My blue collar glinted in the low light of the moon as I put it on. It was nearly concealed under my long red fur that I had grown over the winter to keep me warm. I brushed out my fur before turning away from the pond and scampering over towards the tree where RJ was sitting Hammy.

I looked over at the house as RJ readied the fishing line from up in the tree. From what I understood, Hammy was supposed to turn off the traps but with his one track mind I wasn't sure how he was supposed to really accomplish anything.

RJ swung the fishing pole and managed to snag the rain gutter on Gladys's house, pulling it taught before setting the rod in between two branches for the moment being.

"Okay Hammy-" RJ began, turning to talk to Hammy but he had already bounded past RJ and leapt onto the line and the rod whirled, and Hammy plummeted towards the traps. RJ panicked, grabbing the rod and wheeled the line back in quickly, "Hammy!"

The line straightened out and Hammy seemed to be unfazed.

And before I knew it, Hammy was quickly scurrying across the fishing line, safely over the traps that lie below. When Hammy reached the other side he unhooked the line and startled towards the piping going down the side of the house.

RJ ushered him on as he put away the fishing rod, "Go, go, go…"

Hammy was instantly distracted and darted towards a cookie that had gotten itself on the roof.

"No, no, no, no!" RJ grimaced and I bit my lip, hopping up onto the branch he was sitting on, "I told you that cookie is junk!"

"But I like the cookie," Hammy responded, hugging the cookie to his chest.

RJ looked frustrated, paws bunched up into balls, eyes narrowed at Hammy as if RJ focused enough Hammy would listen.

"What's going on up there?" Verne's voice came from below.

I peeked over the side of the branch at the same moment RJ did.

"Is everything okay up there?" Verne asks, the others already gathered behind him, ready for action.

RJ slapped a smile on his face and showed Verne an 'ok' sign with his fingers before popping back up onto the branch to figure out what he was to do with Hammy.

I rolled my eyes, sliding back down to the ground. I brushed off my red fur and looked over at Verne and the others.

"Care to share, Rebekah?" Verne asks, obviously not convinced.

"Hammy's not cooperating," I say with a shrug.

"That's nothing new," Verne says, hands on his hips.

"Haha! Here we go!" RJ yells in victory, holding up a laser pointer.

"Oh boy…" I laugh and gesture the others to follow me, "Come on. He's just about ready."

And right on cue, the lights in Gladys's yard go out.

"Okay! Step two," RJ grins, looking down at us from his branch.

"Okay, I thought we would be dead by step two so this is going great!" Verne smiles happily.

Everyone hurries through the hedge and into Gladys's back yard. We hurried behind a bush and RJ smiled at me, "I think this might actually work.

I bite my lip, "For your sake, I hope so…"

"Okay, Gorgeous, you're on," RJ shoves Stella out into the open, making her freeze.

"Man this better be one stupid cat…" I heard Stella mutter as she walks toward the ball of fur sitting on the window sill.

"Audio go," RJ says quickly.

Verne goes to pull the switch on the kiddy toy we found but as if spun it landed on cow instead of cat, making the toy 'moo' loudly.

Stella turned and glared at us.

I giggled, paws slapping over my mouth as the cat jumped up onto its feet.

Everyone began to panic and Verne looked over at us in surprise, "Maybe the cat likes cows?"

Penny slaps him upside the head.

I look back to see Stella hurrying over to the bush in fright but with a beep, the cat door opens and the Persian cat hops out, "Who goes there?"

"Oh boy," I tug on my ears, trying to cover my eyes.

"You're a cat!" RJ whispers harshly to her, "You're a cat!"

Stella whirls around to face the cat and grins, "You're a cat."

RJ and I face palm at the same time.

"I mean, 'I'm a cat!'" Stella grins nervously, "Meeooowww…?"

"Yeah, right," the cat says properly, "Shoo, go ahead. Go on. Get away from here. My owner does not give scraps to common strays."

"Common strays?" Stella says in shock, turning around to spray him, "You asked for it."

"Get the collar!" RJ snaps.

Stella whirls back around and smiles, "Gee that's a nice collar you got on. Mind if I have a look?" Stella walks closer to him.

The cat begins to panic, backing away from her, "No, no, no, no, Come no closer! I must not be near a creature of the outdoor woods!" The cat sneezes and wipes his nose, "Go now! Away with your filth!"

