Chapter 9
That morning the temperature had not started to drop as the weather man promised. For Louis that was great news since he wasn’t sure where he was going and how long he would be outside in the gradually colder wintry days. He was very pleased with his decision, so much so that he smiled. If he had his favorite dish and a bowl of water he would celebrate that decision. But as his positive and jubilant thoughts progressed, he couldn’t help but think of the woodchuck and how much of a friend he really was to him. Then his smile drifted, and disappeared completely. There were some questions that were coming to the forefront of his mind which he tried to push away. Yet, the more he tried the more he couldn’t.
I did the right thing. I’m no woodchuck so why would I subject myself to living as he does? Some humans can be mean and I wish I could do without them, but I want to be with a family, a good family of people. I know they are out here. I just have to find a way to connect with one – a family that is. And my life will be the life I want. I am sure the woodchuck understands that. If he is a friend to me like he says he is, then my going away to find a home should not bother him in the least. Besides, I’m sure that if he was me he would do the same thing.
When Louis came out of his tergiversations, it appeared that he had overcome any of the senses of guilt, blame or responsibility, which he felt when he left the woodchuck. He didn’t go through the shopping area or in the direction from which he came. He avoided the crowds of people but he didn’t avoid the signs describing him and the woodchuck as criminals on the run. Louis stopped for a moment to look up at the posted flyer.
In a sense we are just like humans, and they don’t even know it. The only difference is that they don’t have a legal jail for those secret household that are not ashamed to mistreat us, Louis thought.
“Hey you, food thief!”
Louis turned from his glaring at the poster to the voice he heard from behind him. In front of the trash dumpster was a man holding a bag of trash. He held it in his right hand. His shock immobilized him. “Shoo, get away from here, you mutt. I don’t have any food for you. Now, get away from this store, go.” The man remembered his last encounter just recently with a raccoon so he thought it would be a great time to try it with Louis.
“I said get away from here!” the man shouted, stomping hard on the wet ground.
So I guess I am supposed to be scared of someone who wears an ugly burger joint uniform and have feet smaller than the palm of his own hand? Louis thought. He chuckled under his breath. I want to know what you have in that garbage bag, Louis snarled, stomping the pavement with his front paw.
“Awh! Help! That’s the dog that is stealing people’s food. Help!” the man yelled, dropping the bag of garbage right where he stood, beside the garbage dumpster.
“More of them will be coming. I better take the garbage with me before they get around here,” Louis said to himself. He then pulled the entire trash bag out of sight where he tore it open. From the people passing by in their cars, many saw Louis but didn’t recognize him as the food thief. Instead most made comments like: “the dog must be really hungry. Yuk, that is so nasty, looking for food in the trash can. Mom, look at that dog.”
When Louis got to digging he found all the old food that got too old to serve, from burgers to fries, from fries to chicken nuggets, to chicken to apple pies. He was in food heaven. He ate until he was full. He attempted to eat more until he saw five of the Burger House employees come charging to where Louis was. Of course he took off.
When Louis got out of the area and clearly out of danger, he harped on what one of the Burger House employees had said. “Run, mutt, but your days of running are over. The Animal Control people are going to get you and you will never be able to take anyone’s food again or scare them.”
Animal Control? What in the world is that? That sounds bad. It doesn’t sound like something I want to be a part of. I am quite sure it has to do with humans. Louis laughed to himself. “Animal control, I guess that has something to do with the control of domestic animals. I could be wrong but I will try my hardest to stay away from the Animal Control people.”
Louis pondered over the thought while hurrying to get to the next place. When starting out on his mysterious journey, he didn’t have a clue as to where he was going and what methods he would take or had to take to find a home and try his best to avoid Animal Control. But the longer he walked, the more comfortable he became, and the more comfortable he became, the more his mind opened up to new ideas.
“I’m going to find a home. I am going to find some human that will like me. When they see me, they will want to take me home.” Minutes after that thought became words Louis found a park, after extensive walking. He entered the park away from the few people walking about. There were swings for children, Merry-go-rounds, slides and other things that were designed for young children’s amusement.
