Garfield: Monday, the 13th
Odie barked for the ball that his owner, Jon had.
"You want it, boy?" Odie barked again. "You want it?" Odie kept barking. Garfield, who was outside with them, rolled his eyes.
"Of course he wants the ball!" He said. "He's a dumb dog that likes to plays with balls and you're throwing the ball at him and he's fetching. What do you think he wants?" But of course, Jon didn't hear his pet cat and threw the ball as far as he could. Odie ran after it.
"Oh no." He said. "I think I threw it too far. I should go and get it. I don't want Odie to go out in the street and get run over by a car."
"You have to have faith in him, Jon." Garfield told him. "You have to give him some Independence, otherwise how will he learn? Although, he is a very dumb dog, so you might have a point there." Jon thought about this.
"You know what? Maybe I'll wait a minute or two."
"Why wait at all? Seriously. Jon, you have to have faith in your pets. We trust you humans to feed us every day, so you should have faith that he'll come back…maybe."
Odie ran to the street. He tried to get the ball, but it landed in a sewer grate. The dog poked his head in and looked as the ball fell down below. The dog whined. How will he he get it now? Odie whimpered as he got his head out. He was about to go back home when all of a sudden he heard a voice.
"Looking for this?" Odie looked and couldn't believe it! It was Binky the clown peeking out and in his hand was the ball! Odie barked with joy. The clown grinned mischievously.
"If you want the ball, you're going to have to come closer." Odie came closer. "Yeah, that's it. Good doggie! Good, good, doggie!"
Suddenly, Jon and Garfield heard a loud yipping, Jon panicked.
"Odie?!" His frighted owner questioned out loud. He ran after the sound. Garfield seemed to panic as well.
"Oh no! What had that dog gotten himself into this time?" He asked himself.
Both Jon and Garfield ran to where Odie was, but he was nowhere in sight.
"Odie?" Jon asked. "Odie?" He whistled. "Odie, here boy; Odie!"
"You know." Garfield said. "Now that I think of it that could have been a different frightened yipping sound that we heard. Odie is unfortunately not the only dog in this neighborhood you know." But Garfield began looking with his owner. "Oh, Odie, where did you go off to, you stupid mutt?"
They looked through the whole neighborhood and even the next few neighborhoods close by, but Odie was nowhere in sight. This worried Jon.
"I don't get it." Jon wondered out loud. "He shouldn't have wandered far. Maybe I'll call the pound to see if they got him."
"Yeah, you do that, Jon." Garfield told him. "I may dislike the dumb mutt, but I do care about him. I'm not heartless. The readers know that from the live- action movie and from my first tv special nearly 40 years ago. That one song in my mind when the pound guy was taking him away. Man, that was a tearjerker! If no one cried during that song, they weren't human."
As Jon was on the phone with the pound, Garfield was watching TV. The news was on. He was about to flip the channel when the news reporter on screen said something that left him shocked.
"We received numerous reports about missing dogs all across the state." The news reporter said in her microphone on the TV. "Desperate owners are asking for help on the whereabouts about their beloved pooches. Thousands of missing dog flyers are all over."
"I can't believe this." Garfield said to himself. '"I understand a few dogs being this dumb, but all of them? Yeah, all dogs can be this dumb. I can see that happening." Jon then just came into the room, his face filled with disbelief and sorrow.
"I just got off the phone, Garfield." He told his cat. "And apparently, lots of dogs are being reported as missing, so Odie isn't the only one." He then saw what his pet was watching.
"Is someone going around, taking dogs away one by one?" The reporter asked. "Is the person doing this all alone or is there more than one? We don't know, but this has to stop before more pet owners suffer. If you have any information on this, do your civic duty and report it to the police and hopefully they can get to the bottom of this before this gets worse. If we all work together, we can put an end to this injustice once and for all." The TV turned off.
"Hey!" Garfield complained. "I could have switched it to a more cheerful program." He saw Jon with the remote looking depressed.
"This just doesn't make sense." He heard his owner say. "Who would do something like this?"
"I don't know, Jon." Garfield admitted. "But hey, at least you still have me! It could be worse, at least no cats are being catnapped. I warned you that today being Monday the 13th was a bad omen. Oh, if only you listened to me. Mondays are bad enough, but having the 13th land on a Monday? That's doubly unlucky!"
"I'm going to call my parents and brother and see if they heard of this." He said, going back to where he was before.
