Yours Dearly

The winter season had reached the city of Gruteley. Snow gently floated down from the grey clouded sky, layering the ground with a thick white blanket all over the area. The rivers tops froze solid with thick ice which up creek in the country area, many animals (Mainly of the canine race) skidded across the frozen waters; sometimes slipping and falling over onto their bellies. The farm situated close to the river was covered with more snow and more animals to who most dogs, matched the colour of the snow, creating a camouflage for them with only their black spots revealing where they were.

One pup’s spots eased across the icy layer heading towards the doggy door of the Farmhouse; once they jumped through the flap into the toast warmth of the house lounge, the cold iciness dripped off him, making a miniature puddle however revealing the spot pattern on him in a little more detail. The ears of the pups were both pure black while their spots were multiple on the back, but with careful examination; make out the shape of a horseshoe. The pup shook off some last dampness before running up the wooden staircase to a room which was stationed somewhere in the attic.

Within the attic were three more pups. Two of them stood by a small radio, one of them, had black ears which on their right one, three white spots stood out, and upon his back, a blob like spot lay ever so casual. The second was a bit smaller than the first; their ears were both white with an earring going through one of them and over his left eye, a black layer of fur ringed around it. As the music from the radio rang out, the pups moved their paws around on the floor in a so what rhythmic way, the larger of the two watched the smaller one, checking to see if he was copying what the smaller one did right.
While to the dark area near the crawl space, a female pup whose fur was dyed pure black aside from the one white spot she had on one of her ears, they stared into a glass like ball which was placed on top of a few CD boxes with a purple sheet thrown over them. She stared into the ball as if something was going on within it.

The horseshoe pup walked past the trio and up to the young male human who sat by the computer. On the computer screen, there was a video game; who’s graphics looked like something out of a Pixar film however when ever a certain camera perspective changed in a cut scene or the player character talked to an NPC (Non-Playable-Character) the game was cut to a loading screen which stayed there for 20 seconds before loading one sentence, then started to load again. The human who was at the keyboard of the computer typed with one hand, while in the other, he held a phone to his ear, a interfered and gruff led voice came from the other end.
“Roger! Is that game ready yet?”
“Not yet Mr. Ages.” The human shook his head “There are still a whole lot of things the game needs to improve on.”
“Well get on with it!” the voice said “This game has got to be sent to us by next week so we can release it for the Christmas rush.”
“Sir! Like I said, there is still a lot to fix. Like the load times and the glitches that happen. I still haven’t even gone with testers yet! Why can’t we try releasing this in the Easter…?” Roger was cut off
“Well get the testers and send the game Now!” the phone hung up.

Roger dropped the phone and began to type with his other hand. The horseshoe pup picked up a small rouge ball in his mouth next to the chest that the two dancing pups were standing beside before walking to Roger and dropping the ball at his feet. He barked…no reply…the pup barked again…still no reply…the pup barked once more…
“LUCKY!” Roger snapped, Lucky jumped back “I don’t have time right now.” Roger sighed before going back to the screen “I got to finish this game by the end of today and it needs to be good if I’m ever going to get my Christmas bonus this year. I don’t want to get a second job this year selling butt scratchers at the baseball stadium again.” He typed some more before going “Well I’m sure that the glitches may be very hard to find. Plus…all games have long loading times these days. Now all I need are testers.”
He heard some barks and yips behind him.

“Excuse me?” Kit walked up timidly to Spooki “I think one of the CD’s that Clayton and I want is under your sheet as a stand. Can we please have it for a moment please?”
Spooki looked up to Kit from her gaze and spoke in the French voice she normally spoke in “Oh? Doez zhe Gypzee puppy wish to have zhe “Velvit Undergound” CD oui?
Kit nodded “Yes please.”
“Well…” Spooki rubbed her chin “Dependz. You wizh to teach your vriend zhe art of dance oui? While if you take zhe CD it will dizrupt my zeeing on zhe art of fortune.”
Kit dropped his ears, not knowing what to respond with; Clayton stepped forward “Please.” He said “We’re asking you nicely. Can we please have the CD…?”

Before Spooki could answer, the three along with Lucky were grabbed by Roger and flung against four controllers plugged into the computer.
“Ok.” Roger said “You guys are now my testers.” He watched at what they would do
Kit gulped looking at the controller before looking to Clayton “What do I do?” he asked.
“Just press the buttons.” Clayton said “And if I know a Roger game, it’s normally; A for jump, B attack, and that stick is move.”
Lucky was already in the game, however what Lucky did on the controller, the game always responded four seconds late. “The controls are very stiff in this.” He told the others.
“Normally, I ztay away from theze idiot boxes.” Spooki said, still not having touched her controller “And it iz ixamples like thiz why I don’t!” she turned away and went back to her ball.
“The music is quite good.” Kit was simply pressing random buttons on his controller “The tunes are catchy.”
“That’s one redeeming quality about the game.” Clayton shrugged “However they can cut down the loading time and…You’re kidding me!”
Clayton tried a mission on where someone asks you to find another person, however the person they are looking for, was the person who set you the mission.
“Excuse me for a second.” Clayton turned away and left the room for a minute, during his absence; muffled curses, screams and swears where coming from outside the door in his voice. Clayton returned, he panted hard, his hair was all ruffled and his eye was slightly twitching, he spoke “Overall. I hate this game.”
“Agreed.” Lucky nodded, walking away from the controller, heading for the door.
“I guess I’m going to have to take your word for it.” Kit stepped away from the controller and followed Clayton.
“Come on.” Lucky said “It’s nearly Lunch. We better get to the chow tower while there’s still something to eat. There won’t be anything left if Rolly beats us to it.” Clayton & Kit nodded before following Lucky out the room. Spooki rolled he eyes and went back into staring into the ball.

Roger didn’t hear the criticism though, only yips, barks and what he wanted to hear, meaning that he heard only positive remarks. He grabbed a blank CD from one of the racks and inserted it into the computer before he highlighted the game files and clicked burn. The burn took about 5 hours, each minute of that; Roger paced up and down looking back to the computer every minute seeing if it was done. Eventually, the burn was finished. He took the CD out, stuffed it into an envelope and ran out the room down the stairs.
He ran through the lounge, he was nearly at the door, but not before he almost tripped over Puffy & Slayer, plucking at an old guitar, surprisingly making a pretty catchy tune with it.
“Careful Fellas.” Roger said, as he jumped over the pups and out through the door. Puffy & Slayer only shrugged before going back to playing with the guitar.

