Saving the Day the Pound Puppy Way

## Summary

When an argument between Bethsworth and Pam reveal the pound is low on money, Mira and her team are forced to find a group of pups to bring to the pound to try and find them homes or possibly lose their pound. When a new batch of pups come in, the whole pound is happy... til they find out that the pups perfect people are a bit too far away to convince to go down to the pound. Now the team is forced to try and adopt the pups AND save the pound!

## Characters

Mira

Diego

Kerchak

Livvie

Gizmo

Aspen

Devine

Hannah

Vortex

Jinni

Bethsworth

Pam

Fionna

Buddy (mentioned)

## Story

It was almost high noon, and the dogs of Shelter 35 were getting some well deserved rest. In the largest kennel of the pound, Mira and her team were laying in the dirt. Panting, chatting, and sleeping, the dogs were finding different ways to pass the time on this hot hot day. Livvie and Aspen were talking next to the dog houses in the back, Kerchak was asleep with his paws to the sky, Diego and Gizmo were playing a game of tug-a-war, and Mira herself was laying down with her eyes open watching the world go by. Movement near the building on the other side of the pound brought Mira to attention.

“Looks like Bethsworth is finally getting up.” Mira called. Immideately, Diego dropped the rope and rushed over. Their Dog catcher and head of the pound herself, Claribelle Bethsworth, was walking out, their caretaker Pam not far behind. As the two of them watched, they could see that their mouths were moving.

“What are they saying?” Diego wondered.

“I dunno…” Mira said. “Livvie!” Livvie looked up in surprise. A serious look fell over her face as she and Aspen bounded over.

“What’s up?” Aspen asked. Mira beckoned hem both over.

“It’s Bethsworth.” she whispered. Gizmo bounded over and the six dogs looked out as the two humans talked. Livvie pressed a hidden button in the bushes and the human’s voices began to come through.

“I’m telling you Pam! The city council has it out for us!” Bethsworth cried, throwing her hands up in the air. Her blonde well kept pony tail whipped back and forth as she began to pace back and forth.

“Mrs. Bethsworth, are you sure?” Pam’s anxious voice sounded. The girl’s golden brown boy-short hair was ruffled and messy as she tried to calm Bethsworth down.

“They keep nagging on me! That crazy Wilton! Ugh! He makes me so angry!” Bethsworth raged.

“M-Mrs. Bethsworth, Senator Wilton is only trying to make sure that we can keep this place open…” Pam reasoned.

“By threatening me about how many dogs we need to have adopted?!” Bethsworth fumed. Mira and the team exchanged worried looks.

“M-Mrs. Bethsworth please! H-he’s only trying to give you a-advice on how many d-dogs we need to keep the system going…” Pam said.

“Keep the system going?! The system is just fine! Honestly, this Wilton is filling your head with his lies!” Bethsworth cried. Pam opened her mouth to speak but Bethsworth spoke first. “Don't you even open your mouth! Now, feed the dogs. I need to go home to finish some very important paperwork.” she told Pam, getting into her car. Pam looked at her confused.

“What paperwork?” she asked.

“Just do it!” Bethsworth cried and slammed the door. Pam sighed and went to the shed to get some kibble.

The conversation over, Livvie pressed the button again and stepped back.

“What was that about?” Diego asked worriedly.

“From the sound of it… We’re having a money problem. You know how particular those humans are about those little pieces of paper.” Livvie said. Mira nodded thoughtfully.

“They mentioned something about needing to get some dogs adopted… Does that mean that they might try to find some of us homes?!” Aspen asked. Mira stayed silent, thinking it over.

“They might…” She said at long last. “unless we can find some pups who need homes.” Diego looked confused.

“but Mira, we haven’t had any new pups for a few days! What are the chances of some new pups showing up-” he started to say but was cut off by the sound of a new car pulling in. Pam had just been wheeling the kibble to the kennels when Fionna, the dog catcher who often brought in new batches of pups, stepped out of her truck.

“here…” Diego finished, turning to the scene in disbelief.

“O-oh hey Fionna… G-got any new pups for us today?” Pam asked.

“Sure do. Found these three in one of the alleys.” Fionna told her.

Fionna opened the door to the back of the truck and reached inside. Turning, Fionna revealed three pups which she carried in each arm, holding two on her left. One was a black and brown female Chihuahua, another was a black and white male Boston Terrier, and the last one was a female St. Bernard with a white muzzle, chest, and paws with brown and caramel taking up the rest of her fur. Pam smiled and petted the three puppies.

“aw! How cute! Y-you guys are just what this pound needs!” she said. She took the pups from Fionna and carried them over to the kennel that Mira and her team were in and opened the door. “come inside little puppies! You won’t b-be here long.” she promised. Setting the puppies down, Pam left the Kennel, waved at Fionna, and then went back to giving the dogs their kibble.

The three puppies looked around at their surroundings confused.

“where are we?” the little Boston Terrier asked.

“I don’t know. It definitely isn’t an alley” the Chihuahua observed.

