(Whisper)
Beau agreed to give me a few lessons on how to defend oneself when encountering other street dogs in this city. I did have some skills in my repertoire however, I found myself eager to see what he has in store.
I saw him lying in an alley on his belly facing away from me. This gave me the opportunity to sneak up on him. Crouching down, I start sneaking towards him. Not realize how loud I was actually being, I jump at him. "Gotcha!" I yell but miss him. He had managed to avoid me so easily. "You gotta learn to be more quiet when trying to ambush someone." he said, giving me a scoff as he walks past me. "Please, I was doing okay." I say, turning to face him.
"Psh, alright, I'll believe you." he said sarcastically. "Oh yeah, show me how you do it since I'm so bad at it." I say in a growl. He trots out with his tail raised. I follow him a few steps behind. It wasn't my fault that there was tipped over trash cans all throughout the alleyway. So it was hard to avoid them.
The alley way we come across had made some noise, getting Beau's attention. It was the trash can but neither of us could see what was making that noise. "Okay, now watch and learn." he whispers to me, crouching down. Steadily, he makes his way over to the trash can. He starts to bark loudly and he jumped at the trash can.
"Ay! What are you doing?! You better get out of my face, muchacho!" Tito's voice growled. Beau skidded back a bit by Tito. I facepalm and shook my head. Why was he here? I groan and walk beside him. "Tito, what are you doing here?" I ask, clearly irritated. "Oh, Whisper! Thank goodness you're here. This punk was about to attack me." Tito said, growling at Beau. "Please, he was only showing me how to be more stealthy. Has my parents asked about my whereabouts? Did they send you to find me?" I asked, glaring down at him.
"Oh no they haven't asked. Your mom is out with Rita somewhere. And they haven't sent me and Einy out to find ya. We're only getting lunch for today. And this alley's loaded with food." Tito said, rummaging through the trash can and pulled out an apple that someone threw out. "Wait, you said Einstein is with you. I don't see him." I say, looking around. "Right here, Whisper." Einstein said, looking up with a steak in his mouth. He sees me and Beau. Being as protective as he is, he didn't take it too kindly.
"Whisper, why's he here? Did he lay a paw on you?" he growled, coming at us. "Einy, calm down. He hasn't done a thing to hurt me. He was teaching me how to be more stealthy. And now it's my turn to teach him a thing or two." I respond, looking at Beau. He had a look of confusion of what I was getting at. "What could you possibly teach me?" he asked. "To loosen up. Have some actual fun by car surfing." I say, walking towards the street.
"Um… what's car surfing? I don't understand what that term means." Beau asked in confusion. "Oh it's fun, amigo. Dodger and Rose had taught her when she was a pup." Tito said, strutting by him. "Yeah, stick with us. You will get the hang of it." Einstein agreed, strutting by him also. Beau was slightly confident. I see an oncoming taxi coming from around the corner.
"Okay, when the taxi arrives, jump as hard as you can and you should land on it easy." I tell him all the while keeping both eyes on the taxi. Once it was at least a couple of inches, I make my jump onto the taxi perfectly. Beau joined me swiftly. He almost slid off the side but I was able to catch him. Tito and Einstein also joined us.
"Whoa! This is weird! You guys do this for fun?" Beau asks as the car started moving.
"Oh yeah! It gets even better! Watch this!" Einstein said, jumping to another car that was going in the same direction as the taxi. "What are you doing?!" Beau shouted, clearly not used to this. "Loosen up, would you? Look, just stay relaxed and always look forward. Don't ever look anywhere else otherwise you're just asking to get hit by one of these cars." I tell him, preparing to make a second jump.
From my peripheral vision, I could see he was hesitant. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the exact same way when my parents showed me this technique. I exhale and relaxed. Then I skillfully make my jump to the next car without any issue. I turn to Beau and wait for him to join me. He just stared at me with his pointed ears laid back all the way.
"C'mon, Beau! We don't have all day!" I say. With a gulp, he does so and ends up making it. "There you go. See it's not that bad." Tito said, leaping to another car. I jump at least three more taxis and stood on the taxi sign and let the wind blow through my red and white fur.
