UGH, THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE TAKEN THIS LONG TO WRITE, AM SO SORRY D:
Dr. Whiskers: Glad you're enjoying yourself with this one. Fun fact though, I actually forgot about Max the Cat when I came up with Max the dog's name. But, I have said it so I have to run with it.
Anyway, enough of my yammering on, time for the next chapter.
Disclaimer: Housepets! belongs to Griffin, Rick. Not me Bizarre One, The
The tour had lasted far into the evening, and it had surprisingly gone off without a hitch. Bino had taken Tina by all the houses of the dogs and very few cats he knew and tried to describe them as briefly as possible. This wasn't because he couldn't give a detailed explanation on every pet in the neighborhood, but rather he did not want to be seen with a cat of all things.
Tina absorbed all the information without saying a word. At first Bino thought she didn't find it interesting, but after every house she looked at him and nodded. It took him a few houses to catch on, but soon he figured that she was just comitting all of it to memory, and talking would only disrupt that memorization.
The tour was drawing to a close. The only house left to stop at was Bino's own house, which the brown dag had considered leaving out at first, but figured it would raise suspicion in Tina's mind if he didn't show it to her. '...And I don't want to jeoperdize my deal with Max.' he thought.
However, on the way to his house, Bino's worse case scenario came to be. Just across the street from him and Tina were a circle of Bino's dog friends. Fox, Rex, Sasha, even Joey and his friend Lester were among them today. 'Oh dog don't look, don't look, don't look...' Bino thought desperately, but it was all for naught, as one by one their eyes drifted over to Bino's location, all having a different reaction.
All Fox could do was quirk an eyebrow at the sight, smirking in a mocking fashion at the ironic situation before him. Rex had a blank expression on his face, though his eyes told a story of surprise. Joey had the most calm face of the bunch, simply giving a genuine smile and a nod. Lester, however, was the polar opposite, the fur on the back of his neck standing up and his upper lip curling upwards as he gnashed his teeth. Sasha was already halfway across the street, looking eager to meet the newcomer.
"Hi there!" Sasha said, grabbing Tina's paw and shaking it up and down rapidly "I'm Sasha, who are you?"
Tina said nothing for a moment, being surprised by Sasha's sudden introduction. "Er...I'm T-tina, nice to meet you." The cat stuttered. As if those words had opened a flood gate, the other dogs made their way across the street, although towards Bino instead of Tina.
"Er, boss," Rex began, eyes wide and confusion evident in his voice. "Does this mean you're gonna let cats into our club?" Bino stayed silent, being afraid to hurt Tina's feelings if he said no. 'For the sake of the deal of course...' He corrected himself quickly. Before he could form a coherant sentence, Fox slapped him on the back.
"Well well well," Fox said in a teasing tone, a smirk plastered across his face. "I suppose it was only a matter of time, you living with a cat and all. I guess we'll call you Bino the cat guru from now on."
"You and I both know that title belongs to Peanut." Bino hissed, straining to not raise his voice. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Tina didn't hear anything, and a relieved look washed over his face as he saw Sasha and the cat lost in their own conversation. However, the look was not lost on Joey.
"I think it's great," The youngest Byron said, looking very upbeat about all this. "I mean, why not befriend-"
"You CANNOT be serious," The once silent Lester said, catching the attention of all in the near vacinity. To Bino's relief, it was only him, the other dogs and Tina.
"I mean, for the love of dog, she's a cat!" Lester exclaimed, beginning to make her way towards Tina, much to Bino's chagrin. "Nature inteded for us to be rivals, natural enemies, and now you're fratenising with them?!"
"It's not that uncommon..." Tina squeaked out, feeling intimidated by the brown dog before her.
"Yeah, if our parents force us to live together," Lester said, now stepping into Tina's personal space. The orange cat wisely began to backpedal. "but you...You're fratenizing with someone I doubt you even knew before today, and I know I didn't see the Byrons adopt anyone."
"That's enough Lester," Bino siad, trying to pull back his brother's friend. "she gets the point."
Lester responded by shoving Bino to the ground, the hairs on his neck standing up high. "Don't even get me started on you, you cat-" Lester stopped himself, simply grimacing and turning his attention back towards Tina. "Now listen here you cat, I don't want to see you, or your flea bitten hide-"
Lester was stopped by a loud growling coming from behind the group. Slowly, everyone turned around to see Maxwell, his shoulders hunched up and a look of pure anger on his face. "Now...What were you saying about my sister?" He asked, his calm voice not matching his enraged outsterior.