Roger reached the spotted mail box (just barely see able in the snow) at the fence which acted as the entrance to the farm, he threw the envelope in before shaking. He was freezing after having run out into the icy cold without anything but his normal shirt and jeans he wore indoors. He ran back into the house, jumping over Puffy & Slayer again before collapsing onto the dark emerald chair which was positioned by the fire.
Some pups that were also in the lounge stared confused at the human, before they went back to what they were doing.

One week past
Roger walked up and down in the lounge, he held the phone to his ear while pups sat on the chairs and sofa or up from the floor watching what he was saying.
“See!” Roger said “I told you the game needed more time to be done. We could have gone with four more months and released the game in the Easter market like I suggested and…What? What!? What! Fine…Goodbye Mr. Ages.” Roger hung the phone up before he threw the phone against a chair with hard force. Puppies scrambled to avoid getting hit with the handset.
They yipped and barked.

These barks were heard from upstairs.
Anita sat in the same room in which the computer Roger worked on was too. At a table opposite to the workstation, she held a piece of measuring tape (usually she held it round her neck) across a scarlet piece of cloth, at both ends of this cloth, two animals stood holding each end of the cloth in their mouths holding it up. One of the animals was like most of the animals on the farm, a spotted Dalmatian, Male, however along the bridge of their muzzle, a fair few of multiple spots laid like freckles, the other animal was feline, possibly a grey tabby, feminine, and if you squint, it almost looks as if there is a lizard crawling around in her fur.
Anita turned to look to the door where the noise was coming from, the pup and cat looked to the door too, dropping the cloth they were holding.
Anita walked out the room, the two animals followed.

“Roger darling, what is it?” Anita asked as she stepped down the stairs seeing the commotion.
Roger looked to his wife “That game I’ve been working on was a flop.” He answered “It’s been given a 0.0001% rating from ‘Putrid Shrubbery’ Games Magazine. And now, the games company lays all the blame on me and is refusing my 40% share of the profit it makes.” He slumped into the chair in which the pups fled from. “I hate to admit it, but it seems we need to stretch your bonus pay from Cruella as little further this year.
“Ah…” Anita nodded “About the bonus…”

As they watched over the banisters, the cat asked the pup “Freckles? What do you think they’re talking about?”
“Well…” Freckles said raising one of his eyebrows “If I am right on this, Silky; I think this year’s holiday season is going to be really cheap…”

Freckles wasn’t far off from the truth, things did seem difficult. The Christmas budget wasn’t as big as it usually was due to the low ratings of Rogers’s games and the fact that Cruella wasn’t giving her employees Bonuses this year (well, she needed the money to bribe the Judge & Jury at her latest Hearing). Still, there was still the money saved up throughout the year which was added to the budget, making in total $1600, however with this much, there could probably be a maximum of spending $15 each per person.

Pups sat around in the barn on an early Saturday morning, they did casual Christmas things. Nuke had Mistletoe tied to a pole attached to his collar and was chasing around all the girls who came into his site, most of the girls ran away from him when they saw him coming. Walker had his brown leather jacket open, it was stocked with many different types of goods, collars, winter clothing like scarves & hats, and what he claimed to be “Real” Rings, Special offer; half price. And to one lonely corner of the barn; Phantom sat own his own, writing music on some of Rogers unused melody sheets, he pushed away any pups who came near him.

They were interrupted when the voice of Nanny called from outside in the driveway “Mall Trip!”
All the light hearted pups smiled and instantly ran out the door and to the bus, to which Grandpa was scraping the ice off the windows. Pups that were a bit dark simply followed out rolling their eyes as if there was nothing special about it.
“I keep telling Roger that he needs to put a sheet over the windows at night time.” Grandpa told Nanny as he scraped more ice off the front window “You better let the pups get on the bus.”
Nanny walked up to the bus doors and opened them, the pups queued up, Roger came out the house placing on his Green winter Jacket and counting the Pups as they went on the bus.
“Lets see, 53, 54, 55, 56, wait Wizzer; didn’t you go…oh…19, 20…”
As pups boarded, out of a shed near the outer area of the farm; which had a dark feeling to it, a female pup that was a bit on the chub side was dragging a thin smaller pup out the small door to the shed by the tail.
“You are going to the mall with us!” the chub one said, struggling with the Naughts and Crosses pup “No matter what it takes! You’re coming and you’ll like it!”
“No, I am not!” the pup replied kicking and screaming, trying to get back into his adapted environment of the dark tool shed. After a while the female pup was able to get the reluctant pup in the bus, being the last ones to get on.
The bus Eventually set off.

They were only just able to get a parking space at the Stiffle Mall. Z Section, a brief (hence far) walk from the actual store. The Dearlys walked struggling through the thick snow, the Dalmatians, again; camouflaged beneath it.
They soon reached the toast warmth of the mall interior. Some of the pups gave a relieved sigh as melting snow dripping down from their fur.
“Alright.” Anita looked to the other three humans “We all have $400 each, meaning $15 dollars for each person.” She looked to the pups at their feet “I’ll take Perdy along with these pups.” She pointed to some pups near Perdita, some of them were known as Two-Tone, Iris, Sonya, Lydia and a Vulpine named Roxy. “Roger, take Pongo and the pups beside him…” Some of Rogers pups made up of Belchic, Tippy, Patch, Volkner & Priscilla. “Nanny, take these pups.” Nanny’s group consisted of Hesso, Daisy, Puffy, Megumi and a grey cat called Silky. “And Grandpa, take the rest.” The pups remaining had Patriot, Slayer, Kit, Clayton, Raiden & Oddy. “We’ll meet back here in a maximum of 1 and a half hours.”
The humans nodded and went off with their groups in different directions.

Grandpa set off for the entertainment store. Slayer & Raiden listened to the rock music which was playing on some preview headsets nearby the CD racks, Clayton & Kit searched over at the Jazz, Patriot looked over the Videos & DVDs of NASCAR Races Greatest Moments of the year and Oddy casually looked around at the shelves.
Anita went to the clothes stores, as she browsed through some cheap racks, pups with her tried pulling some clothes off to see if it worked for them.
As clothes fell on top of them, Two-Tone seemed to say to the girls with her “This is better than the Yard Sale box.” Perdy had to come over to get them out under some piles and then tell them to behave themselves.
Nanny was near the toy area, while she, Hesso, Daisy & Silky looked around randomly, Puffy and Megumi danced around, getting a catchy tune out of the giant foot operated keyboard.