"My filth?" Stella says, hands on her hips.

Everyone gasps.

"My filth!?" Stella yells.

"Aw, jeepers, here we go…" Penny says, shrinking away from her.

"Okay, that's it! I am sick and tired of everybody taking one look at me and running away cause they think I'm filthy!" Stella snaps, getting up in his face, "Well I've got news for you. I didn't get all primped and preened to have some overfed pompous puffball tell me he's too good for me! I got make up on my butt, dude! And you don't wanna even know about the cork!"

Everyone is shocked into silence.

"Girl you represent!" I grinned and raised an arm.

"Stop that!" RJ chuckles, pulling my arm back down.

"Stop! No one has ever spoken to me like that!" The cat's ears fell flat against its head in anger.

Everyone shrinks back and Stella is frozen.

"It is bold…I like it," the cats grins at her.

Verne and RJ exchange glances.

Stella recomposes herself and walks with the cat away from us, "Well believe me, there's more where that came from." Stella usher us towards the cat door before adding, "Puff ball."

"Alright team. Let's boogie," RJ grins and the others rush towards the cat door with RJ and I trailing behind them.

"You think we can all actually pull this off?" I ask, looking over at him.

"Yeah…I think we actually might be able to do this," RJ says, looking up at the house as we all approach it.

"You know, I think this is the part where I blacked out," Verne says quickly, "Did the little shoes and cars actually get into the house?"

The collar comes flying towards us and it lassos around Verne's neck. The button the collar blinks twice and the cat door instantly opens and everyone hurries inside.

"Whoa…" RJ says, holds up his arms to stop the others.

Everyone begins gaping in amazement.

"The animals are in the house," RJ says before running up and opening both doors on the fridge.

"Alright. Stations everybody," I say, clapping my paws together.

The triplets dart off towards the living room while the others head towards the cupboards and closets. Hammy begins running but his claws make him slip across the tile flooring.

"No grip, no grip, no grip! Helllllppp meeeeh!" Hammy reaches out for us.

"Hammy!" RJ says, picking up the hamster before setting him back down, "Less claw, more pad."

"Oh, okay," Hammy says before running into a wall, "That hurt."

I roll my eyes and watch as the team grabbed saran-wrap and taped one end to the table before rolling the other end off the table. Heather caught it effortlessly and carried it over to the door.

"Uh oh…" Quillo says and I turn to see her sitting on the remote, paws over her mouth as a very loud noise fills the whole house.

"Quillo!" I snap, rushing towards her.

Then the sound stops and the image on the television changes to an image of Gladys sleeping.

"Okay. We're good," RJ says, brushing off his fur, "Let's get to work."

I snatch the remote from her and glare at her angrily, "Gimme that."

"Oops…" She smiles sheepishly before I rush back out into the kitchen, remote in hand as the others began sliding things down the saran-wrap slide and out the door, into the wagon.

"Yes! We're gonna make it," RJ turns to me and hugs me tightly.

I hugged him back and then something comes to mind. I lean back from him and frown, "What happens when all of this is over? What are you going to do?"

He looks at me and goes to open his mouth when there is a beeping noise and we all turn to see what it was.

"What is that?" Verne asks, raising an eyebrow at the coffee machine.

"That is what gets the humans out of bed in the morning," RJ says before it dawns on him and we all turn to look at the TV in shock.

"Where'd she go?" Spike says in shock, looking over at his siblings.

I look over to the stairway where Gladys is walking. Verne turns to the others, "Get down and stay down."

Everyone hurries to hide underneath or inside of something. The tall human comes into the room and walks over to the coffee machine, pouring herself a mug before turning to walk back upstairs.

When she is out of sight, Verne turns to us, "Hurry up! We gotta go before she gets back!"

"No!" RJ says sternly, "Not without those Spuddies!"

"What?" Verne says in shock.

"Lou, Penny, back to the TV," RJ says quickly, "Heather, keep an eye on that human."

"I'm on it, RJ," Heather smiles before running off towards the stairs.

"No, Heather, wait," Ozzie hurries after her.

RJ and I rush back towards the cupboard but with different intentions.

I entwine my fingers with each other, "RJ, this is a bad idea. Someone is going to get hurt."

