"Alright, everyone comfortable?" Lou asked as they all gathered in one spot around him, facing a decaying old white board that looked like it had been used too many times, and instead was more of a 'greyboard'.
"Uhhh…somewhat" Skye replied eyeing the cockroaches that crawled along the walls and ceiling. Lou had seemingly made his peace with them as they would crawl with inches of him, and he wouldn't even react.
"Good, now I call you all here because of a problem, as you probably noticed when you came here, no dogs" Lou stated.
"yeah what gives, Mans best friend over here" Marshall exclaimed before receiving a head shake from the young teen. "Not here, that title is reserved for our four-legged felines."
"Cats…"
"Bingo, they're at the top with humans right beside them, and it's been that way for a long time."
"So how are we just hearing about this, this is huge, a county run by cats on top and dogs at the very bottom" Rocky asked, in shock and disbelief over that fact this was completely new to him.
"Cats maybe be cunning, but they aren't stupid. All cellar signals run through a set of cell towers. All communications are monitored and censored carefully. I've been trying to contact you all before, but it's been hard, until last night."
"What happened last night?"
"I sent out a decoy to distract the sheriff's department by trying to head out of the county, it worked for a few minutes, which was barely enough time for me to send you the message you got."
"Unfortunately, that distraction, poor German shepherd, he's no longer with us" The young teen bowed his head in a short moment of remembrance.
"Hope all of you brought everything you need for a long mission, because however hard it was to get in, it'll be three times as hard to get out."
"W-What, so we can't leave?"
"Im afraid not, and no unauthorized calls or texts either outside the county line either" He said before referring to his dirty white board.
"So, let's get down to business, Cats rule in here, Every position of power that exists, they fill it. Judges, Cops, Elected officials, you name it they dominated it and you bet your butt they abuse it to keep this place Cats only" drawing up three names across the board.
"First person we gotta take care of Mr. Maple, Brown and Orange-ish kinda fur, little fuzzy guy, owns a small yarn shop in town. Don't let that name fool you, he's one hundred percent a rat" Lou stated, before seeing Rubble's paw raise up.
"I thought Mr. Maple was a cat."
"He is…. You know what I mean by rat, He sells out information to the police on everything. Every operation the dogs try and go through with, he finds out and tells the sheriff's department."
"What a wet blanket" Marshall proclaimed, already getting a strong distaste for this cat. "Im sure he is, next name, Jello" Lou spoke, looking around to see smirks and cracks of smiles.
"Pfffttt, what kind of name is 'Jello'?" Zuma broke out, couldn't contain his laughter which others find pretty humorous too. "He's a cat judge, a fat cat I would say, He's been indicting dogs left and right for the smallest infraction, he's also trying to get other judges to make it illegal for dogs to work good paying jobs"
"Wait…. Theres other dogs here, where are they?" Ryder asked, catching that small detail in Lou's explanation. "Behind bars, Believe me the sheriff's department will find a way to slap cuffs on you and with judges like Jello on the line, it won't be a fair trial" Lou stated.
"Last person on here is Jay, he's a human, there's a lot to be said about him so I'll explain it as we go along" Lou said, swinging his arms in a form at ease. "Questions?" He shrugged his hands in a single motion, his shoulders up asking for any input.
"What are we waiting for?" Chase exclaimed with a passion to get it done. "That's what I like to hear, Mr. Maples store is closed so we can't start now, but in the morning we can."
"Would be nice to sleep in the paw patroller" Rubble said with his ears lowered and his head bowed in sorrow. "It's okay Rubble, Sleeping in this old shake may not be the worst thing ever, but at least we have each other"
"Ahem oh yeah, about that…." Lou injected himself in, twiddling his fingers in a manner that made it seem he had some inconvenient news to break.
As the night sky darkened, the trees began to brush against one another, and the people were fast asleep in their homes in town. However, Paw patrol instead of a roof over their heads, laid on the grass with their backs against the ground and their heads up to the sky. Laying on thick covers and thin sheets across their chests.
"Sorry again, not even room for all of you in the hut" Lou said, walking toward the crew with even more blankets to try and give them more shelter and warmth. "It's fine, at least it's a clear night sky" Ryder stated in hope, suddenly feeling a single drop of rain splash down on his nose. Multiple soon coming after as Lou began to shelter himself with his arms. "Goodluck" He shouted, running back to his small hut.
"Well atleast we all are- "
"Be quiet before you make it worse!" Rocky shouted out to his human owner, making Ryder think twice before burying his head in the covers. Praying this night won't last long and so rain.
Ryder and others soon fell asleep to the rhythm of the rain, finding it to be quite soothing actually instead of annoying. Hours passed and the sun came up, the birds chirped, and the roosters belched. "Rise and shine sleepy heads!" Lou shouted out, walking out from his hut with his hands cupped around his mouth, imitating an amplifier to make his voice echo.