Roger however went straight to the mall’s SmartyMart Bargain Store in hopes of getting more for his money (SmartyMart’s were usually good at that).
He took one trolley and loaded Patch, Belchic, Volkner, Priscilla and Tippy into it, while he took another trolley in the other hand had pushed the two along side one another, Pongo walked beside the human as he browsed. In the trolley; Belchic stood on Tippys shoulders to see where on earth they were going in the store.
“Anita, Anita…” Roger thought rubbing his chin as he looked around at the discounted shelves. The cheapest thing he found was his horrible rushed game sold for the unbelievable price of 5 for $2. He gave a shudder before he continued looking “Ah ha! Plastic Wallets!” he picked the item off “Anita will be able to store more designs from work in her Portfolio. A pack of 60, only $2.99.” He looked even more, picking any random thing from the shelf, rarely looking at them to see what they were “Hmmm. Last years Addition to Astrometry, Grandpa will find this handy when he’s up on the Hill. Rubber Gloves, Thread, Paper Clips; knowing Nanny she’ll be able to MacGyver something up with these, $5.97 together for those three, now that leaves the pups...”
Roger looked more and more before “Ah! Chew Toys…” Roger began piling the rubber bone in the trolley “I only have enough to buy 15…but they can share…”
As he did this, the pups in the trolley looked out the trolley to their father (or step father); Pongo, raising an eyebrow to him as if they were asking “Is Roger feeling well?”
Pongo simply gave a shrug and continued walking with his Human.

Roger was the first to get back to the meeting place, still with an hour left till he was meant to. He held a brown paper bag with all the goods he brought with two hands, all cheap & rushed shopping in order not to spend too much, and He (along with the pups he had) knew it.
As he continued waiting for Anita, Nanny & Grandpa, Roger looked around at other Mall shoppers a group of them struggling under the pressure of 4 bags per hand, stocked with stuff most likely costing more than $5 each.
Roger gave a sigh and hung his head low.

When the family got back to the farm, Roger didn’t stay very long, he sat very quiet at the drivers wheel completely still and (so what) alone. Silent and Alone, he sat there for 10 minutes before he started the ignition and driving the bus away from the farm again.
He drove into the city thinking no one was with him, however when he was almost there, he stopped at some traffic lights.
A small yip and a woof were heard behind him.

“So, how long has he been teaching you?” Roxy asked a dancing Clayton.
“Well…” Clayton looked at his dance instructor “Kit has been teaching me for a couple of months now, ever since May time most likely. However, I still need a little training, whenever I get better; Kit seems to get better too.” He smiled to Kit.
“Well, practice makes perfect.” He gave a smile to Clayton in return. Music came from the Bus radio “The music on the John Coltrane is good.”
“John Coltrane?” Roxy raised an eyebrow.
“That’s his name for a radio.” Clayton explained “You see, when he first turned on the radio, the first thing he heard it say was ‘This is John Coltrane playing’ so that’s why he calls it that. Still, I’m ok with it.” He continued to dance with Kit more. Roxy gave a smile too.
“That type of music is ok.” Raiden popped out from a seat behind with Puffy “However, I normally prefer a song by the band ‘Disturbed’ more myself.”
Kit remained silent for a moment think of a response before saying “I guess they’re alright too.” He went back to his dancing.

“What are you guys doing here?” Roger looked at them, pulling the bus over on the sidewalk, The pups looked to Roger a bit confused “Have all five of you decided to stay on the bus.”
“Six.” Clayton said as a bark to Roger pointing to Phantom, sitting on one of the back seats to the bus, still writing on the melody notes of Roger. Roger rolled his eyes.
“Fine, you can come.” He said “Just when I get tipsy and pass out on the floor, don’t let me swallow my tongue.” He went back to the drivers’ seat.
“Where are we going anyway?” Roxy asked
The others shrugged.

They soon figured out where Roger was going.
Roger stopped the bus outside the “Hawks Head Drinks Tavern” and walked in through the doors, the pups following close behind. Roger sat down at a stool and spoke to the barman.
“Pour me a Rolling Rock, Danny.” He looked down to the stand.
“What’s the matter, Roger?” the barman said “You get a lump of coal in the socking? You look down in the dumps.”
“So?” Roger sighed.
“So, it’s Christmas.” Danny handed the glass of beer to Roger.
“Thanks Danny.” Roger drank his beer.

As Roger drank, the pups stared at a human on the other side of the bar. The mans hair was dark brown, with a moustache across his upper lip. He had a Stand up Bass on him, while to his side was a piano, an electric guitar and a trumpet.
This man was known as Martin; an old friend of Rogers. The two use to be in a band together before Roger met Anita, where Roger played the piano and Martin played Stand up bass. Even though the band is long split up, Martin still hopes Roger will return and they will be able to get the band started once again.

“Look at all this stuff!” Clayton said to Kit as the pups saw the instruments, Kit remained silent, he was bedazzled by all the instruments; he continued searching with Clayton.
“Look, a guitar!” Puffy said to Raiden “See it?”
“I see…” Raiden smiled “Awesome.” He spoke again “Let’s have a go.” He looked to Phantom with his paper “May we try playing your little piece for a second.”
Phantom shook his head and answered in a manner as if he was singing “I’m afraid that the answer I have to give is; no.”
Raiden didn’t take much notice to the answer and took the music anyway. Phantom growled.
“Now let’s see how this goes.” Raiden looked at the sheet, he held on to the notes of the fret while Puffy plucked them.

The music started playing, it was like some of the best music anyone has heard in their lives, probably not #1, but does make it into the Top 10.
As the guitar music played, Martin looked amazed on how pups were able to play such rhythm. He shrugged and played his bass trying to accommodate.
“The music is catchy!” Clayton smiled to Kit “Can we try dancing with it?”
Kit thought for a few seconds before smiling “Sure.” He and Clayton began dancing.
“Can I join?” Roxy asked
“Go for it!” Clayton smiled to her, Roxy joined in.

Roger continued to drink, however he heard the cheers of other men in the bar, seemingly coming from Martins corner. He turned and walked over still with his glass. He pushed through the crowd and gasped at what he saw.
As Raiden and Puffy still played the guitar, Clayton had jumped up on the keys of the piano and as he danced on it, he got a tune from that too. Roxy and Kit danced together, both of them seem to be experts at the art.
“Martin!” Roger called to his friend “What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know.” Martin shrugged “The pups seemed to play the guitar and everything seemed to write itself.”
The song continued on until it reached the epic bridge ending. The crowd cheered at the pups and threw pennies to them. Roger watched as the coins landed at the pups feet, add up all together was almost $20. An idea struck his mind.

