Part #6

 

(Ignore what I said in the last post. I'm doing three posts instead of two, because it's still way to long.)

Part #6

Five stressful hours later, when Jon got to sleep, the duo snuck out through Jon’s unlocked window. “I don’t like this, Puppy,” Cat whined, standing at the top of the windowsill after Puppy jumped down into the grass below.

“Cat, just jump. You’ll be fine,” Puppy reassured him. Slowly but surely, Cat inched his way to the edge of the windowsill and jumped, yelping, even though the windowsill was only three feet above the ground.

They trotted off along the edge of the road, the way to the shelter. Cat was familiar with this route; he had been to the shelter along with Jon when they had gotten Puppy not too long ago. Soon enough, they reached the old, dark, decrepit building.

Puppy shuddered. “Is it just me, or has the temperature just dropped down fifteen degrees?”

Cat replied, “It’s just you.”

Rolling her eyes, Puppy led the way to a series of windows, each with a lonely-looking animal on the other side.

“Cat?” Puppy whispered, “Do you think Paw’s fine? What if Fernickle badly hurt him? Or what if he’s just… sad?”

“Puppy,” Cat whispered back, “Paw’s not hurt. The shelter people probably make sure that he’s not hurt before they put him in one of those dreadful cages.” He pointed his muzzle at a window with a sleeping Chihuahua on the other side. Puppy noticed that Cat used the same word as Paw to describe the shelter, and that made her miss Paw even more. So she picked up her pace.

“Cat,” Puppy whispered after a few more minutes of searching. “I found Paw.” She stuck her face as close to the window as possible. Paw was soundly sleeping. He looked peaceful, but Puppy still couldn’t bear the thought of him living in that cage any longer.

“I see him. Look! There’s a crack at the edge of the wall. You should be able to dig it and get it slightly bigger so you can squeeze through to the other side,” Cat told her.

Puppy started digging as fast as possible. The more her claws worked, the bigger the hole got. Within a few moments, the hole was as big as her head. She sucked in her body and squirmed through the hole. She was inside the shelter.

She smiled at Cat through Paw’s window, who smiled back at her. He jumped at the sound of a chirping cricket, and Puppy fought the urge to laugh and wake up the other animals. Maybe Cat wasn’t as bad as she thought.

The tiny cement room that Puppy stayed in was barely half the size of Jon’s bathroom. The walls were a dull shade of brown, and cobwebs littered… well, everything. One of the walls were made entirely of a metal rod door, allowing them to look out into the dimly lit hallway, the old light bulbs flickering.

“Paw, wake up. Paw!” Puppy ordered. Paw jerked his head upward, his eyes still droopy and sleepy. “Puppy!” He said at the sight of his best friend. “I knew I could trust you. How did you get here?”

“There’s no time to explain!” Puppy said dramatically. “Get in that hole! We’re breaking you out.”

But Paw just stared before saying, “Puppy, I’ll never fit through that hole. I’m way too big. You might fit, but I’ll only get half my body through. Then I’ll be stuck.”

Puppy groaned at herself for not thinking of this sooner. “Cat, it’s up to you now.”

“Me? I’m not going to expand the hole! I’d get dirt all over my clean, white coat!”

“What’s more important, Paw or your coat?” Puppy demanded. “My coat!” Cat said, but after he saw the look Puppy gave him, he quickly said, “I mean, Paw.”

That’s when she heard footsteps from the hallway.

“Ugh, these dogs…” a night shift worker complained under his breath. “Always making so much noise…”

“Cat, hurry! Someone’s coming!”

The next part is the last part! Enjoy!