"Well it was your fault, You're one who told me to take the shot"
"Well you could have told me it looked off, you had to admit it looked a little bit like a coyote"
"It was from a far, A lot of things could look like a coyote from a far"
"Nuh uh, You could tell a fox from a coyote even if it was dark if you'd use that brain of yours"
"Foxes are totally different, different fur and different pacing, apples to oranges"
"What does this have to do with fruit?"
"Its a comparison!"
Chase slowly rose to consciousness finally, more so coming out of sleep because of the constant arguing he was hearing. The German shepherd blinked as his eyes tried to adjust to the lighting and surroundings around him. For a second he thought he was in a dream, he couldnt remember quite what had happened. The last thing he knew was crossing the river Brax had told them to do, walking through the forest looking for the thing Brax had directed them to before feeling a stinging pain and falling to the ground.
Chase looked around, he was in a room in an old style homestead, the floor was wooden and the walls were slightly chipped and decorated with family pictures of a nice cat family. Chase saw as he laid down on a bed, Rocky and Rubble were also in the room too, but they were asleep as well. Not for long however as they began to awaken too from the arguing. The two voices still argued and complained, he couldnt make out who they were but could tell it was female and a male.
With moments, the voices died down and the two figures come into the room. Revealing themselves as they both looked at the German shepherd in surprise, seeing he was awake. "Oh you're awake, Before you say anything, We're both so sorry we tranquilized you and your friends, We thought you were coyotes" The female cat said, her fur silky white with brown patches of fur. "Good thing it wasnt hunting season, they'd be dead" The male muttered in, his fur was almost the same as hers except for the brown being a light beige on different parts of him.
"Shush!" She shot back at the male as he rolled her eyes at her. The female cat looked at the other dogs, Rocky and Rubble as they began to awaken too, looking at the two cats from their beds. "W-Where are we?" Rocky asked, as he glanced at the surroundings of the room. "Welcome to the Feenie Ranch" The male said with an exciting smile, as if he was welcoming guests.
"Thank you for the hospitality, but how did we get here?" The mixed breed asked. "Its quite the story, we thought you were coyotes on our land. Until we got close to you and saw you were dogs, we felt bad and took you in until you woke up...and here we are" The female feline explained.
"You thought Rubble was a coyote?" Chase gave an amusing and confused look, thinking there was no way the bulldog could be confused for a coyote. "I thought it was a really fat albino coyote" the female confessed with a little bit of embarrassment.
"Hey!" Rubble shouted in, a bit offended at the thought of it.
Suddenly the male cat walked over the female as slapped her over the head with a paw, not in a vicious way, more like in a playful way to gather her attention. "Didnt mama raise you with any manners, Introductions first" the male cat said.
"Oh yeah, right" She rubbed the back of her head, clearly that slap must have stung a little bit. She gathered her thoughts and cleared her throat afterwards. "My name is Dixie, and this is my brother Dixon, This is our Ranch that we run together with the collection of other farmers around the area"
"Oh, I thought you two were a couple" Chase joked, thinking his previous thoughts of their playful banter cleaned more to a loving relationship rather than one of blood. "Ewwww" Dixon backed away, knowing the thought was understandable about him and Dixie being a couple, but it was still a weird thought.
"I dont know any sane cat who'd marry her, Shes as dirty as a possum" Dixon joked.
"And you have the brain of one" Dixie retorted.
"Nuh uh"
"Yuh huh"
"Nuh uh"
"Yuh huh"
Chase could tell this is the part where they would just be saying 'Yuh huh' and 'Nuh uh' back and forth at each other, quick speaking and introducing himself to break the soon brotherly and sisterly sibling banter. "My name is Chase, The Bulldog is Rubble as you heard before, and the other one is Rocky. Im sorry we were walking on your land, we were trying to find something one of our friends directed us to" Chase explained.
"Oh, what is it, We know this land like the back of our paws. Whatever it is, We can help you find it and you'll be on your way" Dixon offered, Dixie shared the same expression, wanting to the help the dogs find whatever they looked for. Trouble was Chase didnt quite know himself.
"I-I dont know, Its a long story of how we got here" The German shepherd responded, not wanting to sound like he was hiding something or being rude to the cats that were clearly going out of their way to help them.
"Oh, well, You can stay as long as you want to remember or figure it out. Also, if you...actually, nevermind" Dixie cut herself off, thinking twice of what she was going to say.
"What is it, you can tell us" Rocky pressed, a bit interested in what she was going to say.