Now, Lester was not the smartest dog on the block. One could argue he was in the bottom percentage of intelligence in Babylon Gardens. But he knew this newcomer was over half a foot taller than him, had some of the sharpest teeth he'd ever seen, and he was angry at him. Needless to say, he was terrified.
Bino, sensing that it was about to hit the fan, sprang to his feet and quickly gathered up all the dogs around him not named Max. "I am so sorry about this Max," Bino said, surprised by how sincere he sounded. "I'll just talk to them right quick."
"Hold it Bino," Max said, looking between Tina, who was almost in tears by this point, and Bino, who's face exhibited fear. He had calmed down somewhat, but his face still held a grimace. "Leave the dog with the pink collar here...I want to talk to her personally."
Bino nodded, and before Sasha or anyone else could react, she was shoved towards Max and left behind by the others. Sasha looked up at Max, a rare look of worry on her face as the new canine stared her down. Suddenly, Max's face softened into a light smile and he extended his paw to her. "I'm Maxwell, but you can call me Max."
Needless to say, Sasha was confused.
Bino had pushed the other dogs back behind a nearby house, and soon after they had stopped he was bombarded with questions.
"Who is that dog?" Asked Joey.
"Why were you hanging out with a cat?" Asked Rex.
"How can you betray your dog brothers like that?!" Asked Lester
"Are you sure Sasha is okay?" Asked Fox.
"Everyone, shut up!" Bino said, quieting the dogs around him. "I'll answer your questions all at once, but first..." Without warning, Bino picked up Lester by his yellow collar and shoved him up against the wall of the house. "I swear to dog, if you ever even begin to call me...that again, I will end you. Got that?" Bino said, his rage rivaling Max's own moments ago. Wide eyed and startled, all Lester could do was nod.
With that, Bino put down the frightened dog and explained everything-the new neighbors, the surprise reveal, the deal, and the neighbors themselves. By the end of it all, most of the question had been answered, but Lester still wasn't satisfied.
"You mean to tell me that you'd subject yourself to hanging out with some hairball hacking feline for a bunch of rhymes?" Lester asked incredulously.
"Lester, let me drill this into to your head." Bino said, looking the brown dog dead in the eye. "It. Is. Our. Own. Theme. Song. It'll be a landmark in our club's history!"
"But-" Lester began to protest.
"No buts. This is happening if you want it or not." Bino said, trying to establish his authority as top dog.
"And what about the whole thing about letting her in the club?" Rex asked, scratching the back of his head.
"Look," Bino said, clearly fed up with the questions "if I don't, Max said he won't come anywhere near the club. I know I kick Peanut out almost daily, but the thought of a dog living in the neighborhood and not being afiliated with the club makes me sick to my stomach."
"I hate to break up anything," Said Fox, worry evident in his voice "but am I the only one concerned that we left Sasha with an angry dog with something against us?"
Silence fell for a moment among the dogs. Without saying a word, they all bolted towards where they had left only moments ago. When they arrived, they were greeted by a sight they did not expect- Max, Sasha and Tina, sitting in a circle, all smiling and laughing.
"...And so the monkey said to the rabbi-" Max stopped himself when he saw the others approaching
"Ah, there you all are." He said, standing up. He turned around and faced Sasha. "It was a pleasure meeting you, but we must be going."
"Okay Max, I can't wait to talk to you and Tina again!" Sasha said, before running down the streets.
"She was nice." Tina said meekly, a myrthful smile plastered on her face. Fox cleared his throat, getting the attention of the orange cat.
"Listen," Fox began as he rubbed the back of his head "sorry for how we acted earlier." Tina meerly blinked in confusion.
"Why are you the one apologizing?" Max asked, and eyebrow quirked "The only one who really should is that one with the yellow collar."
"Yeah yeah, the day you get an apology from me is the day you shove a six foot tree branch up your-" Lester mumbled, before getting slapped on the back of the head by Fox.
"Be that as it may," Fox said, raising his voice in hope no one other than him heard that "we really should've have stopped him instead of just standing there."
After a brief silence, Tina simply nodded with a small smile on her face. "It's okay, I'm not to mad."
An audible sigh of relief came from the group of dogs before Fox spoke up again. "We'll be on our way then, I think Bino has a tour to finish."