Clayton jumped down from the piano and smiled to Kit & Roxy
“That was awesome!” he said to the two. “You two make excellent partners together.”
Roxy blushed at the comment.
However Kit simply said with a smile to Clayton “Why…thank you…” not understanding what Clayton meant with that compliment.

The next thing the pups knew, they were grabbed by Roger who threw his beer into the air and was hugging the pups, a smile on his face.
“That’s it! That’s it!” he was cheering “You pups are so talented! I know what to do now!”
“Choking! Not Breathing!” Puffy gasped for air every chance he got, As they were being choked with Rogers hugs
“What’s got into ‘The Roger’?” Kit asked Clayton
“Does this mean I’ve earned his full respect?” Roxy asked too.
“I do not know…” Clayton answered whilst choking “But I think he’s got something planned for us…”

While Roger hugged the pups and the crowd cheered more. Phantom simply rolled his eyes and continued writing on his now recovered paper.

“So? What has Roger got you guys doing then?” Nuke asked the bar pups (Minus Phantom) as they waited outside the bus.
“Well…” Clayton answered raising an eyebrow “…Roger gives us this music he’s written, and he wants us to…have Puffy & Raiden play the music and have, Roxy, Kit & I dance to them. And hopefully, people will give us…money.” He looked over to Kit “Kit, didn’t you do something similar to this before you came to the farm?”
Kit looked at everyone, the attention was on him. At first he gave a nervous expression before he looked to Clayton, who’s smile gave him reassurance. Kit smiled and answered.
“Yeah.” He said “I use to dance around in the street, and as I danced, people tossed coins into this small hat I had in front of me…” he paused for a moment before saying “I think that ‘The Roger’ wants us to do something similar to that.”
“Put short, using our talents to get money.” Puffy shrugged

“I got talents too.” Nuke stood with pride “I can help you guys earn some cash as well.”
“How?” Clayton smirked “Please the ladies? $5 an hour?” he laughed, Nuke growled.
“No!” he said “I can balance on a ball.”
“Plus…” Tippy stood up above the crowd “I can hold that ball while he balances, both while I’m on Belchics shoulders.” She smirked.
“She ain’t kidding.” Belchic shrugged.
“I can play instruments like Puffy and Raiden.” Slayer said “Tammy can help me play it.”
“And I can sing.” Hesso smiled.

The gossip started on whosever talents were good started. Soon everyone was speaking loud and all jumping around, to one silent, this pierced the ears and brought up aggression, leading to sudden outburst.
“SILENCE!!!” cried Clayton. Everyone stopped talking and blinked at him.
Clayton sighed before blushing at Kit in a way of saying sorry for the outburst before looking back to the crowd.
“Look, I’m sure your talents are good, but standing here talking about them isn’t going to get you anywhere. Maybe if you showed your talents to Roger, he may accept you. That’s all I’m saying.”
Everyone still blinked at Clayton.

Roger came out of the house, a cardboard box held with both hands, he struggled a bit as he tried to walk through the crowd of pups and open the bus door.
“Stay.” He told the pups as he placed a few more boxes in the bus.
Nuke had ran off to get a ball big enough to balance on and once he returned tried demonstrating his little trick to Roger, however each time the human walked past, he was never noticed. Roger just kept on loading boxes onto the bus and that would have been the end of it. Nuke lost patience.
“Rawr!” Nuke jumped from the ball he was on and gave a nibble at Rogers leg.

“Ow!” Roger looked down to his leg where he was bitten, nothing was there. He looked back to the crowd of pups and noticed Nuke, who instantly zipped back to balancing on his ball, quicker than anyone can blink an eye. Roger stared at Nuke; a nervous smile came onto the pups face.
“You want to come too?” Roger asked.
“Rawr.” Nuke nodded.
“Well…” Roger rubbed his chin “It doesn’t seem all that much for balancing…”
”Woah!” Nuke wobbled on the ball as he felt as if someone was picking him up.
Tippy held Nuke and the ball above her head, and while she did this, she also rested on top of Belchics shoulders.
“You guys really want to come don’t you?” Roger asked. The crowd of pups nodded. Roger sighed “Fine.” He looked to the pups “I suppose I can make more cash if I had more pups with me and had a variation of talents. To all who wish to help, get on the bus.”

Pups instantly ran on in a swarmed crowd, nearly throwing Roger off his balance to fall down on one of the steps of the bus. Soon only a fair few amount of the pups (mostly dark hearted ones) were left who weren’t on the bus.
One group who hadn’t boarded was made up of six girl pups and one male pup. This group was known as the Heartbreakers. Emma, one of them walked up to their leader; Diana.
“So…” Emma asked “Should we go with them? Most of the so called heroes are there as well as the owner of this farm, we got the cat in the bag. Perfect opportunity for take over.”
“No Emma.” Diana shook her head “Not today.”
“We’re just going to let them go?” Stealth (Fighter pup of the lot) stared confused, but her normal expression of aggression stayed on her face.
“Yes.” Diana nodded “It’s time we gave them a break, let them enjoy this holiday of theirs, and when the new season comes round…”
“That thread they hang by which they call Hope will be cut…” Malinda, Hex girl finished Diana “And we will be the ones to cut it.”
“Exactly.” Diana smiled and nodded “As I always say…Purity through Heartbreak.”
The Heartbreakers stood silent as they watched the bus drive away.

On the bus, the pups looked in the boxes Roger loaded on.
Kit remained and stared in awe as he looked into it. Instruments! Instruments galore, each box stuffed to the brim with guitars, trumpets, miniature keyboards…to any music student (or in some pups cases; Kit) this was like being a little child in a candy store. Other items which were included in other boxes came to the likes of those who were non musical.
So overall, the bus was like a giant Yard Sale.
“Look at all this stuff!” Hesso smiled.
“I know!” Clayton nodded, he looked to Kit “And there are a whole bunch of Jazzy and Rhythmic instruments too…Awesome isn’t it?”
Kit paused for a second before he looked to Clayton and smiled “Yeah!” he nodded.
“This is like one giant Yard sale.” Roxy stated “Two-Tone would have loved this.”
“I’m sure she would.” Raiden agreed.
“Be sure not to break anything in those boxes.” Roger called from the drivers’ seat, looking at the road ahead and not the pups, who simply barked in acknowledgement and went back exploring through the boxes.