“Hey there little guys! Welcome to Shelter 35. I’m Mira, this is Diego, Aspen, Gizmo, Livvie, and Kerchak.” Mira said, walking up to the pups with the team and nodding to each pup in turn. The little mutt smiled up at the Australian shepherd.

“Hi there Miss dog lady. I’m Jinni.” She said cheerfully.

“I’m Vortex!” the Boston Terrier put in.

“and I’m Hannah.” the Chihuahua said.

“Nice to meet you.” Mira said cheerfully.

“Do you big dogs have any good bones to chew?” Hannah asked. Diego chuckled.

“Sure kid. Hey! Do the rest of you pups want to come on down and chew on a good bone?” Diego asked the pups. Hannah wagged her tail and nodded excitedly. Vortex and Jinni exchanged a look.

“‘Down’?” Vortex echoed. Smiling, Diego turned and padded over to the kibble bowl in the kennel. Curiously, the three puppies followed after them. The team followed suit and grinned at the pups amazement when the Bowl was moved out of the way.

“Woah! That’s a big hole!” Hannah cried. Vortex looked down amazed but Jinni backed away in fright.

“I-It looks scary..” She whined. Aspen nuzzled the little pup and smiled.

“No need to worry! I know it may seem scary, but there is no danger here.” She told the pup.

“Hey! Pam’s coming closer!” A voice cried from the next kennel over. Mira looked up to see Buddy and nodded.

“Hold on little ones, should we eat first?” She asked them. The pups looked at each other.

“I am pretty hungry…” Vortex admitted.

“But the BONES!” Hannah whimpered, looking crestfallen.

“Don’t worry! They’ll still be here after we eat!” Diego told her. Hannah reluctantly nodded. Moving the bowl back into place, the dogs bounded over to the chain linked fence and began to bark excitedly as Pam finally reached their kennel.

“O-oh hey sweeties! Your turn!” She said and opened the door. Gizmo happily followed by her side as she filled the kibble bowl. He licked her hand which made Pam giggle and pet him on the head. “Oh! You’re such a sweetheart!” Pam said. She filled the other  three bowls in the kennel and then took the wheelbarrow and left. “That was the last one!” She announced and went back to the shed to drop the food off. The pups crowded around one of the bowls, and Mira herself took a few bites of kibble before handing the rest over to Gizmo. Livvie and Aspen shared one of the other bowls while Kerchak and Diego took the last one.

Once they were all fed, Diego led the way back over to the food bowl which the pups had ravenously left empty. Once again they moved the bowl out of the way and revealed the hole underneath. Hannah cheered and hopped down the hole without any hesitation.

“BONES!” She cried as she jumped. Diego chuckled and followed right after. After some coaxing, Vortex and Jinni soon joined Hannah and Diego. Aspen, Livvie, and Gizmo went next. Kerchak was about to follow when Mira stopped him.

“Kerchak, I need you to stay up here with me and find out what’s been going on.” Mira ordered. Kerchak looked at her curiously.

“Sure thing boss, but I think it was just hot air. You know how Bethsworth can be.” Kerchak pointed out. Mira suddenly looked doubtful.

“Maybe, but we should at least check it out.” She told him. He nodded.

“All right boss. We should go to the office now while Pam’s distracted.” he said. Mira nodded. Kerchak jumped down and Mira activated their inflatable standbys.

Diego, Aspen, Gizmo, and Livvie watched the pups play and chew on the bones that they had in the back. Seeing Mira and Kerchak finally come in, Diego bounded up to them.

“There you two are! What happened, Pam come back?” He asked. Mira shook her head.

“We’re just going to go check on something. You’re in charge here til we get back.” Mira told him. Diego nodded.

“Allright! See you two when you get back.” He said and turned back to the pups.

“So, should we get out the FKD?” Aspen asked. Livvie nodded.

“Aspen, could you go grab it? It’s just in my lab.” Livvie asked her. Aspen nodded and ran to go get the Free Kid Database. It may not be anything fancy like the things that they had heard about Shelter 17, but they did have a book filled with kids and families all around town. It was often updated, but it wasn’t always the most accurate well of info. When Aspen returned with the book in her mouth, Livvie waved her over and the book was dropped at her paws. Opening it up, Livvie began to paw over the different candidates.

Jinni took a break from chewing on her bone and walked over to Livvie.

“Whatcha got there?” She asked. Livvie looked up and smiled.

“This is the Free Kid Database. It has every kid and family in this town and some from a little further away.” She explained

“Oh! Coolio! Why?” Jinni asked.

“Oh, we’re trying to find your perfect people.” Livvie explained. At her words, Jinni looked at the book wide eyed.

“You mean I could find some peoples of my very own?” she yipped, her tail wagging. Livvie laughed and nodded.

“Well, why don’t you look at it. If you see anybody you like let me know.” Livvie said. Jinni nodded vigerously.

“ wanna look too!” Hannah announced and bowled into Jinni.

“Me three!” Vortex cried, joining them. The four pound puppy agents laughed as they watched the pups eagerly looked at the pictures of people.

“I didn’t know we had some files on some of the people from out of town.” Diego commented surprised.