This is it. This is the place where I will find my home, Louis thought. But how should I do it? Do I go running to the first kid I see and then he takes me to his family and I go home, he asked himself. Then he answered, naw, that’s too risky. That would mess up a perfect opportunity to get into a home. I would scare the kid and run him or her away. Naw, I have to come up with something different, something smart.
Louis thoughts weren’t coming together until he saw an old, dirty baseball roll right under his feet. Louis looked up and saw a little boy run in his direction. The little boy, about ten years old, stopped before he got to Louis.
“Hi, dog! If I walk up to you to get my baseball, will you bite me?” the kid asked.
Of course not. I think you are adorable and I would like to go home with you, Louis thought, then backed away.
The kid ran, got his ball then ran back to his initial position. He took a few seconds to stare at Louis.
I don’t know if he is checking me out. I don’t think he likes me, which means I won’t be getting a home with this fellow.
“Hey, doggy? I want you to catch the ball when I throw it. I’m going to throw it hard, so be ready,” the kid yelled.
I think I like you already, kid!
The kid threw the ball as hard as he could. It landed in some bushes. Louis went in after it.
“Honey, it’s getting a little chilly and I think we better be getting back to the house.”
“Mom, can we stay here just a little while longer?”
“Where is your ball, honey?”
“Someone is getting it for me,” the kid replied, looking up at his mother pleadingly.
“What do you mean someone is getting it for you, honey? You know you shouldn’t be talking to strangers. Remember us having several conversations about that?”
“Yes, Mom, I know not to talk to strangers unless you would call a dog a stranger,” the kid said.
“A dog? What do you mean a dog, honey?” she asked, wiping the grass off her son’s shoulders, unaware of Louis who had come out of the bushes with the dirty baseball pinned between his top and bottom teeth.
The mother screamed. Louis, startled, yelled too, but it came out as a “Yurk.”
She grabbed her son by the hand and pulled him by the arm. “Come on, let’s go!”
“Mom, my baseball,” the kid yelled.
“I will buy you another one, honey. If that is a dog, it looks hideous.”
Louis watched with downturn lips as the boy and his mother ran off as if he was displeasing to the eye.
“I guess I could throw that plan out the window. I tried, and that’s all I can do,” Louis said to himself while he resumed his walking through the park.
Overall, Louis liked the idea of using the ball as a medium to have someone take him to a nice home, but everyone he passed had no ball or anything that could be thrown by a kid. He thought, then thought, then thought again when his third thought came with a bright idea. Since there is nothing to throw like a ball, how about I take what they have and give it back to them? Louis wasn’
t sure he understood correctly what he was going to do, and if it would work. The only way to know if it will work is for me to try it, he thought.
There was another kid in the park that Louis believed would be a great as a possible playmate. She looks fun. She played well with the swing and the sliding board, and she doesn’t look destructive. That’s always a plus. Kids her age don’t tear dolls apart, they tear pets apart.
Deceitfully, he walked to one of the toys she was playing with. Louis took the baby doll in his mouth and waited while the little girl finished talking to her parents. Not able to stand the wait, Louis took a chance. I think it may work out a lot better if I walk up to the family with her baby doll in my mouth, and give it to her. That is a great idea! They’ll all think I’m some sort of show dog and they’ll scoop me right up, and I will be a part of their family. That’s it, boy. Louis then made his way over to the bench where the family of three sat.
“Wow! Look, Libby, is that a dog with one of your doll babies?” the father asked.
“Oh, how cute. He is such an adorable-looking dog. I wonder who it belongs to?” the mother said.
Louis reached the bench. I belong to absolutely no one. I am all yours. Get the leash ready because I will officially be your pet.
Louis was boiling over with hope of finally becoming a member of a new home – Libby’s home.
But then something unexpected happened. When Louis was about to lay his head on Libby’s lap, she took the baby doll from Louis’s mouth gently and popped him on top of his head.
“I don’t like dogs. I like cats. Why couldn’t you be a cat, you big, old dog?” Libby yelled, hitting Louis not once but at least four times before her parents told her to stop because she might hurt the dog.