"Jon is acting like something worse is going on." Garfield said to himself. "I hate to see him so depressed like this." He realized something. "What if he is so depressed that he forgets to cook my food, even lasagna?" He then was determined. "I can't and won't let that happen! Something has to be done about this. My stomach is depending on it! Don't worry, Odie and other dogs across the state. Once again, here comes Garfield!" And with that, the orange cat headed for the door.
Garfield was outside. He walked down Jon's driveway. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew one thing. He had to find Odie and maybe the other dogs, He was willing to stay up all night, missing all of his naps, maybe never sleep again if need be. He obviously didn't want this and hoped that it never came to that. Oh, Odie! The things I have to go through for you.
As he passed the sewer grate where Odie was taken, he heard faint dog barkings. He halted in his tracks.
"Odie?" He asked himself. "Other dogs?" He sighed to himself. "I hope you dogs really need help, and not just hiding from your owners. That'll just be a waste on my part and really cruel of you guys." He went closer to the barks. He went by the sewer grate and put his ear against it, hearing all of the dogs.
"Are you all down there in this sewer grate?" The barks got louder. He looked and saw a lone puppy down below. "Well, I guess that answers that. How did you get down there?" The puppy didn't answer. "Don't worry. I'll get you out of there." He pulled and pulled with all of his strength, but couldn't open it. He tried again and again with the same result. "It's no use. I can't open it." He realized something. "I wonder." He looked at the puppy and called down. "Hold on, I'm going to find something to help!" He ran off. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he had to try.
A dog barked. Garfield stopped and saw a little Westie fetching a stick that landed near the grate. Focus, Garfield! He was about to go when he saw a clown poke his head out, scaring the dog. The cat quickly hid behind a tree. He poked his head out to witness the scene unfold. Binky? He saw the clown offer the stick back to the dog.
"You want your stick back, doggy?" The clown asked. He looked like Binky, but didn't sound like him. The Westie gave out a bark. "Well, come closer so I can give it to you." The dog came closer. "Closer, closer…" He saw the clown look left and right as the dog came closer. "That's it!" The orange cat looked on in horror as the clown opened up the sewer and picked up the dog who yipped in fright. "You're coming with me, doggo!" Unbeknownst to the clown, Garfield ran to the sewer and jumped in before the clown closed it behind him.
Garfield slid all of the way down on a makeshift slide. When he landed on the ground, he dusted himself off. The clown stood up behind him, puppy in his arms.
"What are you doing down here?!" The clown demanded to know. Garfield turned to him and pointed an accusing finger at him.
"I could ask the same thing to you!" He shouted, mad. "What are you doing with that dog? Are you the one dog napping all of the dogs?" The clown obviously didn't understand and shrugged.
"Oh well, you're down here now." He then thought of something. "Hmmm, I wonder what a cat fur coat would be like." Garfield was confused.
"Wait, a what?!" He asked. The clown grabbed him by the scuff of his neck, "Hey, what are you doing?!" He struggled to get free as the clown took him and the dog deeper underground. "Let me go; let me go; HELP; HELP!" He scratched the clown's grip on him. The clown yelled in pain as he dropped both Garfield and the dog. Garfield and the dog ran off as fast as they could with the clown giving chase.
"I'LL GET YOU FOR THAT, CAT!" The clown screamed after the animals. The pets ran and ran. What is it with this crazed clown?
Garfield gasped and halted in his tracks when he saw hundreds of dogs in one clearing. Are these…? The clown had caught up to them.
"I see you met the dogs." Garfeld looked at the clown.
"It was you!" The mad cat accused him. "You have dognapped these dogs; why?!" But he didn't get an answer.
"These dogs are going to be your best friends until the time comes." Garfield was confused.
"Time? For what?" But he was still left unanswered as he heard happy barking. He looked and saw Odie running excitedly towards him. Garfield was happy to see the mutt.
"Odie!" He cried. He embraced the dog. "Boy, am I glad to see you!" Odie gave him a slobbery lick and Garfield pawed it away. "Ok, ok! I may have missed you, but do you have to do that all of the time? Of course you do, you're you and I'm going to have to live with it whether I like it or not." He then looked at Odie. "Odie, we have to figure out a way to get out of this place. Now, help me think." He began to think. Seconds later, he saw that Odie wasn't thinking and grew irritated. "Fine; I'll think of a plan. I might think of a better plan than you anyways." With that, he began to think again. He saw that the clown was back. He had a crazed look on his face and had a club in his hand.