Looking back, Beau took a minute to catch up. He was starting to get the hang of it. "C'mon! To Madison Avenue!" Tito announced. He was right because Madison Avenue was coming up short so we decided to make a pit stop there. The four of us jump down to the street and share a short laugh.
"What'd ya think, amigo?" Tito said, wagging his skinny tail at Beau. Looking at the cars, he smiled genuinely. "That… was honestly fun. My mother would never let me do anything like that." Beau said loosely. "Well, she ain't here. So let's have some more fun before the sun sets!" Einstein suggested, starting to take the lead. "Right behind ya, Einy!" I say, trotting beside him. Beau quickly followed.
We make it up to an alleyway of Steinway Street and spotted something settled in the distance. "Wait, stop guys." I say, sniffing the air with my left foreleg raised. "What is it, Whisper?" Tito asked. "There's something ahead. I'm gonna go check it out. If it's clear, then I'll let you know." I say, taking it to a crouching position. Quickly moving, I hug the left wall and moved as quietly as I could to the entrance of the street. Once I make it there, I barely poke my head around to see what it was.
It was the dog catchers truck with smoke coming out of the tailpipe and the engine rumbling. Oh no… I move back a few steps so I was out of the dog catchers sight. "What is it?" Beau asks concerned. "Dog catcher around 2 o'clock." I whisper as to not draw attention to him. "Estúpido loco…" Tito said, shaking his head. "What do we do?" Einstein asked curiously. We waited a moment to come up with a plan.
"Okay, I'll distract him so you guys can make a run for it. I will catch up with you." I suggest, catching them off guard. "Are you sure, Whisper? What if he catches you?! You know your parents won't be happy if you get caught." Einstein asked, giving me concerned eyes. "I'm the second fastest so he'll never catch me." I reply. I was the second fastest dog here so there would be a good chance that I'll outrun him.
"Okay… be careful." Beau said. I give him a wink to show that I would. I run out of the alleyway and face the dog catcher, tail and ears raised. He didn't see me to begin with. "Arf-Arf!" I barked twice loud enough to get his attention. It seemed to work because he looked straight at me with a jerk to his head.
He grinned and slowly got his catching pole. "Hey there. Pretty siberian husky like you don't need to be in the streets. Why don't you come with me?" he said, starting to walk towards me with the pole. I growled deeply and bared my teeth at him. Of course, he was cautious that I would bite him. When that catch pole got within an inch from my neck, I bit down on the pole and manage to tear it out of the dog catcher's hands. I then take off running in the other direction.
"Hey! Get back here, you stupid mutt!" he yelled after me. Beau and them make a run for it too. "Over there!" I yell, quickly turning the corner with the others behind me. The dog catcher was behind us with his catch pole. I could feel that adrenaline coursing through my blood the longer we ran from him. It felt amazing. I gaze over at Beau to see that he was obviously getting the gist of the fun we were having. We run through a few streets to get away from the dog catcher.
There was a truck up ahead with a trailer attached to it. "Up there! C'mon!" I say, jumping on a car to make it onto the truck with the others behind me. Lucky for us, the truck was still moving so it was too fast for the dog catcher to actually catch us. "Whoo! What a blast!" Beau said, jumping around with his tail wagging vigorously. "See? What did we tell you? Ya just gotta loosen up." Tito said, closing his eyes and taking in the cool breeze.
"That was fun. I wanna do that again." Beau said happily. Closing my eyes, I smile and take in the cool breeze. That seemed to do the trick. When I turned my head to feel the air hitting my face, my nose touches something else. I quickly opened my eyes and see that… I was touching noses with Beau.
I instantly blush and pull back in embarrassment. He too blushed a deep red and chuckled nervously. "Sorry." he apologized nervously. At this, my heart started to beat a million miles an hour. And I felt warm and fuzzy inside. What was this feeling? Was it love? Absolutely not. I mean it wasn't the familial love that I get from my parents and the gang. It was a different kind of love…