Louis ran off in the direction of the back of the park. Libby’s parents look at Louis with sympathy. He looked back at them as if he wanted to run to that bench and say: “I don’t care that Libby doesn’t like me. That is quite all right, but I know you all like me, so please take me. I am still willing to go home with all of you.”
But they didn’t say that. “Come on, Libby, let’s see what other things you can play with out here,” the father suggested.
Louis didn’t move. He watched his potential owners walk away without him. It was tough for him to accept that his plan to find a home and his optimism to be part of a family were slowly drifting away. He was so depressed that when he saw other families which could possibly consider Louis as their pet, he turned and walked away.
I can’t see myself going back to the hole with the woodchuck. I have to find somewhere else, a place other than here at the park. I don’t think this is where my future family is. I am sure they must be some place else, Louis thought, then changed his mind on how he felt about his situation. He got back on his feet and gave the park one last walk through. I guess it doesn’t hurt to take one more look. I do believe in looking, and last I checked it wasn’t the end of the world, so maybe one more try wouldn’t hurt anything.
He walked through the park. Nothing unusual. The same type of families roamed the park. As he moved further through he tried to conceal himself when he smelled some hot dogs and hamburgers cooking on an open grill. His first reaction was to take some of the already cooked food from the nearby table. I can’t steal. If they are going to be my family then taking from any of them would be wrong and down right cruel.
Louis sat down away from the cook but close enough where most of the people who took part in the cookout could see him.
“Oh look, there is a dog. Can I give him one of the hot dogs?” one of the children asked.
“No!” a commanding voice said. A huge man stood at the grill, urging the child to get away from the pan of hot dogs and hamburgers. “This food is not for stray animals. You don’t know what that will get you. You start feeding him, he won’t go away. They will keep coming around and I ain’t got no time to be feeding an old mutt full of rabies. You need to find somewhere to sit until this food is ready!”
Louis now was in tears, but he held them back. “Now,” he sniffled, “Now I know how the woodchuck feels when he is upset. I kinda feel like him right now.”
“Get on now! Get away from here, you old mutt. If I have to come after you it ain’t gonna be too pretty,” the man working the grill declared.
Louis had enough. He wanted to leave and never come back to that park or any other park in his life. He sprinted down the grassy path that led to a rocky entrance and heavy traffic going in opposite directions. “Maybe I should cross the street,” Louis said. Then he figured that since he was on the sidewalk that led north and south, it wasn’t necessary for him to cross the street at all. For a moment he didn’t do anything except deplore the outcome of not finding a family.
“What am I doing wrong? Ah, it’s nothing to figure out. I just have to go somewhere else. This place is not it.” Louis went to turn the corner, when he heard something behind him. “Here, doggy, doggy. Do you like beef biscuits?”
Louis found the voice to be pleasant. He turned slightly to the left. The gate that isolated the park from the street was open. The man with the pleasant voice stood there by the open gate. He appeared distinguished in his dress shirt, dress pants, and hard bottom shoes.
In front of Louis were the dark brown beef biscuits that the man had thrown to him. Without thinking twice about it, Louis gobbled up the four beef dog biscuits as if he hadn’t eaten in days. “That’s it, eat up. I have more where that came from,” the man said.
Wow, don’t tell me this is it. Can this man be my home? Louis wondered.
“Now that I gave you something, I shared the beef biscuits with you; if I pet you will you bite me?”
No, I won’t bite you. I think you are a nice man and you fed me those tasty beef biscuits, so no, not at all. Louis slowly moved toward the man submissively.
“Oh yeah, you’ve been out here in the cold way too long. I got a nice place where you can eat, sleep and live without being out here. How does that sound?” the man asked.
Is this for real or am I having a nightmare? Louis questioned.
The man petted him as if he knew Louis, as if he wanted to make Louis’s dream of being a part of a family a reality. “I wish I knew your name. If I knew your name… Oh wait a second; you have on a dog tag. Let’s see what it says.”
