Chapter 5 – Sour Puppies – Part 1
"Woah woah woah, time out for a second." Dolly interrupted, holding her front paws up to signal the conversation to be halted.
"You're telling us, that you not only know this human, but that he's able to understand us without those things in the babies' ears?" Dylan then asked. Being able to communicate with dogs with a translation device was one thing but to actually be able to speak and know what dogs are saying without any assistance was another.
"Yep! Believe me, sprout, it was a bit of a shock to me when I first found out about my gift when I was probably Angelica's age! My folks when they found out often liked to call it 'DoLittle Syndrome'!" Tommy's grandpa, Lou Pickles explained as he sat on the couch in the living room. Some of the pups were sat next to him as their faces lit up with growing intrigue.
"Yes, everything he's saying is true." Delilah confirmed as well before continuing. "And why I know him is… Well, he used took in and cared for my great-great-grandfather and grandaunt."
"What?"
"No way!"
"For real?"
Many of the pups exclaimed in a mix of disbelief and wonderment upon hearing this. Lou nodded to confirm what Delilah said before picking up Dizzy and gently scritching her head which made her giggle.
"Was maybe a year or so when Delilah wrote to me actually. Told me she started a big family, and I can see she definitely meant big! Any of these sprouts ever give you any trouble, Del?" Lou further explained before adding a question which made Delilah chuckle.
"Well, they can sometimes be a bit of a handful! Especially when Dolly and Dylan get into a little disagreement over responsibilities." Delilah replied, as Dolly responded by rolling her eyes.
"Ah, so I figured! Well at least it can't be as bad as Pongo and Missy were when I was lookin' after them when they were just Dorothy's age!" Dylan's eyebrows raised at this as he walked a little closer to Lou.
"You mean our great-great-great-grandfather and grandaunt argued a lot as pups?" Dylan asked with growing curiosity.
"Argued? Hah! They made all the fights that Stu and Drew had as babies more like a dang duck hunt! I still remember the time when I found them alone in an alleyway and took care of them on my business trip to London! Tommy's grandma, bless her soul, was back in America watching Stu and Drew. Yes sir, I remember as if it were yesterday."
In a town of London not far from Regent's Park, nestled a small business complex, a large window on the front of the building had a simple logo saying "Lou's Magic Wrench – He can fix most anything". Inside, an adult possibly in his 20's sat at his counter and was trying to tinker with an old radio before closing it back up… only for it to break apart, causing several springs to fly out.
Meanwhile, in the back room, a woven basket with a blanket rested in the middle, an old television set standing not too far from it against a wall. Inside the basket were two Dalmatian puppies, one was a boy with black ears, yipping excitedly and pawing at a ball. The other was a girl with only one ear black, the other being with with a single spot. She had very few spots on her body as well with only one on her back and she was chewing on a bone shaped squeaky toy.
The boy pup pounced on the ball, only to make it fly upwards on top of a nearby desktop.
"Augh! Not again!" The male pup said in frustration. Luckily, the desk was only a few paw-steps away from their bed as the girl gave the desk a little kick, enough to make it shake slightly and make the ball fall back into the puppy bed.
"You know, Pongo. My squeaky bone is a lot more fun than your ball." The girl pup said in a bit of a smug tone, holding the aforementioned toy with a forepaw.
"No! MY ball is a lot more fun than your bone, Missy!" The male pup, Pongo shot back, annoyed.
"No, it isn't!" Missy argued back.
"Yes, it is!"
"No, it's not!"
"Is too!"
"Is NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
Luckily, the argument ceased when both pups' ears pricked up as they heard a familiar theme tune, making them turn to the TV and they both smiled excitedly.
"Hey, it's Li'l Thunderbolt!"
True to Missy's word, what showed on the TV was a young German Shepherd puppy racing across a desert field before stopping at a pile of rocks, eavesdropping on three humans with explosives in their hands.
"Alright, you two. Tha boss wants us to make sure that this oil rig goes kaboom as fast as possible. Now I know too well that neither of ya will screw 'dis up or the boss'll have us scrubbing toilets for a month." One of the human thugs said, his tone having a very thick brutish accent.
"Well, if we do end up cleanin' toilets, we'll be doin' it for our country." One of the other thugs retorted, earning a grimace from the thug who first talked.
"Oh, a real patriot, eh?" The former thug asked sarcastically before smacking the other across the cheek. "Shuddup wid' yer wise-cracks and get movin'!" He then demanded as the other two thugs went ahead with planting the explosives. Pongo and Missy meanwhile laughed at the slapstick going on amongst the goons.
"Hahaha, I love when Li'l Thunderbolt takes on the Three Crooges! They're so goofy!" Missy giggled at the show went to a freeze-frame of the German Shepherd pup jumping over his hiding spot followed by some narration.
