Author's Note: I'm thinking for this chapter, I'll do it in a more general context, as well as a particular POV, switching on and off between the two throughout it. Let me know what you think. Also, at the moment, it looks like this story will have a total of 27 chapters, but that could change, depending on what happens, etc. Now, let's get on with the next chapter!
Chapter 4, Spike
Angelica unpaused the video, and continued their story.
Angelica POV
Ok, so life was pretty good for me. I learned how to walk when daddy put a plate of cookies down on the floor, my firstest word was cookie, and while daddy got me lots of toys and food, mommy brought home lots of money so daddy could get me lots of toys and food. And then, I got to see my uncle Stu and aunt Didi everyday. They would play with me and take care of me, and then, came the day, when a new member, entered my aunt and uncle's house.
End of Angelica POV
Several months past after Angelica's birth. Drew, Charlotte, and Stu and Didi were all very delighted to have this precious little bundle of joy in their lives. While Drew and Charlotte were at work, Stu and Didi would watch Angelica, not only to spend time with their adorable little niece, but this gave them some practice on a real baby, in hopes that Didi would eventually, get pregnant again, and they'd be able to have a happy, healthy child. But at the end of the day, Didi was just, beside herself, as while she loved looking after Angelica, she wanted a child of her own. This gave Stu his brilliant idea.
"You know what this family needs? A family pet." Stu said with a twinkle in his eye, as they were getting into bed one night.
"I don't know Stu, a pet is a huge responsibility, and is liable to mess up our house." Replied Didi, as she got under the covers.
Stu put the idea out of his head, as it was pretty obvious, that Didi wasn't interested in a pet. That is, until one day, when he was driving home from a run to the supermarket. On the side of the road, had been tossed, a plastic garbage bag. Stu couldn't help but notice though, that something was moving inside the garbage bag, so he pulled the car over, and got out to have a look. Inside the bag, was a litter of puppies. All of them were dead, except for one tiny puppy. He was brown, with a couple of blue spots on his back, black nose, and long, skinny ears. Forgetting about the groceries he had in the car, Stu took the bag, and the one live puppy, who appeared to be injured, to the vets to be looked at.
"Can I help you?" A friendly secretary asked when Stu walked into the vets.
"Yes, I found this bag of puppies on the side of the road, containing seven dead puppies and one live one, and I'd like for sure, the live one, to be checked out." Said Stu, walking in with the bag in one hand, and the live puppy in the other, who was wining at this point.
"Take a seat, and someone will be with you shortly." Said the secretary, as Stu took a seat on a bench across the way.
They were the only ones in the vet's office at this time, which Stu didn't mind, as he didn't want this injured puppy, to get all excited, with other dogs around. A few minutes later, he was called back to meet with a veterinarian, who took one look at the bag of dead puppies, and proclaimed that this was a litter of rare Siberian tigers, who had been thrown off the side of the road, and must have been killed upon impact. Then he examined the one puppy who managed to survive. He looked to only be a male puppy of about three weeks old, and other than a broken leg, and being somewhat under nourished, he was as healthy as could be. The vet put the puppy's leg in a cast, got some puppy formula for the puppy, and showed Stu how to feed him a bottle, and told Stu to bring the puppy back in a few weeks, to have the leg x-rayed, and to see how it was healing up.
Stu took the puppy home and showed it to Didi, explaining to her what went down on the highway and at the vets. Didi fed the puppy his bottle, and immediately, fell in love. They kept the puppy, and raised him as their own, as if he was their child, and they named him Spike, on account that when he was curled up asleep, he looked like a little Spike of hair, all cute and furry. Stu went out and bought Spike a red collar with his name on it, and a food and water dish with his name on it too, and once Spike's leg was healed, they took him to get officially licensed, and made sure his shots were up to date.
Angelica POV
As I continued to go to uncle Stu and aunt Didi's, I started to notice something different. I was playing on the floor one day, when a little brown doggy, came up to me.
"Angelica, I'd like you to meet Spike." Said aunt Didi, as she came over to see me next to the doggy.
I giggled, as I was only one, and could not talk to grown ups just yet, well except for the word cookie, which wouldn't be appropriate at this time, but I guess I was a dumb baby at one time, as I blerted out the one word I could say to the grown ups.