"Hey wait-" Bino called to them, trying to get atleast one of them to stay. It was too late however, and before he knew it they had all gone their seperate ways.
"Well," Max said, a toothy grin on his face "that was fun. I think I'll join you two for the rest of the tour, see if anything like that happens again."
"Hate to break it to you Max," Bino said, his voice having no tones of remorse in it "but we've only got one more stop on this tour, then it's over."
"Then lead the way, glorious leader." Max said, with Tina nodding in agreement.
After a little bit more walking, the group came upon Bino's home propper. With the sun setting in the distance, Bino announced the end of the tour and bluntly told them to go home.
"Tina, you go on ahead." Max said to his 'sister' "I want to talk to Bino a little."
"Okay Max..." Said Tina, sounding a little disapointed. "I'll see you tomorrow Bino." With that, she turned tail and headed in the direction of her home. As soon as she was out of sight, Max turned around to face Bino.
"Listen Max," Bino said, putting his hands up in defense "I didn't know we were going to run into them, please don't go back on our deal. Please?"
The tan dog's face was stoic for a moment, before he burst into laughter. "Man you're a paranoid dog. I just wanted to know when the next Good Ol' Dog's Club meeting was."
"Oh, right." Bino said sheepishly "We have a meeting once a week, and we...just had one today." Bino finished, his eyes widening when he remembered their deal.
"I see," Max said with a grin "So six more days, right? I'll bring Tina over tomorrow for more fun and start working on that song tonight. See ya!" Before Bino had a chance to respond, Max was already dashing down the street after Tina.
Bino stood in a catonic state for a moment or two, before heading inside his home. He then began to bang his head against the wall. 'Ugh, I never should've made that deal. I'm not sure if I can handle six more days of this...'
"I'm not sure what that wall did to you," Said a voice behind him "but I don't think that doing that to it is hurting it as much as it is hurting you."
Bino groaned as he recognized the voice behind him. Turning around, he came face to face with a dog with a similar fur pattern to him, but much taller. He had an orange collar and a pair of bifocals perched upon his nose. Bino's older brother, Fido.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be home until tomorrow morning." Bino said bluntly.
"I got done with everything sooner than I thought I would," Fido stated matter of factly "so dad came to get me early."
Before the brother's conversation could continue, the phone rang, getting the attention of everyone in the house. Max, Bino's black cat 'brother' answered.
"Hello...Uh huh...Okay, hold on a second." Max said, beforing holding the phone out to Bino. "It's for you."
Bino rushed over to the phone, so much so he didn't notice his younger brother, Joey, come out in front of him. Both dogs were soon on the floor.
"Sorry Joey," Bino said, no hints of apologeticness in his voice "I didn't see you there."
"I'm used to it." Joey said blankly before going on his way. Bino had expected something along the lines of 'Watch out next time' or 'Yeah, I didn't see you either', but seeing as he was needed on the phone he paid it no mind.
"I swear to dog, if that's Max with another stipulation to our deal..." Bino mumbled.
"We had a deal?" Max the black cat asked in confusion.
"Not you," Bino began before cutting himself off "I'll explain in the morning." Bino then put the phone to his ear.
"Byron residence." Bino said, answering the phone. His face pailed as a screaming female voice became audible to everyone in the room. "Oh dog-I-please don't...Tomorrow for sure, I promise! Two o'clock, see you then." Bino hung up the phone and slunk to the floor.
"Something wrong?" Fido asked in curiousity.
"That was Dutchess." Bino said, his voice uncharactistically wobbly "I forgot our date."
"Ouch," Fido said, a grimace coming upon his face "Do you wanna tell me why or-?"
"You know what?" Bino said, jumping up from the floor "I've had a long day, I'm going to bed." Without waiting for his brother's response, Bino made his way upstairs.
Bino sighed as he got under the covers of his doggie bed. Between having to let a cat into the club, the whole episode with Lester, and forgetting his date with Dutchess, this had not been a good day. He closed his eyes and hoped to dream something, anything, to cheer him up after this awful day.
Alright folks, here how it's going down for a little while: I still want to finish this, but I've lost the inspiration that I had when I first published this. So here's my idea-I'm going to do other stories alongside this one, like do one chapter of something else then a chapter of this. I hope this will keep me from outright abandoning this while at the same time getting more of my ideas on this site. I hope my faithful followers (both of you) are okay with this, and will continue to be patient with this story and my other works.
-Sleepless in the South, Biz.