It was a mellow Monday; temperature was fine, Gina was still in bed, and it was three minuti ‘til 7:00, the time Gina woke up for school. Apparently, I awoke early this morning, very odd since me and Gina usually wake up at the same time. Of course, that’s understandable, though, ‘cause she’s my perfect human. I Amore Gina; she’s everything I could ask for in a human. She’s kind, punctual, and never makes a promise she can’t keep. She loves to play with me as much as I enjoy playing with her, and ever since she adopted me, we’ve bonded a lot. It’s been one anno since she adopted me, which means it’s been one anno since the Super Secret Pup Club was founded! Maybe that’s why I’m awake so early, I thought to myself.

I was snapped out of my brief but enjoyable contemplation da a loud, repetitive beeping sound. I swear I nearly soiled my doggy bed. I looked up to see that Gina was looking at me with a playful smile, while she had already turned the alarm off, which seemed to happen faster than I’d realized. Was she awake all this time? I thought. I quickly shunned the thought away; she couldn’t have been up before her alarm clock went off. During the day, Gina participates in extracurricular activities, soccer, and playing outside with me, as well as chores around the house, so she sleeps like a stone. She didn’t have many Friends outside of school because most of them were too distant for her mom’s tastes, so she just spent some of her leisure time on the computer to talk with them and whatnot.

“G’morning Patches! Did ya sleep well, boy?” She brought her hand over to pet me as I wagged my tail to mostra some premature enthusiasm. She quickly caught on and stopped rubbing my head. “Oh, I’m sorry boy, I can’t play with te this morning, I have to get ready early. Today starts my last week, remember?” Realization struck me like the sound of a squeaky toy, and I stopped wagging. I knew exactly what she was talking about. This was her last week of school, and she had a LOT of testing to do. With that in mind, she also had to study, so she’d be spending less time playing with me. I sank my head and gave a low whimper. “Don’t worry boy, I’ll have all summer to play with you, I promise.” The fact that she promised it brightened my spirits a little bit, and I looked up at her with beckoning eyes; every dog knew for a fact that any pet lover couldn’t resist those eyes. She got off of her letto and kneeled down to pet me once more, and I licked her hand to mostra my gratitude. I was interrupted da her other hand scooping me up and holding me close to her chest. “I promise.” She said. With that, she looked at the clock to see that it was already 7:10! “Whoa!” She exclaimed, then scrambled to her closet, nearly falling in the process. I stifled a giggle and watched her hectic attempt to get ready for school. Her bus came at 7:20, and she wasn’t exactly one to spend the least amount of time getting ready; I always thought she looked fine as is, but humans must have some super-duper standards, sheesh.

From what she had on, anyone that knew her could tell she was in a hurry. She usually wore a schoolgirl outfit on school days, which always looked too neat for my tastes. Because of her rush, she was now wearing what I would say is summer attire: some neat shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, and tennis shoes. She looked at the mirror and shrugged, then looked back at the clock. “My bus comes in five minutes!” She said, with an expression of shock on her face. She scooped up her backpack and ran as fast as I’ve ever seen her run. “Bye mom!” “G’bye dear!” Gina’s mom shouted from her room, getting ready for a giorno of her own. As the door slammed behind Gina, in her rush, I began to think over my morning. Gina has an early tutorial program she’s assisting at school for the last week, her mom has a dentist appointment at 8:00, and I’m going to meet the group at 8:30. I guess I’ll just snooze until then. I got back into my comfort zone and began to drift off.