"Without those Spuddies I'm dead, Rebekah," RJ says, pushing a stool over to the counter and climbing up on top of it.

"The wagon if full, come on, let's get out of here," Verne says, rushing over to us.

"Hold on Vincent, this will only take a second!" RJ snaps, turning to Verne.

"Vincent?" Verne asks.

"Where!?" RJ whirls around in fright.

"Who's Vincent?" Verne asks, climbing up the chair after RJ.

"Oh, Verne, Vincent, simple slip of the bear-TONGUE! Ah, uh, just bear with me, is what I meant to say…" RJ mumbles on, climbing up the bottle rack after the Spuddies, "There's no bear."

I turned to see the others gathering around in confusion.

My eyes snap back up to RJ, "RJ, you're freaking everyone out. Don't get yourself worked up."

"Come to Papa," RJ says, ignoring me and reaching for the Spuddies.

"We better hurry, we don't have much time, "Ozzie says, ushering us towards the door.

"What's going on RJ?" Verne says, pulling at RJ's tail.

"Nothing!" RJ says bit too quickly.

"Well then let's get out of here, because we have what we need!"

"No we don't!"

"What are you talking about? We have more than enough!" Verne says, pulling roughly on RJ's tail.

"Hey! Listen! I've got about this long to hand that wagon load of food over to a homicidal bear and if those Spuddies aren't on the menu than I will be! Now let go of my tail!" RJ yells at Verne's face.

My paws cover my mouth, "Oh no…"

"What…?" Verne says in shock.

"Let go!"

And that's when everything spun into chaos.

RJ kicks out of Verne's hold and reaches for the Spuddies but just as he does the whole bottle rack tilted and everything came falling to the floor.

I curled into a ball, arms over my head as bottles of wine and tonics came falling around me, smashing on the floor everywhere.

Gladys was in the room within seconds, screaming and

Stella burst into the room and looked back towards the cat door in remorse.

"Where are you going Stella?" The cat asked, hopping through the cat door as well.

"Look, Tiger, it's not you! It won't work! Because I'm a…a…"

Gladys took one look at her and her eyes widened, "SKUUUUUUUUNK!"

"Yeah, that," Stella says, unamused, "Sorry you have to see this." She turned and put her butt up in the air, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

"Stella no!" Verne yells but in an instant the whole house is filled with Stella's stink bomb.

I get up from my spot on the tiled floor in a haze, the scent clogging my nose and making my eyes fog up. My red fur soaked with red wine from the bottle rack and I managed to see the others on the other side of the room.

RJ stood clutching the can of Spuddies to his chest. He stared at the others for a moment before his eyes locked with mine and he ran from the house and out the cat door. I felt my heart shatter in my chest, my ears drooping.

"To the door! Go, go, go, go!" Verne yells and the others run towards it but Gladys was there in an instant.

I just lowered myself to the floor and sat there in the wine, eyes closed as I tried to bite back the tears that were welling in my eyes. Heavy footsteps filled my ears and I slowly opened my eyes, staring up at whoever it was. The verminator reached down and picked me up by the back of my neck. I didn't even try to fight back. My tail curled up around me as I stared at him, it didn't really matter what happened to me. No one cared about me. Jason left me. RJ left me. Even my own parents didn't want me. What good was an unwanted fox?

"No fight in you, huh?" Dwayne says, shaking me a bit and a jingling sound fills my ears. They perk up slightly, "What's this?"

My eyes widen. My collar. I forgotten I had been wearing it.

He holds up the silver dog tags that hung around my neck and reads them over before his eyes lock with mine, "Looks like someone is a long way from home."

I sat in a cage, eyes watching as Dwayne pitched the others into cages as well, stacking them in piles. He got down onto his knees and smirked at Verne, "You have just been verminated."

Gladys stalked up to the cages and Dwayne turned to her, chucking, "Whoo! You stink."

"That's because you let them into my…house!" Gladys broke down into hysterics.

"Hey Nancy, stop your honking! These little guys will be disposed of quickly and humanely," Dwayne says, tapping Verne's cage with his hand.

"No! NOT humanely! As inhumanely as possible!" Gladys yells, poking at Verne's cage before she walks away.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you Maim," Dwayne says before walking over to my cage.