“Yes well, you never know where a pups perfect person may be. I had some of our agents keep some records while they were out on vacation.” Livvie explained.

“I found them! I found them! My perfect peoples!” A voice cried out excitedly. Looking down, little Hannah was bouncing up and down excitedly, her tail wagging furiously. She was staring at a picture of a family of four. Livvie looked at the info. They were a rather well off family of four, a mom, a dad, and their two daughters.

“Oh! The Virennas!” Livvie yelped as she saw the name.

“They’re it! I just know it!” Hannah yipped. Aspen looked at Livvie’s worried face curiously.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Now of all times…” Livvie muttered. Turning to Aspen and speaking louder; “They’re one of the families from out of town! They’re from the next town over!” She explained. Aspen gasped, but Diego only looked confused.

“So?” he asked. Aspen rolled her eyes.

“You heard what Bethsworth said today, the pound is in need of money. However, since the family is far away, we’ll have to deliver them by paw instead of having them come here.” Aspen clarified. Diego frowned, but quickly gave her a charming smile.

“You definitely are a smart one~” He gushed. Aspen huffed but couldn’t hide her blush. “Anyways, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We’ll just contact Vortex and Jinni’s perfect people instead.” He said.

“I found them!”

“Me too!”

“Well.. that was fast…” Diego commented as he looked down at the two pups who were looking down at the pictures of two families. Livvie let out a gasp!

“What is it now?” Gizmo asked her.

“They’re all from out of town!” She exclaimed. Now Diego looked worried.

“All of them?!” He said.

“All of them!” Livvie confirmed. The four dogs exchanged a glance.

“This… May be harder than I thought…” Diego said.

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Meanwhile, Mira and Kerchak were looking around at Bethsworth’s office.

“So… What exactly are we looking for again?” Kerchak asked Mira.

“We’re looking for the monthly report…” Mira explained.

“Oh yeah. Uh, what exactly is that?” He asked.

“You remember! It’s the monthly report on how many dogs got adopted and how much money was made in the month. I remember hearing Bethsworth tell me about it while Devine and I were eating.” she explained. Kerchak nodded.

“All right then… but what does it look like?” He asked.

“Well, Claribelle never did like to do things simple. It should be really fancy, sometimes it’s blue.. There was one time she showed me and it had golden swirls…” Mira said.

“Very vague.. But I guess it’s the best thing to work with.” Kerchak observed. Mira nodded. She herself was looking on Bethsworth’s desk, trying to find the piece of paper. Moving around some of the papers with her paw, Mira’s eyes narrowed in concentration. Suddenly her eye caught something. Nosing out one of the papers, Mira smiled.

“Found it!” She called. Kerchak stuck his head out of the filing cabinet he had been looking in and closed it.

“You have? Great! Let’s get out of here!” He said. Mira quickly tried to get the papers together and pushed them to the side where they had resided. Nodding to Kerchak the two dogs exited the office through the vent that was hidden behind a potted plant. Finally reaching the main tunnel, Mira and Kerchak stopped when they reached the rest of the team.

“Livvie! I need you to-” Mira said then stopped. She looked around at their worried faces and frowned. “Is something wrong?” Mira asked them. Before she could reply, Hannah and Vortex hopped over to her.

“We’ve found our peoples! We’ve found our peoples!” Hannah cried.

“That’s great!” Mira said. Looking back up at the rest of the team she tilted her head. “So what’s the problem here? So far it sounds like you all did a great job. It seems we might not have to worry after all.” she said.

“Yeah… That’s just it… All of their people are from out of town!” Livvie explained. Now Mira looked really confused.

“We have records on people not from here?” She asked. Livvie nodded, not really wanting to explain again. “All right…” Mira said, thinking for a minute. “How far away are their people?” She asked.

“Hannah’s and Vortex’s are in a nearby town, but little Jinni’s is a couple towns over.” Livvie said. This made Mira frown.

“Oh… You really mean out of town…” She said. Mira began to pace back and forth thinking while the pups played around her feet. The rest of the team followed suit and began to think.

“Well… How close is the ‘nearby town’?” Aspen asked.

“Not too far away, but there is still a couple of stretches of woodlands in between us and them.” Livvie said.

“We should at least try contacting them.” Gizmo said. Mira nodded.

“Sounds good. Who knows, maybe they’ll try and come anyways.” Mira said.

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

“I’m sorry, but that’s a bit too far away for a puppy. We’ve been incredibly busy these last few weeks and we til have a while to go before we’re able to go for a 30 minute joy ride to some town to get a dog that will only make things harder on us!” The lady over the phone said. Even though Livvie had her headset, Diego and Aspen could still hear what the lady said as the voice was so loud it carried over to them.

“Huh. Must be a cat person.” Diego joked. Aspen was too worried to give a reply to such a comment.

“That means that both Vortex and Hannah’s people are unable and unwilling to come.” She said.

“Yes, you too.. Bye.” Livvie finished and hung up on the woman. Sighing, she clicked the off button on the machine that she had attached to the phone and took off her headset. “No good! They are unable to come too.” She reported.

“Yeah, we know. We could hear!” Diego told her.

*work in progress..*