Dante Adventure – Critter-Sitter

box-2413877_640There was a knock at the door. It was the neighbor. He was sure nice, but very short and very quick about whatever it was he told Gracie. In fact, he didn’t even have time to converse with Skipper and me. Oh well, he’s not really that fun anyway.

However, the parcel that he left with Gracie was of great interest. You see, it was a simple box that wouldn’t have seemed out of the ordinary at all. But it made noises. Lots of noise. I could hear squeaking and the rustle of tiny little paws scraping around. There was something inside of the box, and that was what was so interesting.

After the neighbor left, Gracie took the box to the kitchen table and we followed along. This was far too interesting to simply ignore, and we wanted to see if we’d gotten a new pal to hang around with.

But whoever or whatever was in that box was off limits to us pups. Gracie inspected the box and stared inside, making funny faces and sounds as she did. Whatever it was seemed to be so interesting to her, perhaps even more interesting than us.

After a while, we were shewed away from the kitchen table and told to go play in the sofa room. So we reluctantly did, but there were all those odd noises coming from the kitchen. It was so obnoxious that I couldn’t nap. I kept wondering what those things were, and eventually I drifted off into a lite slumber snuggled up with my good buddy.

When I did wake up, it wasn’t because I was done napping. Nope. It was because I was getting blamed for taking the shoes again. This wasn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last one either. Something about Gracie and losing things. Yesterday it was her keys, today the shoes, tomorrow it’ll probably be something about the socks again.

But Skipper didn’t do it either. We had both just been hanging out on the sofa since the last round of races about the sofa. Other than that, we hadn’t gone anywhere or done anything. No mischief here today. We have that scheduled in for tomorrow.

So who did it? Skipper and I blamed Gracie for misplacing her shoes again, just like the other day, but she insisted that it was us that were to blame. We went back and forth like this for a bit more before coming to no conclusion.

Skipper turned his head in a peculiar way and stood fast. His ears twitched around like they were looking for something. Then he turned to me and woofed, “Do you hear that?”

I listened while Gracie waited for us to answer her for the bagillionth time. But I couldn’t hear anything special. Nothing at all. It was actually pretty quiet. “I don’t hear anything,” I woofed back.

“Exactly,” Skipper barked. “The scratching sound is gone!”

He was right, the sounds coming from the box had completely gone quiet. We had to check it out! Both of us rushed into the kitchen only to find the box the neighbor had brought over was now on the floor…and it was empty!

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Author:

Jason Duron is a short story writer and author of several fiction stories. Curious and lovable as dogs can be, the Adventures of Rocky, Nixi and Dante give you a chance to see daily life from a “dog’s eye view” and share in their thoughts.  Please enjoy, and we hope that you’ll feel free to comment and give us insight into your dog’s very own adventures.