After what seemed like only a moment, but in actuality was at least a few hours, Fido began to regain consciousness. At first, he didn’t see anything, but his ears were working overtime. The barks of other dogs filled his head, as he sensed their fear and worry. He could smell rusted metal and urine, which repulsed him enough to make him open his eyes. When his eyes adjusted to the light, Fido could see metal bars in front of him that looked out onto a row of other metal bars with various other dogs inside of them.
Slowly standing up, Fido began to look around and saw that he was in the pound, the equivalent of a doggy jail. He immediately started to panic through a series of barks, hoping to find Ellie and the stray bitch. Luckily, Fido heard a bark back, as he turned to look at the cage next to his. Sitting in there, happy to see him wake up, was Ellie. She was wagging her tail happily, unbothered by where they were currently being held. She barked at him to ask how he was doing and Fido barked back that they needed to get out of there.
Another bark could be heard from somewhere nearby, so Fido turned his head forward to see the stray, black labrador bitch in the cell in front of his. She barked that they weren’t ever getting out of there. She’d known of other strays who came in here and never came out again. She suspected they were killed, which Fido confirmed with another bark. This freaked Ellie out, who started to whimper in fear. Fido tried to reassure her, but his attempts were not very convincing.
In a difficult conundrum, Fido closed his eyes again and began to think things through. As he did so, he could sense something. It was almost as if Michael was communicating with him, asking for his help. It was very faint, but Freddy could feel it and he had an idea of where it might be coming from. Opening his eyes again, Fido paced around the cage, hoping to find a way to escape the pound. In desperation, he tried digging into the back of the cell, but his paws made no dents in the floor. Before long, Fido gave up and began to cry, as he laid his body down on the cold floor below, upset with his current situation.
Freddy was powerless to help his boyfriend, knowing that he was in great danger. For now, though, his main worry was about being euthanized. He hoped he could avoid that fate. Freddy had so much to live for as a human being. To see it taken away from him would be a tragedy, one he was not prepared to accept as fate.
Ellie tried to bark at Fido to cheer him up, but he ignored her. The stray bitch looked down solemnly in her cage, expecting the worse. Several minutes of quiet passed them by, as most of the other dogs in the kennel stopped barking and stood still. Suddenly, a door knob turned open and all of the dogs in the kennel, including Fido, turned to look in the direction of the now open door. Peering out from his cage, Fido could see the dog catcher walking down the row of dogs with Bill, Ellie’s owner and Freddy’s nasty neighbor. Fido quietly growled at him, as he approached Ellie’s cage.
“Ellie!” Bill exclaimed excitedly. “There you are! I was worried sick about you! I’m glad you’re alright!”
Ellie barked happily at her master, as she tried to lick his face through the cage. The dog catcher moved Bill to the side to use a key to open it. Ellie, excitedly, came running out of the cage and proceeded to hump her owner’s leg.
“Hey girl” Bill said, as she bent down to rub her back. “Don’t go running off again, ok? I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I lost you forever.”
Bill’s moment of euphoria was short lived, as he stood back up and stared at Fido angrily. The dog’s teeth were bared to him and he let out a low growl.
“You mangy mutt” Bill scowled at the dog. “You took my precious Ellie away from me. I will insure that you never have the opportunity to do this again.”
Fido began to bark, as Bill turned to the dog catcher.
“This mangy mutt impregnated my precious dog, Ellie and broke my $1000 fence. He is a menace to society and must be put down immediately.”
“Sir” the dog catcher replied “that’s not how it works around here.”
“What do you mean that’s not how it works around here? This dog is a menace to our neighborhood and…”
“Sir, there is a process for how dogs get euthanized.”
Fido yelped, as he stared at the dog catcher intensely.
“We have to wait several days in case someone comes to claim him” the dog catcher continued. “If no one does so within three days, then we put them on the schedule to be killed. He’d be below a number of other dogs first, so it could take a few weeks at least, if not a month.”
“A few weeks! I can’t wait that long. What if he escapes?”
“Sir, rest assured that no dog has ever escaped this facility in the nearly twenty years I’ve owned it. Security here is tight.”
“We’ll see about that” Freddy thought to himself, as he growled at the dog catcher.
Freddy couldn’t believe how horribly the dogs were treated around here. Although he hadn’t spoken to any of them, all he could feel was that these were loving dogs who needed the right home. Although Freddy had never owned a dog up until this point, it made him gain a new found appreciation for them. He wanted to see this horrible place shut down. When this curse was over, he vowed to change how this town treated its animals.
“I don’t doubt that your facility is top notch” Bill said. “However, this dog has some sort of super human strength and agility.”
“Sir” the dog catcher replied. “Dogs don’t have superhuman abilities. They just happen to have senses that are stronger than that of a human. Their hearing, smell and taste, for example.”
“But this dog is different, and although I’m not doubting you, I’m not willing to take any chances.”
“Sir….”
Bill pulled out his wallet and proceeded to count 50 $100 bills. When he was done, he handed them to the dog catcher, who looked at him with surprise strewn across his face.
“This is $5000. That’s the cost of how much the new fence cost me and this will be an insurance policy to be absolutely sure this dog is taken care of tonight.”
“Sir, I don’t accept bribes in order to euthanize dogs quicker. There is a process and…”
“Don’t think of it as a ‘bribe’ per se. Think of it as a nice, under the table donation to your wonderful facility, provided that this dog is taken care of immediately.”
“Sir, I don’t think….”
“Public television gives out perks for donations all the time. I would know. I’m a very generous patron. And unlike with those donations, this one doesn’t need a tax deduction receipt. It’s all under the table, just between the two of us.”