First Stop…the Mall.
Roger left the bus picking out a bowling sized rubber ball and a small cap hat out the boxes before he pointed to…
“Nuke, Belchic, Jewel, Tippy. Come with me.”
The four pups looked at each other before following Roger out the bus. They treaded across the baron icy car park for a second time that week, before they entered back into the warmed climate of the centre of shopping.
“Ok.” Roger knelt down to the pups “It’s best that you guys go here as if you are doing something like simple ball balancing, people will think you are part of a group like a dog talent school or something like that, which is collecting donations. People would possibly give you more tip there.” He placed the ball next to Nuke and the hat in front of them upside down, making it seem like a bowl. “People will place the money in here. Got it?”
The pups nodded.
“Good.” Roger stood up, the pups watched as he left out through the doors and back out to the bitter cold.
When he was gone, Nuke turned to the others “Ok…just like what we did earlier.”


Next, Roger dropped the bar pups, back in front of “Hawks Head” where the talent was first discovered.
“Ok guys…” Roger said as he placed down the Cap, Guitar and Miniature Keyboard “Just like what you did the other day. You guys know.”
The pups gave a nod, and watched Roger leave.
“Ok, Puffy.” Raiden looked to his guitar partner “I go at the fret; you go to the pickup…”
“What song do we do?” Puffy asked.
“I suppose anything which has a good dancing tune to it.” Raiden answered looking to the dancers.
Roxy was standing there ready, however next door to the bar was a charity store, Clayton and Kit were looking at some stuffed teddies which were placed on display outside the store, Clayton was holding a small dollar note in his mouth, nudged Kit and pointed to one of the teddies…
“There it is…” he told Kit “I saw it last time we were here, and I think this dollar I found down the side of the couch is enough to pay for it…You recon ‘You Know Who’ will like it?”
Kit stared at what Clayton had pointed at. Kit stared at it for a while before he smiled and nodded rapidly to Clayton “Yes. Defiantly!”
“Come on guys!” Raiden called.
“Coming.” Clayton said. He swapped the item he was interested in with the Dollar bill and, he & Kit walked back to the group, ready for what they did best.

Lastly was outside the “Mom & Pop’s Market”
“Hesso, Slayer, Tammy…Come…” The trio did as Roger asked and followed him off the bus, to the street. The human took a guitar and another cap.
When they were on the street, Roger placed the guitar in front of Slayer and Tammy.
“Ok…so far of what I’ve seen, you guys are good at doing guitar. I want you guys to play this and Hesso…Just do what you do…”
Hesso barked in acknowledgement as did Slayer and Tammy. Roger placed the cap down “I will pick you guys up in four hours.” He stood up, stepped on the bus and drove away, leaving a sense of exhaust behind.

Hesso looked to Slayer & Tammy.
“Well?” Tammy asked “What do you want us to play?”
Slayer nodded “Yeah, Hesso. Say it and we’ll play it.”
Hesso thought for a moment before he smirked and whispered his request to his guitarist, they nodded before Tammy asked again.
“What Key?”
Hesso whispered again.
“Right.” Slayer nodded. He approached the fret while Tammy took the pickups. The two started playing.
As the music rang, Hesso sang his lyrics.
“Start spreading the news,” He sang “I’m leaving today; I want to be a part of it - New York, New York…”People past him. His singing, to humans only sounded like a bunch of howls and wails, but yet at the same time…Sounded rhythmic and catchy, along with the fact; you could guess what he was singing.
People chuckled at the sheer sight of a dog singing; others stared dumb folded for a moment, before tossing a coin or two into the cap. Others did both.
As Hesso watched as the Nickels, Dimes, Quarters and even Dollar Bills were tossed into the cap, he thought to himself “Wow! These people actually like me!” he continued on singing and thought more.
“What ever Roger wants to buy with the money we’re making, I’m sure he’ll be able to buy more than a dozen of the item he wants…….”

The date was marked…December 23rd; time taken was 5:57 PM.
A group of exhausted young pups, trailed in through the doors of the farms old barn. Each one coming in panted catching as much breath as they can like if their lungs were empty, their paws dragged across the dusty floor as the walked and when they reached a clear area in front of the television, they all collapsed in a heap on top of one another.
Next to them was the Horseshoe pup known as Lucky and with him, his slight larger roped collar brother; Patch. The two were watching a Thunderbolt however had to turn it off as it was (like most Christmas Specials these days) down lifting. Lucky looked at the pile.
“What happened to you guys?” Lucky asked as he and Patch approached and looked over the pile.

“For a week…” Roxy answered “Roger has had us been doing these street gigs. Having Nuke & Jewel balance on a ball while Tippy holds the ball up while on Belchics shoulders, Hesso has been doing a sing song with Slayer & Tammy at the guitar, while for me, Kit & Clayton we had to dance while Puffy & Raiden give the music.”
“And how is everyone taking it?” Patch asked looking at the others.
“Standing on a ball for four hours, everyday for a week really takes a beating on your balancing paws.” Nuke added in.
“And having your mate sit on your shoulders as you do nothing, (not even walking like a piggy back) while she is also holding up the combined weight of a beach ball and two pups, that I really would not take as the easiest and weightless task in the world.” Belchic joined with the complaints as he massaged his sore shoulders.
“Singing straight for hours with no intermission strains your voice too.” Hesso looked up.
“…And imagine plucking the guitar for that long!” Slayer raised a slight red paw “I got Blisters on me fingers!”
Puffy, Raiden & Tammy all raised their paws too conforming they were in as much suffering as Slayer.
“Plus, dancing out in the cold at a temperature of ‘Minus 5’ to ‘1’ degree Celsius is not easy job…” Roxy regained control of the conversation she started “The effect is that you’re shaking hard trying to get warm and your fur stands on end, and see the dampness at my legs? That isn’t because I just pulled a Wizzer, it’s because the ice has only just started melting off my legs!”
“We’re bushed.” Clayton began speaking “I mean, when I first started out; dancing, with Kit teaching me, I enjoyed it. We did it out of fun, no worries, if any of us (mainly I) made a mistake, we simply had a brief laugh about it and try again. But not now, we have to get it right first time or we fail and ruin the dance.” He looked to Kit next to him “I miss the attic days.”
Kit gave a small nod at Clayton before he let out the small sigh “Why is ‘The Roger’ putting us through this?”
“It’z becauze zhe Human iz broke…”

Everyone shifted their attention to a dark corner of the barn where the dust laden sun beams did not touch any time of day. Silence rung when everyone stared aside from the rattle of halter chains coming from outside.
The voice belonged to Spooki, she sat in the corner placing cards down in a ‘Game of Patients’ the others blinked.
“What do you mean Spooki?” Lucky asked. Spooki rolled her eyes.
“Remember une quinze ago?” She asked “Where zhe human made you, the gypzy pup, the emotif fool & Moi play zhe videó Terrible?”
Clayton, Kit & Lucky raised an eyebrow, Spooki continued.
“Well…Due to zhe lack of bon feedback, zhe human waz denied zhe Christmaz bonuz. He is as poor as a Mendiant. Yet within this Temps Désespéré, he resorts to having zhe puppies, act like circiz monkeys. Ironically, tiring zhem out in hopes not to let zhem down.”
“You mean he’s been making us do this on the account he doesn’t want to disappointed us?” Belchic blinked.
“Oui.” Spooki nodded before she went back to her card game.