The whole lawn of dogs groaned and turned to his voice, Skye shot up with her fur frizzed and curled up against her face. "I look terrible" she stated as she observed herself by looking into a broken piece of glass right next to her.
"Well good thing for you, you won't be seen today. We'll need all hands…or paws, on deck for this one." Lou said with a wad of parchment paper under his arm, plopping it down on the semi wet grass below to show everyone. As they all gathered around, they saw the doodles and drawings all over.
"Mr. Maple has a store like I said last night, Ryder is going to go in and distract him while I sneak into the back room and get some evidence on him" Lou said looking at the dogs that silently waited for their roles. "You dogs will wait on top of the store, You'll be the lookouts if any Deputies come looking around the area, can't risk any of you being seen so stay down" Lou pleaded.
Both Ryder and Lou pushed in Mr. Maple's front store door, the top of the door jingled letting him know someone had just entered. Ryder and Lou looked around, their hands in their pockets trying to look casual as they tried to not to make eye contact with the orange furred cat sitting at the front desk, the cat himself. Mr. Maple was seen scrapping his paw against a single large ball of yarn, doing so with a seemingly non-amused look on his face.
"Good morning, Have a look around I guess, All yarns at the far corner are 20 percent off" He said, not looking up from his yarn. "Is he always this…. down?" Ryder asked Lou. "He's always like that, never seen him smile or get mad either, he's just….no emotion" He said. "Anyways, stick to the plan, distract him while I head into the backroom" He said, motioning to the old door just a few feet away from Mr. Maple.
"Any sign out there?" Ryder asked into his earpiece. "Nope, No Cops out here Ryder" Skye replied as she peaked over the side of the concrete slabs that lined the edge of the roof, raising up a few feet enough not be seen. Ryder brushed over, eyeing up the balls of yarn that lined the shelves as he approached the counter. "Need something?" The cat asked.
"Uh yeah, Any yarn for kittens, Just wondering for a friend" Ryder made the excuse, The orange feline looked at his in the eyes with dead emotion, only giving out a large sigh before hoping right over the counter. "Uh huh, Follow me" He ushered. Letting Mr. Maple walk in front of him before looking back to see Lou giving him a thumbs up before slowly opening the backroom door.
"Kittens really like the bright colourful ones, also ones that have stronger fabric, so they don't tear as easily, Pretty cheap too if you buy them in bulk" He said, topping at one shelf that was stacked with all sorts of large colourful yarn, it was a sore to the eyes to just how many colours jumped out at Ryder all at once when he saw. However the cat was still as unimpressed as ever.
"Alright, If you need me I'll be at the counter, like always" He said as he started to turn away. Ryder's heart sank realizing Lou needed more time to…well, find whatever it is he needed to find. So it was his job to keep stalling. "Wait no, Can you tell me which one you'd get for your Kittens, sort of like a recommendation?"
"I don't have Kittens of my own"
"Uhhh... Nephews and Neices?"?"
"All grown up"
"Siblings?"
"Don't have em"
"Ouch, sad life" Ryder commented under his breathe. "Quiet life is how I like it, are you going to continue bashing my existence or are you going to buy something?" He asked, yet again very emotionless. Not at all offended over Ryder's opinion on the feline's adolescent life. "How about you tell me something interesting about this yarn, I've never seen it before" Ryder tried to stir up conversation, making it seem like he was deeply interested.
"Yeah, Some of this yarn I made, others I just find around places, I would explain it all but that would take too long" Mr. Maple stated. "Oh please, do tell every detail, leave nothing out, as long as it takes" Ryder replied, leaning himself against the shelf, preparing himself for a long and lengthy worded out story of yarn.
"You guys see anything?" Chase asked the other dogs on the roof, their muzzle peaked out from over the concrete slabs, making them only a little bit visible just to see over.
"Nope, All quiet ovew hewe dudes" Zuma stated, being position in between the nearby building to the side. Marshall pouted and shrugged his paws, unsatisfied. "This is boring, Why can we get a job that's more…doing, you know?" The Dalmation voiced his frustration like a little pup.
"You're right this isn't exactly the best, but its either this or risk getting seen by those…" Chase continued on before Rocky suddenly ducked down with a terrified look on his face. "Cops" He whispered. "Exactly, The Cops" Chase finished before forcefully being pulled down by the mixed breed. Both peaked their heads over as well as the rest of the dogs over the side of concrete to look down and see 2 Cat Deputies on foot patrol, walking down the sidewalk.
"How's Tanya doing?" One Deputy asked, sipping a drink that he held.
"The same mostly, She's spending more time at home with the kittens after pulling them out of daycare recently, the school decided it would be a great idea to hire a dog to be the groundskeeper"
"Disgraceful, Speaking of those Mutts, You heard about what happened yesterday?"
