Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Furry is Missing
Furry woke up early at sunrise. He said he would go get some food for them to share.
"Ok, thanks!" said Ned and Choo Choo, and went back to sleep.
When they woke up later the sun was already high in the sky, like the time that kids were already getting ready for school.
"Where is Furry?" asked Choo Choo.
"Hmm," said Ned. "I thought he'd be back by now. He's usually very fast."
"And I'm hungry!" added Choo Choo. And his tummy growled, grrrrr.
They went out and investigated the streets in the neighborhood. They saw some paw prints and a truck's tracks. The truck's tracks seemed to go alongside the paw prints, until the paw prints stopped. They sniffed at the paw prints. They smelled like Furry! But what kind of truck could it be? They worried that it could be a dogcatcher.
"Hey!" said Ned. "What is that over there on the side of the road?"
They went to have a closer look. It was a long stick with a net attached to it--a dogcatcher's net!
"Oh no, they caught Furry!"
They followed the truck's tracks.
1 hour later
They found the animal pound's parking lot and the tracks led right to where the dogcatcher's truck was parked, next to a big blue building. "This must be where they are keeping Furry!" said Ned.
"But how do we get in without getting caught?" asked Choo Choo.
"Let's walk around and check the building," said Ned. "We'll stay away from the windows so they won't see us."
They walked around the building and as they came around a corner, they saw a pond nearby. There were five ducks standing near the water. "Let's go talk to those ducks," suggested Ned.
The ducks said they were trying to get one of their ducklings out of the animal pound. They made a deal: If the ducks helped the dogs rescue Furry, the dogs would help the ducks rescue their duckling.
Then Choo Choo spotted a vent coming out near the top of the building. "Hey! I've got an idea of how we can get in. Maybe we could climb up to that vent and then go through the air ducts."
"That's a great idea!" said Ned and the ducks.
They made a tower with the heaviest ones on the bottom (Ned and Choo Choo) and the lightest ones on top (the ducks). Once the ducks on top climbed up into the vent, they held on and pulled the rest of the group up. All the ducks had to hold on and flap their wings to help the dogs up.
Once they were up in the ceiling air vents, they had to be very quiet in case the dogcatchers could hear them. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
They all stuck together as they moved from room to room through the vents. They tried to peek down into each room to look for Furry and the duckling. A minute later they found Furry! There was a row of blue cages filled with animals. One had Furry, and another had the duckling! There were three dogcatchers working in the room where they were. "Shhhhhhhhhh!" said Choo Choo. "We don't want them to hear us!"
They needed to make a plan, so they went forward to the next room. It looked like some kind of break room, and nobody was in it. They climbed down and found a cabinet with some cleaning supplies. They grabbed some foam cleaning liquid. Then they found some tar. "Oh, I forgot they were repaving the roads today!" said Choo Choo. "Let's use this tar." They all put their heads together and came up with a plan. They poured the tar on the floor in the breakroom. Then they made their way carefully back to the room where Furry was.
The silently opened the vent cover. Choo Choo and Ned worked together to pour a bunch of the cleaning foam onto the floor. The dogcatchers didn't notice at first, until the pile of foam got really big. "Hey!" said one of the dogcatchers. "This room is covered in foam! The dishwasher in the break room must have overflowed again. We have to go stop it before the whole pound is flooded with bubbles!" And all three of them ran to the breakroom.
Once they entered the break room, the dogs heard them say, "Oh no, I'm stuck!" And "What is this? How did this tar get on the floor?"
While they were stuck in the other room, the ducks and Choo Choo lowered Ned down low enough to open Furry's crate. Then they opened the crate for the duckling. Then they decided to open the crates of all the animals that were there. Soon they were all on the loose and running away. Furry and the duckling climbed up into the vents with their friends and they got out of there as quick as they could.
As they ran out past the parking lot, Furry said, "Wow, guys, how did you find me? And how did you get all the dogcatchers to leave?"
The dogs told Furry the whole story of how they rescued him as they walked back towards their neighborhood. They said goodbye to their new friends the ducks, who wanted to go back to their pond. They were so happy to have their duckling back, and they promised to visit the dogs soon.
"Now that we have you back, Furry, how about no more excitement for today?" said Ned.
"Yeah, good idea!" said Furry.
"Yeah, we just need to find some food, and then I'm ready a peaceful afternoon," said Choo Choo.
And that is when the bully dogs showed up.
"Oh, great," said the three dogs.