The performer pups stared at each other. Hesso spoke.
“Is she speaking the truth?” he asked “Is Roger really putting us through this just to help us?”
“By what I was able to make out of what Spooki was on about…” Lucky thought explaining before he gave a nod “I say Yes.”
The others looked up to the ceiling.
“What are we going to do?” Kit looked nervously to Clayton, who as a response, gave a shrug.
“I do not know.” He answered “I mean, if we continue, we’re going to be worn out, if we don’t, we’re going to let Roger down. I am no good at making choices like that.” He rubbed his face.
“I say we continue…” the group turned looking to whom made the comment.
“What do you mean Tammy?” Raiden asked.
“Continue…” Tammy repeated “I mean, we’ve come this far, and I doubt Roger would want us to continue after Christmas day comes, so I say we should finish the job.”
“I guess you make a good point there…” Puffy sat up “We’ve come this far, so why give the race up on the home stretch? So are we continuing then?”
Everyone sighed and nodded in acknowledgment “Yes.”
“Alright.” Clayton stood up “It’s decided, Tomorrow, let’s give all we can do for this….”

The next morn, Roger took the pups at 10am and boarded them onto the bus.
“Ok guys.” Roger said to them “As it is Eve day, you shall perform half time than usual. So if I drop you off at 11, you will be picked up at 1pm. Ok?”
The pups nodded “At least he’s cutting us a break today.” Clayton whispered to Kit as he jumped on the bus step, followed by everyone else.
As the pups boarded, Roger watched before looking at a piece of paper he redrew from his pocket and written on it, countings of all the money the pups made so far. Overall, they had made $93.52; not as much as Roger had hoped to get, but beggars can’t be choosers. Maybe if the pups made enough today, he would at least have $100 or so in total. Maybe he could get one big thing, who knows.
He sat at the drivers seat before closing the bus doors and (like what he has done everyday that week) drove the bus out and to the town.

The day worked out as normal, Roger dropped Nuke, Jewel, Belchic & Tippy down with their ball at the mall, Hesso, Slayer, Tammy out “Mom & Pop’s Market” and the Bar pups outside…well the bar.
“Ok fellas.” Roger told the last of the pups “Like I said, pick up at one.” The pups barked and Roger didn’t stay any longer. He instantly stoop up, hoped onto the bus and pulled away, leaving, Clayton, Kit, Puffy, Raiden & Roxy standing silent next to their just as silent guitar. Roxy looked to the others.
“Ready to do this?” she asked, everyone nodded. They stood in a circle and placed their left paws in the centre, they then gave a bark before waving that paw up into the air. On that mark they took their positions prepared for the show.
Little to their knowledge, a pound van eased around the corner street.

Roger returned back to the farm house and sat down. He was most likely going to sit in one of the chairs in the lounge, do nothing for a whole hour before he would leave again to pick up the pups; the schedule was usually made up of that material.
Roger looked around at this environment. Somewhere close to the fire; Grandpa sat near it with a few pups gathered around him, Grandpa pulled a pair of pinchers into the fire before he pulled a small piece of tin foil (covering something up within it) out of the fire.
“Here we are.” He said revealing roasted chestnuts within the tin foil, slight cracked. He opened one of the chestnuts and gave pieces to the pups “Piece for Star, Piece for Dipstick, Piece for Ace, and a piece for Silky.” He chuckled as the pups ate their segments, slightly wagging. “Roger loved these when he was a child.” Grandpa went on “Not sure if he is now though, haven’t been able to ask him as he’s caught up in the own little world.” The pups shrugged as if they were talking with Grandpa and it seemed the elderly human got what they were saying “Yeah, suppose you’re right.” He rubbed his face and continued dishing the chestnuts out.
Over in the kitchen, Nanny was placing the stuffing in the turkey, however each time she turned her back, Rolly got up and always tried going for the t dinner. It was only thanks to the combined efforts of Lucky, Cadpig & Spot that he did not succeed; however it did always end with them in a heap on the kitchen tiles afterwards followed by a small chuckle from them.

Roger sighed and continued sitting in the chair, he sat there for another fifty minutes and was just on the verge of deciding to pick the pups up when all of a sudden, the phone rang.
At first he approached it carefully before he reach down and picked up the receiver.
“Hello?” Roger spoke at his end, listening what was to be heard on the other. “Yes I am the owner of Dalmatian puppies…yes they respond to those names…….oh…..”
Roger instantly slammed the receiver down, grabbed his winter jacket and ran out the door.

Roger ran through the entrance of the Gruteley Pound.
“Are you Mr. Dearly?” the red haired and freckled man at the front desk asked.
“Yes, that’s me.” Roger presented his ID to prove it. “You claim to have my puppies?”
The desk man checked the ID on his computer in case of Fraud and then nodded, he handed Roger his ID Card back. “Yes, this way…”
He lead, Roger down a corridor before they went through one door, leading to a room filled with cages which were stacked like shelves in a supermarket. Each caged contained at least one of any type of animal which walked on four legs.
“I caught these pups in the mall, outside a grocer and one outside that bar next to the charity shop. The pound man told Roger “I heard that these fellows were performing all week with either dancing, a ball balance trick and what most people put off for singing. People were a bit upset to see them go too, seriously! Some even threw bricks at my van as I drove away. I would of let the pups be if the choice was up to me, however I kept getting all these phone calls from some mad old lady complaining of the noise (even though her voice was louder than anything the pups made combined) I had no choice in the end. However that lady seemed like the type of woman who would call the police even if her upstairs apartment neighbour just made a cough.
The humans reached the end of the room.