"Will Li'l Thunderbolt be able to disarm the explosives and save the town's oil rig in time?! Find out when the Li'l Thunderbolt show continues in thirty minutes!"
"Thirty Minutes?! That's almost forever!" Missy exclaimed with slight horror.
"Don't worry, Missy, I got an idea! What if we played Li'l Thunderbolt?" Pongo asked. Missy's eyes immediately lit up at that question before responding with an eager "Okay!", allowing Pongo to give out the instructions.
"Okay, I'll be Li'l Thunderbolt, and you can be the-"
"Hey, that's not fair! Why can't I be Li'l Thunderbolt?!" Missy protested, interrupting Pongo's instructions.
"Because you're a girl! Li'l Thunderbolt's a boy!" Pongo fought back.
"But I don't want to be the bad guy! I want to be the one who saves the day!" Missy insisted, stomping a front paw in frustration.
"Well I've seen more episodes than you have so I get to be Li'l Thunderbolt!" Pongo retorted with as much anger as Missy had currently.
"I wouldn't let you be Li'l Thunderbolt even if you paid me!"
"Well there's no one else playing as the bad guy so you're playing as the bad guy, SO THERE!"
"I'M NOT PLAYING AS THE BAD GUY!" Missy finally screamed aloud before grabbing Pongo's ball with her mouth and throwing it as hard as possible, causing it to fly out of an open window.
"HEY!" Pongo yelled in rage before retaliating by grabbing Missy's squeaky bone and throwing it as it hit a vase on a tabletop, making it topple over and fall to the floor where it shattered into pieces. Pongo and Missy both gulped at the mess they had ended up causing before looking at each other.
"Woah… So kinda like Dolly and Dylan when they were pups, huh? Still remember that one fight they had over some… moon rocks?" Doug recalled with a chuckle.
"Dad, they were possibly rocks that had broken off of an asteroid and had made it to earth's atmosphere, those things were special! Well, they were special until a certain SOMEONE took them to throw at some glass bottles and lost them down the drain!" Dylan reminded before shooting an annoyed glare at Dolly who stared back with an equally annoyed look.
"Seriously, Dylan?! That was a few years ago and they were just a bunch of rocks that you found off the road!" Dolly shot back in a mix of growing frustration and defensiveness.
"Those 'rocks' are very hard to come by when you know very well that asteroids are rarer than finding a needle in a haystack, Dolly!" Dylan pressed his snout against Dolly's in aggravation as he said this.
"DAGNABBIT, WILL YOU TWO CUT IT OUT?!" Lou finally shouted at the two teen pups who flinched a little before looking at the old human in question. Dolly just stared at Lou, stunned whilst Dylan hung his head in shame.
"So like, they really had TVs back then?" Destiny of the Triple D asked, she and her other two siblings having grown interested in Lou's story.
"Yep! Only they had it in black and white, and no remote control, neither." Lou replied, this earned almost shocked expressions from the Triple D.
"O M D!"
"Like, get outta town!" Dallas and Deja Vu exclaimed in surprise.
"So what happened next, Mister Lou?" Dawkins asked, wanting to know what he did about the situation.
"Well, I was angrier than a swarm o' hornets. It was time to teach them a lesson." Lou answered, adding a bit of a sinister tone to the end of his sentence, making Dolly chuckle a little.
"Okay, so what'd you do, grandpa? Make them eat vegetarian kibble for a week? Give them a long sponge bath?" Dolly asked. Now she was starting to get into the story as well.
"Nope, something much worse." Lou corrected, his tone growing more sinister.
Thirty minutes had passed since Pongo and Missy last bickered and since Lou had not said anything to them before then, they had thought they had been left unheard as they were now both sat eagerly watching the continuation of Li'l Thunderbolt which started right at where the previous episode left off with the titular hero landing from his leap and racing towards the two goons, ready to pounce on them.
...That is until the TV suddenly shut off. Pongo and Missy blinked in shock before looking up at the younger Lou who was standing next to the TV set with his finger on the button before raising it in the air to emphasise that he was putting his foot down.
"No more Li'l Thunderbolt!"
It didn't take long for either of the two pups to register what they had heard nor did it take long for them to realise that Lou was serious with this punishment as they immediately let out a mix between sad howls and bawling. Lou approached the basket and picked up the still crying pups before taking them upstairs to his bedroom and to an open cardboard box with a blanket also inside.
"You can blubber all you want, but it ain't gonna help! Now you pups play nice. If you're real good, I'll let you watch Emergency Ward 10 tonight!" Lou offered. Pongo and Missy stopped crying for a moment, looked at each other and started crying again.
"Whoop. Looks like I got a call." Lou said upon hearing the familiar ringing of a telephone before heading back downstairs, leaving the two puppies alone whom stopped crying once more as they watched their caretaker leave the room.