I stare up at him and he pats the top of my cage, "Your owner will be here soon, little lady."

Right on cue, a red 2010 Camaro pulled up and Jason stepped out. My ears perked up and I began barking like crazy, "Jason! Jason, I'm here!"

Jason looked around urgently, "Rebekah?"

Dwayne walked up to Jason, "I found your fox, sir."

"Where is she?" Jason asks, looking around until he sees my cage and rushes over to me, opening the top of the box. I leap out into his arms, snuggling my face into his plaid shirt. His hands ruffled through my fur, "Oh Reb, I was looking for you all winter! Let's get you home, huh?"

I nod and smile up at him. I couldn't wait to get home and back into my warm bed and eat bacon. But as Jason began to carry me back to his car my ears pricked up and I looked over at the cages as Dwayne loaded them into his truck.

"What's he gonna do to us, Mama?" Bucky asks.

"I…I don't know, Baby…" Penny hugged the triplets close to her.

"I don't wanna die, Dad. Not for real…" Heather hugged Ozzie tightly.

"There, there, Sweetheart. We'll be okay," Ozzie pats her head.

"You were right about him, Verne," Lou says, "We should have listened. Sorry, there."

"No…I knew we couldn't trust him, and I got us into this…I should have known better."

My heart dropped, I had forgotten all about them. What would happen to them?

I barked, pushing away Jason's arms, "We gotta help them too! We can't just leave them, Jason!"

"Calm down, girl, we'll be home soon," Jason says, climbing into his car.

Then I realised that one of the things I didn't miss about him was the fact that he couldn't understand a word that I said. I stood up on my hind legs and looked out the window as we began driving away from Suburbia. My mind was racing, what would happen to Verne and the others? Where would they end up? Would they be relocated? Sold off? Killed? Panic tore through me and an idea pulled into my mind. I looked at Jason out of the corner of my eye and whimpered, scratching the window as the verminator van drove closer to our car.

"Need some air, Reb?" Jason asks before rolling down the window. Once it was down the whole way I put my paws up on the ledge and looked out at the verminator truck as it zoomed up closer to us. I readied myself and counter in my head, one…two…three! I pushed off with my hind legs and leapt out of the car towards the verminator van.

"Rebekah!" Jason yelled but I was already sailing towards the van.

But just as I was about to hit the windshield I landed on something. I looked up and my eyes locked with bright blue ones. My eyes widened, "RJ?"

Then the wagon of food smashed into the front of the verminator van.

"What the-!?" Dwayne yelled, slamming on the breaks, all the cages flying into the front of the cab, knocking the man unconscious. The van wheeled around and came to a stop in the idle of the road.

I sat up on the hood of the van, "RJ what are you doing here?"

"I came back for you, I-I thought you were in the van…" RJ says in shock, hopping onto the hood as well.

"My owner came back for me, But…But I couldn't just let them get killed," I looked down at the windshield as Verne hops up onto the dashboard.

"Looks like we had the same idea…" RJ says and takes my paw in his, "Well…you know they say two heads are better than one."

I turn to him and really smile for the first time in quite a long time. We both turn at the same time to see Verne smiling at us and we both smile back until Stella pushed Verne out the way and starts yelling at us, her voice muffled by the glass.

"Whoa! Stella! This is a rescue!" RJ yells as if it would make a difference, "We're rescuing you!"

Then Verne speaks up but his voice is muffled as well.

"What?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Hair?" RJ asks, pressing an ear against the glass.

Verne repeats it louder.

"Chair?" I ask.

"Mere?" RJ asks.

My eyes widen as I realise what he's trying to say, "RJ."

Verne repeats it again urgently.

"Oh! Bear!" RJ spins around and we jump in opposite directions as a bear tackles the front of the van. The scare made everyone inside the van jump, Verne falling backwards onto Dwayne's lap. The momentum must have cause Dwayne's foot to push down on the gas pedal.

Vincent slid over the top of the van and off the back while I slid across the side of the van, managing to grip onto the side mirror as the van swerved violently from one side of the road to the other until it suddenly straightened out. I looked inside and saw the triplets on the wheel, making me grin, "Whoever said video games don't teach you anything?"

"Verne!"

The shout made me jump, peering through the window and over to the other side where RJ was trying to get inside the van.