At the end of the room were cages containing all the entertainment pups, Belchic, Clayton, Hesso, Jewel, Kit, Nuke, Puffy, Raiden, Roxy, Slayer, Tammy and Tippy, all shut in cages.
Clayton’s cage was in between Kit & Hessos, he always seemed into counsel any of the two if they did started to feel worried.
Belchic & Tippy, along with Nuke & Jewel reached their paws through the bars of the cage to hold their lovers hand as if they were a couple in prison (well it is rather the same thing in a way).
The rest simply sat there doing nothing, however when all the pups saw Roger come in, they instantly stood up and wagged their tails.

The pound let each one of the Dalmatians out until all, except Roxy were out.
“Erm…” Roger pointed to the vulpine “That one is also mine as well.”
“Is it?” The pound looked to Roxy “I thought she was simply a city animal who happened to jump on the entertaining wagon, been their coincidentally, know what I mean? It’s an easy mistake to make, considering the fact she has no collar nor license. You do own her, yes?”
“Well…” Roger rubbed the back of his head “Sort of…The pups found her in the chicken hut and then started this sort of friendship with her. I never got around to buying her a license, so she may still be considered wild…”
“I’m sorry, no license, no bail…Rules are rules here. However, it is possible I can give her one, so you would officially own her. However it is wildly expensive, the national can go all the way from $70-$300, I think we take $95 here.” The pound man thought more and continued “We also must insist on a cash payment up front.”
“Cash?” Roger gulped. The Pound nodded.

Roger looked to the pups, he could tell dead straight by the expression on their faces that they knew what happened to animals who never were taken from the pound, he then looked to the money he collected. If he paid for the license and bail for Roxy even though it will save her life, he will at the same time, blow his chance of buying at least one big good thing.

He looked back and forth.
Roxy, Money, Roxy, Money, Roxy, Money, Roxy, Money.

What was he going to do?
-----------------------
Spooki Translations
Une Quinze = One Fortnight
Emotif = Emotional
Bon = Good
Mediant = Beggar
Temps Désespéré = Desperate Times
-------------------------

The Dearly Humans sat within the farmhouse lounge on the night of the eve before Christmas. The clock on the wall had it’s hour hand steadily ticking its way to 8 PM.
As Anita, Nanny & Grandpa were cramped in between the multiple animals of dogs with many breeds like mainly Dalmatian, Alsatian or Dachshund, cats for grey, ginger or Tabby, and possibly much more, they looked to the clock seeing the late time.
Anita spoke at a slight loud voice, trying to get what she was saying to Nanny over the multiple barks, yips and purrs of the animals around her.
“Roger has been gone for quite a few hours now.” She said “Not like him. Should we call the police?”
“Not as of yet…” Grandpa shook his head as he gently stroked a puppy behind the ear whilst it was perched on his lap, and with the face the puppy seem to give, that was it’s favourite stroking spot. Grandpa continued talking “Roger did this a bunch of times in his youth. It’s normally about one of two hours time until you get the bail out phone call from the police station.” He shrugged.
“Well…ok…” Anita sat down back in her chair.

The scene in the lounge continued, in one corner of the room, a chub female pup was dragging a smaller male pup with O & X over his eyes across the floor (quite similar to what the same pups did out of the shed last week)
"B, but my experiments..." the male one whimpered “When Lucky comes…with Two-Tone!...Mistletoe!”
"Screw the human traditions…” The pudgy female responded “I've got something WAY more fun."
The male gave a whimper and sigh before giving up and continued to be dragged out the room.
Towards another corner of the room, a young male Dalmatian was eating out of a bowl which belonged to a female Dachshund (who was watching this child pup), and the bowl to which seemed to be stuffed to the brim with candy, was slowly being devoured.
“Are you sure it’s ok feeding Cloud that much Candy, Creampuff?” A female pup who looked enough to be the candy eating pups older sister asked “You know how hyper he gets when he eats to much sugar.”
“Look! Chill Mimi.” The Dachshund replied, her tone a bit sarcastic “This is just all the candy my humans gave me to which was too much for me to eat. I’ve given some to dozens, so I doubt there is enough sugar content to…”
“YIPEE!!!” Cloud leapt from the bowl like piece of elastic breaking and started to run or jump around the room in a playful mood, randomly licking or hugging anyone who came in a 1 meter radius of him to which blinked and felt a bit freaked out afterwards.
Mimi sighed.

The family continued sitting, Rolly (who had just finished predicting what everyone had in their presents by sniffing them) was now starting to shake Lucky about.
“I’m starved man!” he screamed “Did you see that turkey!? When can we have it!?”
“Calm down Rolly.” Lucky pushed the fat pup off “I’m sure when Roger comes back with the others, we’ll have some.”
“BUT WHEN WILL THAT BE!?” Rolly started shaking Lucky again.
“Oi! Fingers on lips!” Docs’ voice was heard coming from in front of the TV next to Allie, one of his fingers on his lips, he removed it before speaking again “Doctor Who is on, episode title ‘The Next Doctor’. I need to keep concentrated in order to figure out whether Dave Morrissey really is Tennants replacement.”
“What does your little robot dog thing think who the next one will be?” Allie asked.
“Well…” Doc answered “…I tried running that through with him earlier. He nearly burnt out his circuits, but what he’s got is that there is a 10-1 chance of Russell Tovey & Anthony Head (who have had a big part in this before) an 8-1 chance with John Simm (Who again has had a major role before) 6-1: James Nesbitt, 5-1: Dave Morrissey (who we are watching now) and on top 3-1 is Paterson Joseph. He also says Matt Smith has a chance too…”
“Ah…” Allie nodded barely understand half of what Doc was going on about, but still continued watching the screen with him.