After about 10 minuti o so, I heard Gina’s door creek open. I woke up and looked toward the origin of the sound. Gina’s mother had entered, and she appeared to have something in her hand. It looks like… a note? I thought to myself, as I tilted my head in curiosity. I slowly walked toward the bed, and accidentally bumped into Gina’s computer chair. Gina’s mother fumbled the note, and looked around with an expression of fright. “Huh? Who’s there?” She looked around before her eyes fixed on me. “Oh, it’s just you, Patches.” She stepped over to me and gave me a pat on the head. “I guess I must’ve disturbed your nap… I’ll be out in a minute.” She stood up and proceeded to put the piece of paper on Gina’s bed, then hastily walked out of the room. She went downstairs, picked up her keys, sighed, then left for her appointment. With that, I immediately sprung into action; I ran to Gina’s bedside, leaped up, and snagged the note in my mouth. Fortunately, I was delicate enough to get the very end of it in the grip of my teeth, so I didn’t mess up the message with doggy saliva. “Now…” I looked at the note intensely; my face contorted, my eyes squinted, and soon, I conceded. “If only pups could read…” I said, followed da a sigh. “I should probably take it back with me and see if the team can help.” I picked it up and went downstairs to the backyard doggy door.

Upon leaving the house, I looked down and noticed paw prints of mud, and they most certainly weren’t mine. Mine were evenly spaced and neat, but these prints were very close to one another, as if a cucciolo was tip-toeing around. I sniffed the air and noticed a distinct smell wafting about. “… Is that… arachide, arachidi butter?” I asked myself. “PATCHEEEEES!” An alarmingly loud voice yelled out from behind me. I sprang up, dropped the paper, and clung to a chair for dear life. “Hey, what’s this?” She said. The upbeat, vivacious voice finally registered in my head. She began to speak again before I could, “So what does this paper say because I can’t read OH YEAH THAT’S RIGHT Cani CAN’T READ maybe we could take it to Strudel and see if she can help us out hopefully she’s not too busy she’s always doing stuff around the pound I wonder if she ever gets a break I also wonder if- MFFPT” She was abruptly muffled da a paw. “Rebound, we get it”, detto the stern voice of a secondo puppy: Cupcake. “Well jeez, sorry Cupcake, I’m just really excited to see Patches is all.” “It’s okay, te just ramble sometimes.” cupcake raised her head to greet me with a smile. “Uh… te wanna come down, Patches?” I realized that I was still hanging onto the chair. “Oh, sure.” I finally let go, relieved.

I was the first to speak after that. “What are te guys doing here, anyway?” I asked. cupcake replied, “We were sent to pick te up da Lucky, but we came a bit early because Rebound ran off before Lucky finished telling us everything, like what time we were supposed to come here.” She giggled a bit and looked at Rebound, who was already wagging excessively. Rebound started, “As soon as I heard Lucky say “Patches” I just had to run over here as fast as I could because I really couldn’t wait to see te since it’s been a whole weekend and I was ready to have fun fun fun with te guys and-MFFPT.” Her seemingly incessant ramble was once again ceased da Cupcake’s paw. “Ahem”, started Cupcake, giving Rebound a seething glare, “We weren’t sent over here alone, Lucky detto he didn’t want us two traveling to get ‘cha da ourselves.” I gave her a questioning look and asked, “Who else is there?” cupcake looked at Rebound and rolled her eyes. “Squirt.” “Squirt?” I asked. She shook her head, probably to keep from yelling at Rebound, since I guessed Rebound had done something wrong. Then, cupcake spoke again. “Squirt was walking with us over here, but Rebound saw a meat delivery big rig and chased it. I followed her, and Squirt must have gotten tired. Before I knew it, the rig passed your neighborhood, and Rebound’s brain must’ve connected o something, ‘cause she stopped chasing the truck and ran straight towards your house.” I shook my head and sighed. “Rebound sure is a hassle. We should retrace your steps and see if we can meet Squirt somewhere, if he hasn’t already gone back to the pound.” “Yeah, I’m good to go. What about te Rebound?” cupcake turned to see that the spot where Rebound once was is now vacant. “W-…Wha?” I stammered. “Where could she have g-…” Cupcake’s inquiry was cut off da a loud thump inside of the house. “Oh no”, I said, and quickly jumped through my doggy door back into my house, cupcake followed close behind.

I scrambled to where the sound had come from: the kitchen. When I got to the corner, I stood there, bewildered. cupcake bumped into me, consequently from trailing me so close, then gave me a curious look. She then noticed my fixation and looked into the kitchen. She instantly joined me in shock, mouth agape.