"Why do you have that crazed look on your face and why do you have that club in your hand?"
"Good news!" He announced. "Well, depending on how you pets value your lives, then good for just me. Your pets are too stupid to understand anyways so you probably don't understand a thing I'm saying, do you?"
"Wanna bet, you crazed clown? These dogs might be too stupid to understand your language, but not me. Lay it on me!"
"I'll tell you anyways since you don't understand, so it doesn't matter. I just got a text from my boss. He said to go ahead and kill you guys now and turn you into coats." This stunned Garfield.
"Wait, you're going to do WHAT?!" The clown lifted the club above him.
"Say goodbye to your lives, doggy and kitty!"
"Come on, Odie!" Garfield told the dog. "We have to get out of here now!" Before the club could hit Garfield, the cat ran for his life. Garfield saw Odie had stayed behind and halted dead in his tracks and gasped. "Oh no, Odie!" The clown looked at Odie and lifted the club above his head again. "Guess your cat friend doesn't want to be first. Guess you are then, doggie."
"Guess again, clown!" Garfield shouted. He lunged at the clown and scratched his face over and over. The clown screamed. Garfield jumped back, grabbed Odie by the tail and ran. Odie barked. Garfield stopped and looked at all of the other dogs. He sighed to himself.
"Oh, why am I such a nice person? Ok, Odie, let's save all of the other dogs too." Odie barked with joy. Garfield let go of Odie's tail and approached the other dogs with Odie. The clown got up and followed. The dogs now knew that this clown was bad news, so they all ran and hid. So did Garfield and Odie.
"That was a nasty trick, cat!" The clown spat. "Come out, come out, kitty cat and doggies. Come out, wherever you are! We're down here in the sewers, so you all can't hide forever."
He's right. Garfield thought to himself. But we sure can try! We have to. It's a matter of life and death. The clown then had an idea. He took out his cell phone. What is he doing? Garfield thought. Is he calling for backup? He turned on the flashlight and made the light shine on the ground. What is he doing now? Does he think I will try to pounce on that light? What kind of idiot does he think I am?
"Come pounce on the light, kitty cat!" The clown taunted. "I know you want to because that is what you cats do. I know this isn't a laser pointer, but it's close enough. I'm not going to chase that light, clown. I'm not like other cats. I don't even hunt mice no matter how Jon wants me to. I won't. I march to the beat of my own drummer. I'm my own cat. The clown moved the flashlight around and around. "Here, here, kitty cat! Come and get it!" After a minute went by, he became irritated. "What is wrong with you, cat?" The problem is I'm smart and you are dumb.
The clown turned off the flashlight. He took off his own rubber clown nose and threw it on the ground. Garfield panicked. He knew what the clown was doing. Don't do it you dumb dogs. Don't do it. It's a trap. The clown walked up to his nose and threw it again. The dogs then stormed out after it, even Odie. No! No! Come back! It's a trap! Not you too, Odie! Garfield saw the clown's wicked grins.
"Chase the ball, doggies!" He said. "I only have one ball, so you're going to have to learn to share. That won't be a problem, right?" One dog started fighting over the ball, then several dogs began fighting. Pretty soon, it was a full out brawl over the toy. The clown took this as his opportunity. He went over to a couple of fighting dogs and raised the club over his head once again. A dog noticed this and barked. The fighting dogs saw this as well as the other dogs and took off running all at once. Garfield didn't know if he should run after the dogs and give up his hiding place or stay where he was. But in the end, he decided to risk it and ran with the dogs. They might need him after all, and he can't hide forever.
Jon was outside, searching once again for Odie and Garfield too. Liz was there too. The two called the animals' names. Jon called the police.
"Thank you for trying." Jon said to a police officer over the phone after telling him about his missing pets. "I know you all have your hands full and are trying your very best to get each and every other dog home to their owners. Bye!" He hung up and sighed. Oh, Garfield and Odie, where are you? He sat down by a sewer grate and sobbed, not knowing that down below was his beloved dog and cat and several other of the lost dogs. Liz sat down by him and consoled him.
"There, there," She said to him. "I'm sure they will show up. I'm sure all of the animals will show up."
"You're just saying that to make me feel better." Jon sobbed. "First I lose Odie and now I lose Garfield? And I swear, I lost both of them before, multiple times in fact. I'm telling you Liz, I'm the worst pet owner in the world." He cried and cried.