"Cookie." I said, petting the doggy's head.
"Oh no Angelica, his name is Spike, but would you like to feed him a doggy cookie?" Aunt Didi asked, as she handed me a doggy cookie. Spike took it out of my tiny hand, and proceeded to lick my face.
"Eeewww yuck dog germs!" I thought to myself, as Spike was licking my face.
End of Angelica POV
"And that's how your dumb old dog came to be Pickles." Said Angelica, as she paused the video on an image of Spike licking her.
"Wow! Spike was cute as a baby." Said Tommy, as he stared at the screen for several minutes.
"But wait, there's more." Said Angelica, as he unpaused the video, to have it continue.
Everybody was in Stu and Didi's kitchen, sitting around the kitchen table. This consisted of Angelica's parents, Stu, Didi, Betty, Howard, Chaz, and Melinda. They were all talking, while Angelica was on the floor, playing with Spike and giving him doggy cookies.
"I like cookies too Spike." Said the one-year-old Angelica to Spike, thinking he could understand her.
"I wonder what your cookies are like." Said Angelica, as she examined the doggy cookie in her hand.
"It smells like a porkchop!" Said Angelica, as she smelled the cookie.
"Hmmm, I wonder what it tastes like." Said Angelica, as she bit into the doggy cookie, with the two teeth she had coming in.
"Yuck!" She exclaimed, as she spit out the cookie and threw it across the room, causing it to land on Chaz's head.
"Ow! What was that?" Chaz asked, as he picked up the doggy cookie that had hit his head.
"Eeewww, I should have known, you drink from the potty!" Exclaimed Angelica, as soon as she threw the cookie in the direction of the grown ups.
"I don't know Chaz, looks like a dog treat." Said Betty, who eyed the treat in Chaz's hand.
"Yuck. I'm throwing this away." Said Chaz, as he got up and threw the dog treat away, which obviously had baby drool on it from when Angelica tried to taste it.
"Oh it's nothing to worry about Charles, it's just a little harmless dog treat." Said Didi with a smile, as Chaz took his seat back at the table.
"But we love our puppy dog Spike. He was just the thing we needed, to fill the empty space in this nest." Said Stu.
"Oh, but did Melinda tell you?" Chaz asked.
"Tell us, what?" Didi asked.
"I'm pregnant." Said Melinda.
Just then, Angelica paused the video again.
"Well Finster, guess who's next to tell the story." Said Angelica.
"Uh… Um… I don't know if you wanna know about my being bornded and the life I led before Tommy's firstest birthday. My life hasn't been the most, well, my life is sort of a dirty job." Said Chuckie.
"Oh come on Finster, it can't be that bad." Snapped Angelica.
"Come on Chuckie, we wanna hear all about it." Said Zack and Jesse simultaneously.
Chuckie stared at Zack and Jesse for several minutes after that, hesitant to take the remote from Angelica's hand, to unpause the video, and continue with his story.
And this, ends chapter 4. So, since we're coming up on the birth of Chuckie, and following his infantile development, will Chuckie go through with it and tell his portion of the story? We'll find out, in chapter 5, and at one point, I was going to draw out Chuckie's infantile development over several chapters, but seeing we're about to be headed down a very emotional road with Chuckie, and any Rugrats fan knows where this story is about to go, I figured the fewer the painful chapters, the better, which is why at this time, our story has been dropped down from having 30 chapters, which is what it had originally, to only having 27 at this time.
Author's Notes: The idea to have Spike rescued off the side of the road, and being the only one to survive a litter of abandoned puppies, was inspired by my parents going through the same experience several years ago, when they rescued a kitty cat, and the only one to survive out of the entire litter of kittens, that had been tossed on the side of the road. People can be so cruel to animals, but it's nice people like us, and Spike's family, who save the poor defenseless animals from harm. And I thought Didi having to care for a tiny puppy, would cheer her up, and make her fall in love with it, allowing her and Stu to keep the puppy. And yes, I was once again, inspired by an episode of Full House when it came to Angelica tasting the dog cookie. Michelle did the same thing in an episode of Full House during season 5, and said some similar things about how it smelled and tasted. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter, and be looking for more chapters, coming soon, and yes, by chapter 10, there's a pretty good chance that we will have witnessed the births of Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, you'll just have to wait, and see.