"Its a bit rude or unwelcoming to say, but if you feel a bit better. Maybe you could stick around and help us with some farm work. I know its rude to ask you nice dogs even after we tranquilized you all, you're our guests and we wont put guilt you into helping us with some heavy lifting" Dixie retorted, seeing Dixon share a similar look, knowing two cats had it tough keeping track of a farm and all its hard work.
"We used to have two dogs on the farm with us, but the Sheriff's Department had one arrested and other one was so torn she left to try and find him. We told her not to go, but she didnt listen" He explained. Chase was about to form an opinion on whether to help the cats, until Dixie had spoke one of their names, and it rang a stiff bell. "Poor Brax" She said.
"Brax, Bernese Mountain Dog Brax?" Rocky asked, also hearing his name and feeling excited. "Y-Yes, you know him, Is he okay?" Dixie and Dixon lit up, seeing they were talking about the same dog. "Thats the dog that directed us to here, I'm sorry but we had to leave him behind, I'm sure hes still alive though. We had just escaped from the prison on the-" Chase continued to explain their story until they were halted by Dixon.
"Woah Woah wait a minute, Prison?"
"Dixon, I think these were some of the dogs that escaped over the news." She stated, Of course it was hot topic that must have spread like wild fire, over a literal fire breaking out in a prison and letting all the prisoners loose. "I promise we're not dangerous, We're good dogs" Rubble stated, pleading in his tone to try get his voice across.
"We know you arent, you dont have to prove anything. We arent stupid to know what the Sheriff's Department does, rounding up any dog they can and throwing them in that awful place" Dixie replied, reassuring them she hadnt changed her perception on them not one bit.
"So why would Brax send you across the river though?" Dixon asked.
"You furball, Brax obviously wanted to send these dogs to us" Dixie replied, making it sound a lot more sense. It did sound reasonable to hear Brax wanted to send them to Dixie and Dixon, mainly because it didnt seem like they looked down on Dogs, they are nice and maybe they could help them out at the most too.
"Let me tell you, Its such a good thing to hear Brax is still alive though" Dixie sighed a breathe of relief, Chase and the others however giving not so certain looks. "To be honest with you Dixie, We hope hes alive too, Brax was too weak to come with us so he gave himself up, He said he hoped the cats would just arrest him again and he'd be alive, but after everything, I wouldnt bet on it" Rubble explained, Rocky and Chase nodded as the hope in Dixie and Dixon's eyes faded slightly.
"Oh, well...I hope hes alive and well. Maybe a time will come when he himself can escape, but for now, I'll keep him in my prayers" Dixie held her head low as her brother came up behind her. "You mean 'We'" He said.
"But for now, Im grateful Brax sent you three to us. We'll look after every need you got, Food, Shelter, and if you decided on helping us out, We'll pay you too" Dixie smiled, Dixon too gave a nod, approving of giving aid to these dog guests they took in.
"The Food part does sound tempting, you gotta admit" Rubble stated.
"Usually I'd smack some sense into you for talking about Food, but you're kinda right. It would nice to have a good meal instead of dried kibble that we would have to fight for" Rocky said. "And these Beds are pretty comfy too compared to sleeping on rocks crowded around other dogs" The mixed breed added on.
"And we dont know where the others are, so It wouldnt hurt to stay so can figure out what to do next" Chase added in. "Okay, We'll stay, and dont worry about us sitting around wasting away, we'll help with any work that you got around the farm" Chase made the group decision, Rocky and Rubble didnt protest, all sharing in the same feeling.
"Amazing, Its going to be so good to have other people in the house, My brother here can be a bit of a paw full" Dixie whispered over to Chase that last part of her brother, Dixon close enough to hear her however.
"Like you're a saint yourself" He proclaimed, not taking it to heart. Siblings like these could say what ever they wanted to each other and then come back together at the end of the day like family. "Now, whats get down to the food part" Rubble licked his lips.
"Rubble, Rude!" Chase barked.
"Its fine, We got Apple Pies, Pumpkin Pies, Poultry, Beef, Rice with Beans, Ribs, Ham. You name it, we probably have too much of it" Dixon specified. All three dogs thought Brax had made a good decision sending them to Dixon and Dixie, knowing they would a good ally against Lou and his allies.
"Wow, The FBI" Marshall marveled around the fire pit where all the other dogs and cats where including Ryder, sitting around the fire pit that wasnt lit. It was day time but that didnt matter, by the time Lily had explained everything, Klaus was already back by the time the news was broken. "Alright, now that I told you everything, any questions?" Lily asked, seeming a bit trouble just as Marshall raised his paw.
"No the FBI doesnt check your browser history Marshall, that's the NSA" Already knowing what his question was going to be on, Marshall then lowered his paw. On the other side, seeing Maple raising his paw, emotionless as always.