The dog catcher moved his eyes from Bill’s insistent face and the $5000 in cash in his hands. He didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, it was completely unethical, potentially even illegal, to take an action based on a bribe. On the other hand, he could always use the extra cash. As Fido growled at him and Ellie looked up at him with concern, he made up his mind.
“Fine, sir. But this is just between you and me. Don’t go mentioning this to anyone else. If anyone asks if this transpired, we’re pretending it never took place.”
Bill nodded, as he put a collar and leash on Ellie and proceeded to walk with the dog catcher out of the pound. Fido whimpered, as he laid down in his cell.
Outside of the kennels, Bill walked with Ellie and the dog catcher out to the main waiting area. Seated in three chairs were Freddy’s parents and Josh. They came by an hour earlier to see if Fido was here, but the dog catcher told them he wasn’t. They decided to return after they spotted Bill walking inside while they were getting a late lunch in town. Seeing Bill, the three of them got up to confront the dog catcher.
“Bill” Freddy’s father said “I see you were reunited with Ellie.”
“Yes, Dave” Bill replied. “No thanks to you.”
“Where’s Fido?” Josh asked the dog catcher.
“If you were able to find Ellie” Freddy’s mother asked “does that mean you found Fido too? He’s a german shepherd, maybe 2 or 3 years old, male and not neutered.
The dog catcher paused, as he looked to Bill. Bill gave him a look of warning not to tell them the dog was here. Taking the hint, the dog catcher turned to Freddy’s mother and lied to her face.
“I only found Ellie. I didn’t see any other dogs in town today.”
“Liar!” Josh yelled. “Ellie was with Fido! They two of them ran off together!”
“Maybe that mangy mutt got run over by a car” Bill sneered, as she dragged a resistant Ellie out of the pound. “Not my problem anymore. Come on Ellie, let’s go.”
Bill was having a hard time getting her to leave, but after a few more aggressive tugs, she relented and followed her master out of the pound. Ellie turned back once more before she left, hoping that Fido would be alright. When Bill and Ellie left the store, Freddy’s father turned to confront the dog catcher.
“Can we have a look back there to see if maybe we recognize the dog?”
“I don’t allow people to go back there unless their dog is definitely there” the dog catcher replied. “It upsets the other dogs to have a lot of people coming in and out. I only allow those with business here to go back there and look.”
“Can you check again?” Freddy’s mother asked. “Maybe you just didn’t recognize him.”
“He’s back there!” Josh yelled. “I know he is! That’s why Ellie was resisting Bill’s pulling! She didn’t want to leave him!”
“It wouldn’t hurt to check again” Freddy’s father insisted.
“Fine” the dog catcher said, as he turned to head back into the kennels. “Wait here.”
Josh tried to run after him, but his mother held him back. His father motioned them to sit, as they waited in the waiting room. Inside the kennels, the dog catcher knew that time was of the essence. If we was going to get rid of the dog and avoid getting in trouble for taking the bribe, he’d need to euthanize the dog right now. He knew doing so could be risky, as the people in the waiting room might hear it. However, he had to chance it and hope to muffle the noise as best he could. Walking down the hall of barking dogs, the dog catcher came upon Fido, who laid down in his cell. Looking up at the dog catcher with bared teeth, Fido stood up and began to growl at him.
“Guess you’re going to be meeting your maker sooner than I thought” the dog catcher said, as he opened the cage and grabbed Fido by his leash.
The stray bitch barked loudly with worry in her tone, as Fido was taken down the hall to a back room. Before the dog catcher could open the door to the euthanasia room, Fido quickly bit the dog catchers leg and ran back down the hall.
"Ouch!" the dog catcher yelped, as he quickly rubbed his pant leg.
The other dogs barked in excitement, as Fido sprinted his way down the hall of kennels to the main exit from where the dog catcher came. The stray bitch barked at him to be careful and Fido barked back at her in acknowledgement. Making his way to the exit, Fido could hear the dog catcher run after him before he saw a small opening in the door.
"Get back here!" the dog catcher yelled, as he ran to Fido.
Pulling the door open with his teeth, Fido barked gleefully when his efforts were successful and ran out of the room just in time to avoid the dog catcher’s grasp. The dog catcher fell on his face and quickly got up to continue chasing after Fido. Making his way to the front waiting room, Fido passed by his parents and his brother who jumped up anxiously when they saw him.
“Fido!” Josh yelled, as he tried to run to the dog.
“Fre…” Freddy’s mother briefly said.
“Where are you going, boy?” Freddy’s father asked, as Fido made his way out the front door.
“Fido!” Josh yelled. “Come back boy!”
“Get back here you…” the dog catcher yelled at Fido, before being stopped by Freddy’s father.
“You didn’t have the dog, huh?” Freddy’s father asked sarcastically.
“Uh….”
Fido ran into the street and then darted off into the distance.
“That was Fido!” Josh yelled. “He was running away from you! Probably because you were trying to kill him! And what’s with all those dollar bills in your pocket?”
The dog catcher looked at the wads of bills sticking out of his pant pockets, as Freddy’s mother gasped and his father spoke up sternly.
“Taking bribes I see?”
“It’s not what it looks like” the dog catcher replied nervously.
“Oh no? A dog you say isn’t even here is running away from you and several wads of hundred dollar bills are sticking out of your pocket. I work in accounting and let me tell you, that’s not how a proper business makes transactions.”
“You were trying to kill Fido!” Josh yelled at the dog catcher, pointing a finger at him accusingly.
Freddy’s father, the dog catcher and Josh all began to argue with each other, as Freddy’s mother stared out the door, looking onto the street in front of her.
“Oh Freddy” his mother thought to herself. “I hope you’re alright. Be safe out there.”
Freddy’s mother began to see the sun set, as the yelling inside the waiting room got louder and louder.
Meanwhile……