"Shhh, no, you're not."
"Again, you're saying that to make me feel better. I'm telling you, Liz. I'm the worst."
Suddenly, they heard barks. Liz's eyes widened. "Jon, did you hear that?" She asked. There were more barks. Jon stopped crying to look around and stood up.
"I do." He said. "I wonder where those barks are coming from." Liz then saw dogs running down below in the sewer grate. She nudged Jon.
"Jon, look!" Jon looked and saw the dogs in the sewers. He gasped.
"Those are probably the kidnapped dogs!" It was his turn to nudge Liz. "Liz, call 911!" Liz nodded and took out her cell phone. "I wonder what they are running away from." He then saw Garfield and Odie as well being chased by the clown.
"ODIE, GARFIELD!" He screamed, horrified.
"Jon," Liz told him, covering the speaker of her phone. "Not now, I'm on the phone with the police." She put the phone to her ear again. "Sorry about that, officer."
Garfield saw Jon from above the sewer grate. Jon? The cat ran and climbed the ladder to where the entrance of the grate was. He reached out for Jon. Jon grabbed Garfield's paw.
"Oh, no you don't, kitty cat!" The clown said when he saw what the cat was doing. He ran to where the cat was and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, pulling him away.
"JON!" A terrified Garfield screamed. "PLEASE, HELP US!"
"GARFIELD!" Jon screamed again. Liz covered the speaker of her phone again.
"Jon, please!" She pleaded. "I know you're scared about your pets, and I'm trying to help. You're making that difficult." She put the phone against her ear again. "Again, I'm so sorry, officer."
The clown stepped up to all of the terrified dogs and cat. He grabbed his rubber nose that was on the ground, put it back on and once again raised the club above his head, laughing evilly. "Time to die and turn into fur coats, doggies and kitty cat!" A rock then hit him. He looked and saw that it was Jon who had ran to grab some nearby rocks to throw at the clown.
"LEAVE THOSE PETS ALONE, YOU PSYCO CLOWN!" He yelled, throwing the rocks at the clown over and over. He then realized he had ran out. He was about to get more when the clown ran as fast as he could to the grate, startling the pet owner, causing him to fall on the ground. The clown let out his wicked laugh. This made Garfield determined.
"Hey!" He snapped. "Don't you dare hurt Jon!" He looked at the other dogs. "Come on dogs, time to be brave and attack!" The dogs all agreed and lunged at the clown, Garfield and Odie included. The clown turned back to the dogs and screamed as the dogs and cat pinned him to the cold, damp ground.
The next thing Garfield knew is that he and the pets were rescued and out of the sewers. He turned around to see that the clown was being arrested. The clown sneered at him before being forced in the police car. The cat couldn't believe it. The cops came just in time! He and the other pets were saved and hopefully will never have to see that creep of a clown ever again. He was so relieved that he didn't mind when Odie licked him. He was so relieved that he and the dog embraced in a nice hug.
"Hey, isn't that clown who you guys just arrested, Binky?" Jon pondered out loud. "Weird. I didn't think of him as a psycho criminal."
"Oh, no." An officer told him. "We didn't arrest Binky. We arrested his doppelgänger, Bongo. Thank goodness too. My kids love Binky. They'd hate to see their dad and his team arresting him."
"Not to mention a lot of other fans of his show around the world." Jon put in.
"Yeah." The officer agreed. "But even if he was a celebrity, he would still be arrested. If a person breaks the law, they will be arrested, no matter who they are."
"I hear you." Jon said. "And I agree. Just because they're a main celebrity, does not make them above the law. Thank you for saving my dog, cat and the other dogs." The officer looked at Liz.
"Well, thanks to your girl for the call. We'd been after Bongo for a long time."
"No problem." Liz told the cop. "Just doing my civic duty as an honest citizen."
"I still can't believe he would do this." Jon spoke up again. "Who would do this to innocent people's pets?" The cop looked at him again.
"Sickos like him."
"I guess so." Jon smiled as he bent down to the ground on one knee to pet his cat and dog. "But I'm so just so glad that my pets are safe and that I have them again. I'm also glad that the other dogs are going to reunite with their owners. They deserve as much happiness as possible, especially after all that they went through."
"Yes." Garfield agreed to himself. "Even when I hate him most of the time, I must admit, I came to love this doofus." Odie licked him so that his fur was soaking wet. Garfield smiled at the dog. "It's good to be together again."
