Toughy allowed his eyes to follow the stick as it flew across the clear, blue sky, face covered in all too obvious boredom. He merely sat on his haunches as the stick landed with a soft thud near a lush, green tree. His 'owner' threw up her hands exasperated. She bent down to his level.

"What's wrong Mr. Fluffy?" Mary seemed to be studying his face, trying to gage what the problem was, "Are you tired? Hungry? Thirsty?"

He shook his head, showing off his own exasperation, "The problem is that I don't wanna be here," he said, despite the fact that she couldn't understand him, "I wanna be out there, outta these walls and with my friends."

She stood for a moment more, still studying him, before an idea seemed to go off in her head, "I know! How about we go to the park? That'll be much better than playing back here all afternoon."

Toughy perked up, not out of excitement, but out of devious planning, "The park ya say..."

"Just give me a second, I'll be right back," She spoke quickly, while standing up and walking off.

"From the park to seventh and that should take me right back...to the pound." He contemplated carefully in his head, "Perfect. Just gotta go on this stupid walk, get to the park, ditch the girl, head to the pound and get the gang outta there."

His tail wagged, thumping on the ground, as he put the plan together in his head, feeling a certain sense of joyous pride in what he would soon set out to do.

"Looks like we're all set," Mary suddenly returned, "Mom and Dad said it's okay, as long as we're back before it gets dark outside."

"Perfect." Toughy repeated to himself. He turned around to start walking towards the sturdy gate, but was cut short by Mary.

She bent down and grabbed a hold of his collar, pulling something from her coat's pocket. "Can't have you walking out there all on your own," She attached a long lead of rope to his collar, "we'll get you a proper leash soon, this old thing is going to have to do for now."

Toughy cursed silently as she began to lead him out of the yard and onto the pavement outside. Even as they took their first few steps, he tried tugging on the makeshift leash in the hope that it would somehow snap. All it earned him was a slight scolding.

As they walked down the well kept neighborhood and drew nearer to the park, Toughy took in his surroundings, noting the clean atmosphere and the fence around every tree. "Guess they weren't lying, when they said this is what Snob Hill was like." He turned his nose up at what he found to be unnecessary luxuries.

On their way a few strangers greeted, Mary politely greeted back with a curtsy, resulting in many stops for the two, the longest being when a girl her age stopped them.

"Hi Mary!"

She spun around to meet her cheerful friend, "Hello there Elizabeth. What brings you out at this time?"

"Oh, nothing, I was just on my way to see the candyman, because mother gave me my allowance today and..." Elizabeth stopped short suddenly, squealing excitedly when she saw the dog at her friend's feet, "Who is this cutie pie?" She immediately dropped to her knees to get a closer look at him.

"We just got him from the pound today, his name is Fluffy." Mary stated proudly as her friend began to ruffle the fur on top of Toughy's head, much to his own chagrin.

"He is absolutely adorable!" Her hands reached the back of one of his ears, scratching him.

That brought up undesirable memories and so he quickly pulled back, releasing a growl from deep in his throat when she tried to reach there again.

Mary tugged him away by the leash, "Sorry about that. He must not be used to other people yet, poor thing."

"That's okay, you're taking him to the park?"

She nodded, "Just for a little while."

"I'd join you, but you know Mr. Disney likes to close his shop early, so I better get going quickly. Bye."

"See you later," Mary waved her friend off, before bending down to look Toughy in the eyes, "You okay Mr. Fluffy? Sorry about that, I know she can get a little coo-coo around dogs."

"Yeah, you're one to talk." He rolled his eyes.

They got back to their walk, Toughy's mood having been soured by the unpleasant experience. He tried to focus, tried to keep his thoughts in sync and his mind sharp, but before long he found himself drifting. Thinking up things that he presumed had been buried, a long, long time ago.

All he saw was her face.

The face of a mongrel.

He was one too, he knew. By then there was no mistaking it, humans chased him away if he got too close and his mother had had to pull him back on more than one occasion when the creaking of the dog catcher's wagon sounded from down the street.

They went hungry all the time too. Food seemed to always be on the more limited side. That never seemed to bring her down though, she seemed happy enough that her only remaining offspring was growing healthily.

"Isn't it just beautiful?"

Mary's remark brought Toughy back to the present moment. He looked down at the water in the fountain they were standing by, scowling at his reflection. Then he looked at his surroundings and realized that they were indeed in the park.

He sat down frustrated when he felt the gentle pull of the leash, still firmly attached to his collar.

Adding to his frustration was the fact that Mary was clearly distracted, which would have made the opportunity for escape all too easy.

"Well butter my biscuit and call me a sandwich! If it isn't good old Toughy!"

AN: Back a little soon I guess (this is Jaiden by the way). Spoiler alert, yes that is Tramp at the end an the rest of this chapter was supposed to be a conversation between him and Toughy, but then I realized that it made more sense for that scene to be combined with something else and blah, blah, blah...you get the point. We're making really good progress (like ridiculously good progress) on this story, so I can see chapters getting out a lot quicker in future (weekly, maybe). Next chapter is gonna be Bull's past, so make sure you're following, or you might miss it. Thanks for reading :3

Oh and last thing, I'm thinking about getting a cover page, but you know art isn't really my strong point, so if you have any ideas, or recommendations (an artist on Deviantart maybe) that would be much appreciated.