"Let me in!" RJ called urgently.

Verne began pressing buttons and the mirrors began turning back and forth.

"Wrong button! WRONG BUTTON!" RJ yells before hopping off the mirror he sat on, Vincent's paw smashing into the window.

RJ darted across the windshield and across the top of the van when the van made another violent u-turn.

I kicked at the window, "Hammy! Let me in!"

"Oh, hi Rebekah!" Hammy grinned as he rolled down the window and I slipped inside.

He immediately closes the window behind me just as RJ appears.

"Hammy! Roll the window back down!" He yells.

"Not listening to RJ, la la la la la la la la la la!" Hammy plugged his ears and jumped up and down.

"Kids! Lose that bear!" Verne yells.

"What weapons do we have?" Spike asks, looking over the dashboard.

"We've got a hammer!" Bucky says, pressing a button with a mallet on it.

"Cool!" Quillo grins.

A loud scream makes me turn as RJ jumps out of the way last minute as the mallet slashes the window. RJ leaps inside and the others catch him but they throw him right back out the other window.

"No, no, no, hey!" RJ yells, grabbing the mirror, "Let me in, let me in!"

"No! Ring-tailed charlatan!" Ozzie snaps, closing the window.

"Ozzie!" RJ yells

"He's just trying to help us!" Verne yells.

"Let him in!" I snap, rushing over to the window but Ozzie holds me back by placing a hand on my forehead, "Stop that, I have little arms!"

"After what he did to us?" Stella says before sending me a look, "I don't care if you two are dating or not!"

I turn to her instantly, "We're not-"

"But he came back!" Verne cuts me off.

"And he brought a bear!" Lou snaps.

Everyone begins shouting at once.

"Hey! No fighting while we're driving!" Bucky snaps at us.

"We will turn this van around mister!" Quillo yells.

Everyone goes silent for a moment before Lou points at Verne, "He started it."

"I'm telling you, he's just trying to help us," Verne says and I smile at him, "Really."

"But Verne, you're always the one that says, 'trust your tail'," Ozzie says as if it was obvious, still holing me back.

"But it's not tingling!" Verne says.

"OOoooohhh," Everyone smiles.

"Why didn't you say so?" Stella asks, ushering Ozzie to let me go.

Ozzie releases me at once.

"Hey!" RJ appears at the window. I instantly roll it down and RJ hops in, hugging me around my middle, "Thank you! Thank you!"

There is a grating metal noise and we all look up to see Vincent tearing the roof off the van. He raises a paw, "You're dead, RJ!" He swings his paw down and narrowly misses him as RJ pushes me behind him. Vincent's grin grows, "And your pretty little girlfriend is next."

My eyes widen as I stare up at Vincent until Lou jumps underneath him and all of Lou's quills dig into Vincent's nose.

Make an immediate left turn

"What is that?" I ask, looking around.

"GPS…?" Penny says.

"Ooooh look!" Bucky says, pointing at huge parade balloons, "Bonus points!"

The van plows through them, temporarily blinding us before the back doors of the van tear off, showing us that Vincent had somehow gotten himself tangled in the balloon strings and was being floated away.

Screaming brings us back to reality and we all turn to see the triplets heading straight for a speed monitor.

"High score!" Spike yells.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Verne yells but it was too late. The van was already up in the air and spinning upside-down towards Gladys's house and we landed roof down in her living room.

The GPS seemed happy, You have arrived.

Everyone quickly checked themselves over before rushing out of the overturned van, "Come on, we gotta go."

We rushed out the cat door and in moments we were back over on our side of the hedge.

"Penny? The kids here?" RJ asks, looking around.

"Yeah, we're all here," Penny says happily.

"Hammy?" RJ asks in confusion. We all turn to see Hammy staring up at the sky in fright.

"Scary clown," Hammy says.

I look up to see Vincent floating down toward us with a clown balloon. Landing in front of us before popping the balloon with one of the quills in his nose.

I grab RJ's paw and pull him towards the hedge, "Run!"

Then we all come to a halt when we run out the other side to see Dwayne stand in front of us with a tazer. The door of Gladys's house flies open to reveal Gladys as she starts up a weed hacker.

"A weed hacker, Verne! A weed hacker!" Hammy shouts.

My ears droop, "You have got to be kidding me…"