She tapped Louisa on the shoulder gently. "Louisa?"
The huge St. Bernard looked up in surprise. "Are you… here to rescue my puppies?" she asked in a thick accent.
Schwartzkoff sniffed rudely. "Why can't you go and get them youself—OW!" he screamed as Odie bit him roughly in the leg.
"I would, but I'm still recovering from their birth!" cried Louisa mournfully. "There were eleven of them, you know."
"I can hardly imagine," both Winnie and Arlene said quietly.
"So?" mumbled Garfield, Odie, Schwartzkoff, Clay, Gizmo, and Nermal.
"Haven't you told your humans that your puppies are in there?" Arlene asked Louisa.
"I've tried a dozen times," moaned Louisa. "But they won't listen!"
"I know the feeling," muttered Garfield. He had spoken to Jon loud enough for even a human like him to hear too many times to count, and yet only a few times had Jon actually responded. Humans could be so deaf sometimes.
"Tell me, where are your puppies?" Winnie asked.
Louisa pulled a map over in front of the travelers. "Right here," she said, pointing at a cave marked "Yorgishmeyer Cave" on the map.
"Wow, what a great name," muttered Garfield.
"And… where are we now?" asked Gizmo.
Louisa pointed to a small airport symbol on the other side of the map.
Arlene groaned, despite herself. "And how far away is that?"
"It's about one hundred miles," said Louisa.
"Great," muttered Garfield. "Anyone know how to drive?"
"There's one more thing," said Louisa. "You need to get them back quickly… my humans are leaving for home in two days!"
Winnie muttered a curse word.
"Hey! Language like that isn't cute!" scolded Nermal.
"I'll go find a car… preferably with four-wheel drive," sighed Garfield.
(AN: Yep, Bailey, Zeke, Lady, Bonny, and Hershey are (or were) some of my relatives' dogs. And… there's the end of the chapter! Except I have a question. I'm thinking seriously about writing a Garfield and Friends (specifically, a US Acres) fanfic, especially after a dream I had about it last night, which is a sign for me to start writing it, a sign, you hear? Anyway, do you think it should be posted in this section? Or misc comics? Or misc cartoons? Aaaaaanyway. Thanks for reading, and see you next chapter.)