"Silly questions aside, Are we not going to talk about the Concrete Kennel being burnt down and all the dogs escaping" He asked.
"I was getting to that, Skye and Zuma helped me infiltrate the Mayor's Penthouse Tower to place bugs, so I could listen in on what they're talking about, more importantly to record everything to use it as evidence for the Department of Justice to lay charges against them. Recently I overheard talking between Griffin, Maxwell, and Reno" She stated.
Klaus was a bit uneasy about hearing the name of his brother, knowing he had to cut their food talk short because of the prison fiasco. Remembering how he had to leave in a hurry due to the fact he knew Griffin would have a lot to say about it.
"What'd they say?"
"Griffin told Reno to make his deputies go around the county and check the wooded areas for the runaway dogs. He didnt talk much about where he should put them after capturing them, and that's a scary thought to be honest. Griffin also urged Maxwell to get to signing the document that Ryder was tortured to sign"
"Just get me that document and I can make it void, I promise. However, I do ask one thing though" Jello said, his fat white furred body laid in the dirt. He didnt want to make it sound like he was a purposely making it difficult for them.
"My kitten, Polko, and my wife. I didnt see them in jail, so they must still be at my house, under house arrest maybe. Just bring them here and maybe if you could arrange for us to leave the county without being caught too" Jello felt like he was asking for too much of the group, for them to bring his family and get them out of the county too.
"That does sound fair, but would we have enough time for that?"
"I over heard Maxwell say something about being busy with search warrants, saying that he'd need to sign a lot of them in advance so that Reno's deputies could search where ever they want to find as many dogs as they can. So we have time, but not enough time to waste. We can get two things done in one day, get Jello's family to safety and I can arrange something with the FBI in getting him and his family out the county" Lily said, sounding just as determined and headstrong as ever.
"Im going to have to get used to new 'FBI serious agent Lily' instead of the 'Happy, cheery and excited Lily'" Klaus state with a bit of a joke in his tone.
"Sorry for keeping that big of a secret from you Klaus, It was nothing personal" She said. Klaus shrugged with a neutral expression in return.
"No worries, We all have things we prefer to keep secret" Klaus reassured, knowing he had a secret of his own, his brother being the Sheriff himself, having someone so close in blood being so much of problem for his efforts to help the dogs.
"Hey wait a second, Who's that?" Ell asked out loud, her head turned to face up the river. All the others turned their heads in the same direction, looking up the riverbank to see it was a lone cat. Walking down the side of the river. It was a male, he looked hungry and exhausted, almost like he had been walking for ages. The cat looked unfamiliar to them, if this cat was walking from so far down the river, he must be new. However, all but one recognized the cat, Klaus couldnt forget his face, he had known this cat.
"Tuska?" He muttered silently, he couldnt believe his own eyes that he would ever see this cat again, and in an event like this too. Getting up to run over to the cat, all the others joined behind him. Tuska flipped his head up from facing down at the grass to look at the group running over toward him. "Klaus?" Tuska had a similar reaction, although he knew he would bump into the camp leader one way or another, it still felt surreal facing him down.
"Klaus, Please. I know you probably dont like seeing me, and you're confused on why I've come to your village, but please hear me out. I'm sorry. I really am, I-I was a different cat when I was a deputy and I-I just had this hatred for dogs, b-but now I understand. Please, if it wasnt for dogs, I would have rotten in prison, I was wrong about dogs, would you please forgive me?" Klaus had been taken a back by Tuska's genuine and heart filled apology. Klaus had not forgotten that this was the former deputy that had beaten him at a past protest outside the Sheriff's department building.
Any other cat would have brushed off his apology like a crumb fallen onto a piece of clothing, throwing it away without a second thought. However Klaus was a different story. He looked at Tuska, his head bowed to the ground in a forever gesture of sorrow for himself. "Tuska...Its okay, I've long forgiven you for what you did" Tuska could barely contain himself after hearing the words from the cat had beaten bloody once. "Y-You do, even after everything?"
"Yes, and if the dogs helped you escape, you must have helped them too. For that, You've more than earned your stay with us" Klaus gently brought the cat up to face him, just as he wrapped his paws around the cat. "Welcome" He whispered.
Tuska was almost brought to tears, the cat that he had taken his rage out on had forgiven in sooner than he could have ever imagined. "So uhhh, Who is this exactly?" Zuma asked, speaking for everyone else. Not knowing whether to feel happy for the two or just straight up confused.
"Oh yeah, Everyone, this is Tuska, I'll explain more" Klaus reassured, seeing that he would have to explain off the details to his friends if they were to fully understand.