"You mean sexual assault case at the gas station, some dalmatian tried to touch a cat and ran off with some other dogs and a human. Yeah I guess we have to follow up on that later" The Feline Cop said. "Wha-I would never 'touch' her like that, or anyone like that" Marshall was in total belief the allegation would make him seem like such a monster.
"I was just asking for directions" Marshall continued before his mouth was sudden covered by the German shepherd in an effort to keep him totally quiet. "Ryder, Theres 2 Deputies outside the store" Skye urged, Ryder heard the warning in his ear and looked to his right. Seeing the two police officers in clear view, he could see them, but they hadn't noticed him yet.
"…and then after my mother had an injury in her wrist she started to use a machine instead of her needle which was kind of a bummer to be honest" Mr. Maple continued with his story before he was suddenly but gently grabbed by Ryder, nudging him away from the window. "Great story very interesting, how about we go over here away from the window" Ryder stated, looking over to where he could before stop a picture frame on the wall.
It looks like a family photo, Fairly classic family photo with Mr. Maple as a kitten and his parents standing right behind him. Although there was one other member in the photo that seemed out of place as group of cats, It was a dog. More specifically a golden retriever puppy who stood on his hind legs hugging the young Mr. Maple, both of them smiling in fact. "This you?"
"Uh huh, I know what you're going to say and no, the dog wasn't a part of my family, he was my best friend" Mr. Maple said, quite the shocking reveal contradicting Lou's statement of Cat's supposed hatred for Dog kind. "His father lived on my parent's farm, No one in the county wanted to hire a dog to do any kind of work except for my father, It didn't matter to him if he was a dog or not, Honesty and Integrity are what he valued. When they lived on the farm, that golden and I did everything together" He said.
"Wow, What happened to him?"
"I don't know, It was a long time ago, a time when I felt emotion" He concluded, walking over to his counter with a large sigh, reminiscing about old times in his head. Ryder looked over to the backdoor to his Lou, waving his head up in the air with a large folder in hand. "You know what, I think I don't need to buy anything after all, Have a good day" Ryder thanked before turning his back to leave, Lou dashing out from the door and shoving the folder under his shirt as he met up with Ryder near the door.
"Hey you want the rest, I kinda don't want it anymore" The Cat Deputy asked to his partner, holding the half drank hot beverage over to him. "You put your mouth on it, why would I want it?" He retorted. "Geez, Im just trying to be nice" He responded by backing off a bit, getting in the sudden stance to throw it away. The cat leaned back as he braced his paws for a mighty throw over the yarn store. The Paw Patrol saw this and quickly ducked down, all except for a curious dalmatian. "What going on?" He whispered as the cat threw the drink, the beverage exiting the cup midair and landing in the Dalmatian's face.
Marshall backed off the from the wall, his faced burned and his eyes burned even more, his body twisted and twirled all over the roof going every which way. Walking all over before getting a little too close to the edge of the back of the store. All the dogs tried to rush toward him to pull him back but it was too late, The Dalmatian had fell of the edge, slamming into a trash can and toppling over, making a loud crash. "Huh?" Mr. Maple sounded, looking back to the backdoor of the store where he had heard the noise.
Ryder and Lou both turned to look back, seemingly worried as they knew they might be caught. Mr. Maple opened the backdoor of the store to look around and see the Dalmatian sitting in the pile of trash and gunk. The orange cat looking as unamused as he did before as he starred at the canine, Marshall's heart dropped as the rest of Paw Patrol watched from directly above. Thinking they had been caught.
"You okay?" Mr. Maple had asked.
"Ummm….Yeah"
"You hungry?"
"A little bit"
"Okay, Go buy yourself something to eat instead of rummaging through my trash" The cat said as he had tossed the dog a small roll of paper money and some coins as well. Marshall was shocked as well as the other dogs, nothing hostile or even a shout to get off his property. He was nice and kind although he spoke and had the tone of a robot. The orange shop owner had then shut the door before walking back to his counter.
"Uhhh…What was that?" Lou had asked.
"Nothing, Have a good day" Mr. Maple had replied as he motioned his paw right to left, wishing them a goodbye. Both taking the hint and leaving while they could before anything else could go wrong, walking out onto the sidewalk to see the two cops had left and look above to Paw Patrol still on the roof, and finally seeing Marshall walk around the corner of the store. Covered in various junk and nasty leftovers from muzzle to paw all over. "I'm gonna smell like rotten sushi for a week" Marshall had commented.
"Marshall what happened, what did he say to you?" Lou had asked, brushed off the dirt from the Dalmatian as much as he could. "He gave me some money and asked if I was okay" Marshall explained, holding up the small pocket money the cat had given to him.
"Well at least everyone is okay, Back to the hut, We got what we needed" Lou proclaimed, reaching under his shirt to reveal the small folder. All nodded in understanding before running off into the bushed, back into the rural outskirts of town to plan their next hit.