Toyoshiko continues to guide Strudel through the pound, showing her Lucky's room, which is full of various sports posters and memorabilia, Cookie's room, which is full of various exercise equipment, Niblet's room, which is full of various strange looking toys and knickknacks, Squirt's room, which is full of various biker/heavy metal memorabilia, the Pup Club's clubhouse, which is filled with many posters, mini-bikes and surveillance cameras, and finally, her own room, which is full of many gadgets and gizmos. Out of the corner of her eye, the dachshund notices what looks like a rubber chew bone with a screen and several buttons on it. Curious, she walks over to the table and picks it up. "Say, what might this be?"
"Why, it's the ibone you invented last week, ma'am," the robot dog replies. "You made one for everyone, too."
The dachshund observes the ibone's screen; she presses a button on the screen marked, "Fetch app", upon which a digitalized image of a little boy holding a stick appears on the screen and says, "Here, boy, fetch!" then throws the stick. She then presses another marked, "Walkies app," upon which an image of a little girl walking a dog appears on the screen. Strudel giggles in amusement at these clever little things; she then sit's the ibone back down, and traipses back over to the robot dog.
Still hoping to find out a little more information, the dachshund inquires, "Say Toyoshiko, if it's not too much of a bother, might I see some reports on some events around the pound too, please?"
"With pleasure, ma'am." A small TV screen pops out of Toyoshiko's arm, and several images of various goings-on around the pound flash on the screen. Just then, an image of the other Pound Puppies, plus Ace, the leader of the Kennel Kittens, who's wearing a red hoodie with a yellow trim(1), watching a hockey game on the surveillance room monitor appears.
"Ace?" the dachshund is quite taken aback. "But...isn't he our enemy?"
The robot dog responds with a puzzled look. "Why...no, the cats have always been our friends. After all, 'Cats are dogs, too.(2)'"
It's now Strudel's turn to be puzzled, but this emotion is soon overcome by her annoyance at the others for using the monitor for such a frivolous purpose. "Why the nerve of them! How many times do I have to tell them that the monitor is not a toy?!"
"Don't worry, ma'am, I may have just the thing to teach them a lesson." a second remote control pops out of the robot dog's hand.
"Ohh," A sly smile crosses the dachshund's face as she takes the remote. "This will be perfect. Thank you!" she then traipses off toward the surveillance room.
The dogs and cat watch as one of the hockey teams scores a goal. "YESSS! GO, TIGERS!" Lucky cheers and waves his paws in the air. Then the other team scores, "GO, WOLVES!" cheers Ace.
Strudel silently contemplates to herself how interestingly ironic this was as she lies in wait behind the couch, waiting for the right moment. Just then, the image on the screen abruptly changes to a ballet. "Wha...?" Lucky exclaims.
"What happened?" says Ace.
"Who did this?" demands Cookie.
"Maybe it was the magic pixies." notes Niblet. The others simply look at him oddly.
At that moment, they hear giggling from behind the couch, and look behind them to see Strudel. "Ha ha, that's what you get for messing with important equipment!"
"Hey!" Squirt exclaims.
"Change it back!" Cookie says.
Lucky promptly switches back to the game, upon which Strudel switches back to the ballet; Lucky switches back again, then Strudel switches away again, he switches back again, then she switches away. They do this several times before Cookie becomes aggravated and says, "All right, enough's enough. Gimme that remote!"
She tries to wrestle the remote from Strudel's grasp, but the dachshund has a steely grip on it. They tussle back and forth with the remote, while the others begin shouting in the background. After a while, Mr. Nut Nut happens by the doorway and observes this wild scene; he gives a hearty sigh, "I just don't understand dogs..."
(1)His jacket is similar to that of Strut, the leader of the Pound Purries from the book "Kitten Companions", only in a different color.
(2)A nod to the quote, "Dogs are fish, too." from a Fish Hooks episode; I might use this quote in future stories, too.