Louis licked out his tongue and wagged his tail like all dogs do when they are happy and excited. “Louis, so Louis is your name? What a cool name, Louis. My name is Peter. My friends call me Pete. Come on, Louis, I have some more dog biscuits for you,” Peter said.
I am following you. This is so wonderful. Finally my decision was the best decision. Thank you, Peter. I think I like Pete better, it fits you.
When Louis got to Peter’s vehicle, he looked at it strangely. It was a white truck with a black camper on the back, a high camper with a small door on the back. This truck looks weird it looks… The man cut Louis’s thoughts short when he unlocked the door with a key and opened it.
“Ah, no need to worry, Louis, you will be perfectly fine. This is one of my trucks. I pick up anything that may be out there on the streets and place it in here. I close it and lock it, so nothing falls out. Go ahead. Get in, you are perfectly safe.”
Louis walked up to the door, sniffed in and around it to detect if there were any suspicious smells. He couldn’t smell anything odd because, inside the camper there were beef biscuit treats that Peter had promised. Louis leaped up into the camper. Peter shut the door and locked it behind him.
As in a human’s jail cell, Louis peered through the open glass and saw Peter’s lips move. They are saying something. What is he saying?
Peter pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket along with a cell phone. He unfolded the paper and pressed it against the glass of the truck’s camper.
“You are such a cute dog, but she promised twenty dollars and a dinner to whoever finds you. I couldn’t pass that up. I’m sure she can’t wai
t to get you back. Come to think about it, Louis, I know she can’t wait to get you back.”
NO! You have no idea who she is and what she will do to me. No, please don’t! Louis screamed out the back of the camper. Peter read Louis’s desperate yapping as vicious barks.
“Yes, this is Edna, what do you want?”
“I have your dog, Louis. Now where is my dinner and the twenty dollars cash you promise as a reward?” Peter asked.
“I do know why you did it, Louis. Yeah I do. I do know why you decided to just up and leave as if you didn’t have it made here in your fabulous home. It’s because you are a self-centered dog, who cares about nothing. If you were standing right here, I would tell you to your face, Louis,” the woodchuck said. “Well, there is no sense crying over squashed grapes, He is gone now and he isn’t coming back. I guess I will start getting all his bad diet food out of here. I don’t need it!” The woodchuck grabbed all that he could and carried it out of the hole. He did that until he became tired. “A woodchuck’s work is never done. I wish I had Louis here to help me. Wait a second. That doesn’t sound too intellectual. If Louis was here, then I wouldn’t be spring-cleaning. Duh, snap out of it, Woodchuck!” After he came to understand that cleaning out all of Louis’s food would bring forth predators to the food and, of course, to his home, he decided that the food would stay where it was for now, until he recovered a little from his latest efforts. Besides, without Louis’s assistance, it would almost be impossible for him to defend himself and his home.
“Louis’s food is going to be here for a limited time. After that time, I will get rid of it or it will stink up my house. I don’t want anything pertaining to Louis stinking up my place! He is long gone and I hope he stays gone!” the woodchuck concluded. He sounded very convincing but in reality he wasn’t just a thief, he was a liar.
It had only been several hours since Louis had left, but hours the groundhog wished he could have spent with Louis. The fact is that I hate that Louis is gone. I wish you were here, Louis. You didn’t have to leave, the woodchuck thought. He moseyed out of his home and into the shopping center leaping onto a tree.
“Maybe I can spot Louis somewhere and maybe I can give him his food. He is going to need his food, right?” he asked himself. I know Louis wants to be on his own, so I wouldn’t dare try to bring him back. I’m not that stupid. I know him. If I were to try and reason with him, he would only find my help useless. So I won’t dare. It would only be to get him his food. Heck, he worked for it. He deserves it. Besides I can’t eat any of it. I am a vegetarian, the woodchuck thought from about twenty feet in the air in the tree. Then as he surveyed the area, the woodchuck didn’t see Louis or any sign of him. But what he did see was the most bizarre thing that he had ever seen.
“What on earth…? Are they dressed…? I’ll be a bag of grapes! Those people are dressed up like me and Louis,” he blurted in utmost surprise. He adjusted his body to get a better look, then lost his balance.