A creaking noise was heard coming from the front door, a pitter patter of puppy paws was heard coming into the direction of the lounge along with the small thump of human shoes, everyone turned to see who it was.
Through the door, Clayton, Kit, Hesso, Slayer, Puffy, Raiden, Nuke, Jewel, Tippy, Tammy & Belchic came running in joining their siblings, Roxy not amongst them, Roger followed in after them, he had one arm tucked within his jacket as if he was hiding something he had concealed within it.
“Roger! You’re home.” Anita smiled.
“Hey…” Roger gave a small nod before he collapsed down into a chair.
“Where have you been the last few hours?” Nanny asked.
Roger answered “Oh, nowhere special, out carolling with the pups…” he sighed still holding the item under his jacket “Er, Anita?”
“Yes?” Rogers wife looked at him.
“Well…” Roger gulped “You know that vulpine?”
“Roxy?” Anita nodded “Yes.”
“And what you said what would happen if I didn’t get around to getting her a licence?”
“That she be taken away by the Pound if she was caught? Yes…”
Roger looked guilty “Well…”
The item in Rogers jacket started to wiggle, it continued to struggle more before out of one of the large gaps between the buttons popped Roxys head, around her next; a black collar hung, she leapt from the jacket and onto Anitas lap, before she began nuzzling the female human.
“Roger!” Anita looked surprised, but started stroking Roxy in return “You finally got her a licence!”
“Yes…but…” Roger tried explained about what he had used to pay for it.
“This is wonderful!” Anita stood up, Roxy jumping to the floor when she did. “Now Roxy can enjoy the holidays knowing in her mind she is now an official Dearly!”
Roxy smiled whilst other pups crowded her to look at her collar or congratulate her for getting one.
“But the money I used to get it for her was…” Roger tried explaining but was over volumed by everyone else.

With the pups, Nuke had reattached the mistletoe to the pole on his collar and started chasing people around again, at one point he was able to catch Hesso & Iris together under it. He smirked and laughed.
Iris blushed, however Hesso blinked looking confused.
“I’m sorry, I’m not 100% sure with this Christmas thing or what this means, what do we do under a mistletoe?”
“Let me show you…” Iris gave a smirk.
In a spot under the tree, Kit, Kendra (holding a small miniature statue of a dragon perched on a tower, with a note attached to it which read “To my special dragon girl, with love; Clayton XXX”) and Clayton (who now has a love bite on his right cheek) watched as a small male pup with a blue collar and no special spot pattern was looking into a box, to which Clayton & Kit had given him. The pup fan-boy screams were heard whilst they looked within the box before reaching in to pull out and start hugging a ‘Lil Lightning’ teddy.
“Oh thank you!” The pup smiled to Kit & Clayton
“You like Phillip?” Clayton looked pleased with himself, as did Kit.
“I do! I don’t more than like it, I Love it!” Phillip continued hugging.
“Kit & I found it in the charity shop.” Clayton explained “We figured that since you were a fan of that guy, we bought it.”
“Thank you, so much!” Phillip wrapped his paws around Clayton & Kit and hugged them as much as he did the teddy. Clayton & Kit looked to each other before shrugging and continued waiting till Phillip was done.

Roger looked at more people, in his stomach, he had a gut feeling, he needed to come out with the truth.
Suddenly the crash of an opening front door was heard before the two faced hair and cold curling white flesh of the woman known as Cruella came storming in, a sack on her back.
“Anita!” She said “If I have to tell you last year, I have to tell you this year. How could you celebrate Christmas without me!?”
“Er, well…” Anita blinked “Come in Cruella.”
“Thank you, Anita. I’ve even brought my gifts for the Dalmatians too…” She took her sack and poured her normal gift of office supplies onto the dogs to which fled from the area when they hit the ground.
Cruella then went over to Anitas chair, took it for herself, picked one of the Dalmatian pups up and started hugging it laughing.
This was one thing odd about Cruella, during the start if the holiday season, she acts like a total Scrooge, the next thing you know, she is the happiest woman on Earth.
Cruella’s face suddenly changed to a non-amused look, she removed the pup from her revealing her red coat now soaked and the pup dripping with a small smile and wagging its tail. Like last year, she made the mistake of picking up Wizzer (For some reason, due to all the times Cruella usually picks up Wizzer or the pup does his business in her clothes, it’s almost if Wizzer was Cruellas favourite pup)
All Cruella could do in response was sigh and say “God Bless Us.”

“Cruella?” Anita said “Before you came, I think Roger wanted to say something…I think we should let him speak.”
“Oh?” Cruella looked to Anita before giving her Devil stare to Roger “Well go on Reginald; tell us what it was…”

Roger peered over to a dog pile made up of Lucky, Two-Tone, Daisy, Judo & Nemo, holding Rolly down preventing him access to the kitchen.”
He looked back to the female, a small silence reigned, utter silence, it continued on and on until Roger gave a smile and said…
“Oh, nothing...Come on, to the kitchen, some pups looks like they are looking forward to it....dad, you can bring those chestnuts of yours They are nice..."
"At once." Grandpa smiled, gave a salute and went to the fire where Shadow was sleeping.

As the Dearly pups went to the kitchen, Clayton, Kendra & Kit talked.
"I wonder...." Kendra said "You guys told me, he made you work all week for the money you earned to buy stuff for us...why did he give it all up?"
"Who knows...." Clayton shrugged "I am not sure myself...."
Kit spoke up.
“The Roger’s’ intent was good from the start. Even though we had to work hard, that money was always intended to be used to make something good happen to us. ‘The Roger’ wants us to be happy at this time of the year and I have a feeling the money is not gone without leaving us having something to be happy and grateful for.”
Kendra & Clayton stared at Kit.
“That’s very collective of you to say something like that, Kit.” Kendra smiled “You been kissing Clayton again? Cause if so, you can have him on Tuesdays and Bank Holidays.” She smirked more while Clayton gave a chuckle.
Kit smiled in return and giggled “Silly Dog…”

“Anita?” Nanny called from the Kitchen “You coming to dinner?”
“Give me a minute Nanny…” Anita reclaimed her seat in the lounge “I just need to write our Christmas letter…”
”Alright, just don’t be long…”
Nanny went back into the kitchen.
Anita wrote.

“Dear friends of the Dearly Family.
The holidays this year have been pretty wild where we are. First off; Rogers game to which he had been working on for months had to be unexpectly rushed and as conciquene it wasn’t as much success as we hoped, while at the same time, Cruella cut off her employees Christmas bonus, it left us in a real dialemma.
Roger then started acting weird the following week as he kept going into town with a group of pups for reasons he wouldn’t say. But tonight; he came through the door and revealed he had brought Roxy (that vulpine we have) a licence, so I think she’ll be quite happy to now be a full Dearly.
That’s a good feeling I get with this family, no matter what ever we are put through, we normally find a way through, together.
I need to finish this letter now, as the family dinner is in progress and you know how much an appetite Rolly has.

We wish you all Happy Holidays.

Yours Dearly

Well…

The Dearlys.”

…………………………………

The End

Oh god, what a story <3

Excellent story Bab,I enjoyed reading it on Sparky's and it's just as enjoyable to read here