Chapter 3
“I will admit I owe you one, Woodchuck.”
“Now that your little conscience is bothering you and you can’t stand how it is eating up your doggy skin, now you want to own up to your wrong, Louis? Well, save it. I don’t want an apology from you. I’m going to tell you what my girlfriend, well my ex-girlfriend, told me before she ran off with the last woodchuck; you have nothing to offer in hard times but your disappointment. And I’m tired of it. I’m going to let you know before I forget that you disgust me, Louis.”
Louis stopped, looked at the woodchuck and the woodchuck looked back at him. He stood on a rock that made him almost as tall as Louis. “What? You want to step on my chest like you did back when you were on your leash?”
“No. Actually I don’t. I want to say in a nice and kinder voice, not the bickering, angry voice that you used, that you disgust me and you disgust me a lot more than I disgust you!”
“Wait a second. Where do you think you’re going? Where are your debating manners, Louis? It is a rule that you don’t bow out of a debate, unless both parties of the debate have made their point,” the woodchuck yelled.
“I never heard that rule before, Woodchuck. Was that something you just made up?”
The woodchuck hesitated then spoke. “Well, yeah, it is my rule, Louis, but what’s it to you?” he asked, hurrying to catch Louis. “You know something, Louis; you’re being too difficult right now. I save your life, and you walk away while I was still talking to you, as if I don’t matter, as if I don’t matter in the world?”
“You were debating with me, Woodchuck. There is a difference.”
“Same difference, that’s the difference, Louis. Then, on top of that, you promised me grapes, and I never got them. You know something, this is over, Louis. I am going back to…”
“That’s where I’m going now. To get your grapes!” Louis said.
“I am going back to…. What did you say, Louis?”
“I said that’s where I am going now. To get your grapes. Like I said, I owe you. You freed me from Edna and you got me inside of the house where I was able to feed myself until I was full. I can’t remember the last time I had a full course meal, like the one I had there where I could eat until I was full. If I haven’t said it before, I’m saying it now; thank you, Woodchuck.”
The woodchuck began to mumble in a choked voice, “No, no, you never said it, and now you almost making me want to…”
“Don’t you dare do it, Woodchuck, or I will take it all back,” Louis yelled.
“Okay already, Louis. Just take me to the grapes!”
When Louis and the woodchuck got out of the field, they came to a residential community. The community, was not only filled with houses of all kinds but with people, people that were buying and selling things of all sorts in front of those houses, in the yards of the houses and in the garages.
“Come one; come all to the greatest extravaganza that our community has ever seen. We have kitchen set, garden appliances, clothing, ranging from shoes, pants, shirts and underwear, but I wouldn’t advise the underwear part anyway. Last but not least, everyone’s favorite; we have food!”
“Okay, Woodchuck, you stay put. I’m going to get the grapes. A dog is okay out here but a woodchuck; I think you will scare a lot of people.”
“Well, excuse you. Who crowned you Mr. Pretty Dog of the year, Louis?” the woodchuck asked.
“Just stay put. I am going to get as many grapes as I can possibly get. Then, once the task is over, you go back to your hole in the ground wherever it may be, and my quest to find a nice home will begin.”
The woodchuck felt out of place but when he dwelled on the words ‘as many grapes as I can get’, he felt happy and very much overjoyed.
Louis walked on the side, away from where they exited from the field.
Some people didn’t notice him but others who did (mostly children) found Louis to be cute.
“Oh my, look. A furry dog. He is so cute. Can we take him home?”
“No, a stray dog like that one is filled with disease and rabies. Remember, no stray dog of any kind.”
Others’ thoughts were accurate but they didn’t know it. “Hey, shoo, dog. Get away from here. This isn’t a place for you!”
Louis didn’t budge or bark, instead he kept his eyes open for grapes and if not grapes the closest thing to them.
Molly panicked. She pressed her body against the cage on all sides to make sure her theory was true and she wasn’t dreaming, imagining, or simply day-dreaming it. “What is going on? Why am I in here? Who put me here and why would they do such a thing? All I ever been was a good cat. Maybe someone is going to steal me away from Fannie. Yeah, that’s it, someone has broken in the house and they love cats, so they are going to take me with them. Oh my, I hope it isn’t the case.”
She got closer to the front of the kennel and listened for either Fannie or Elvin but she didn’t see either of them. She looked around in the kitchen then when she thought she hadn’t seen anything that would indicate something; she saw a bag at the back door. “Oh that’s right; Fannie said that we were going to have a very big day. We must be going off somewhere. But why am I stuck in this kennel? I’m no stray. I have my shots and I have two people who really love me and care about me so much.”
Then Molly heard the clicking of keys and footsteps. “Maybe there is no robbery, yeah!” she said. Then what she dread, what she hoped was one of the three – a dream, an image or daydream – was neither. It was Elvin and Fannie, hand in hand walking down the steps into the kitchen and in front of the kennel.
“Good morning, Molly. I know you are wondering why you are in the kennel,” Fannie mumbled. She tried but she couldn’t stop wiping the tears from her eyes.
“Why are you crying? What’s wrong with the people I love? Why the tears,” Molly said.
“Molly, if you can understand me, which you may not, but I think you are just as smart as we are, so you may be able to understand what I am saying.”
“I do understand what you are saying, I do, I do!” Molly’s meows were her words to the Dalton’s. They cracked a smile when Molly meowed and turned her little head from side to side.
“I think she understands me, Elvin.”
“Of course she understands you, Fannie. She’s just as smart as us, possibly smarter.”
Fannie turned to Elvin, her amber eyes filled with the tears that slowly dripped down her cheeks again.
“Molly, you have some minor health issues, and you must go away to get those issue taken care of.”
“Some minor health issues? I feel great, I feel like I am in my best condition, but I guess you know better than I do,” Molly replied.
“Oh my God, Elvin, this hurt so bad. I can’t do this!” Fannie sunk her head into Elvin’s chest.
“Fannie is lousy at explaining things especially when she is upset,” Elvin said, “You have something call arthritis in your back legs. At this moment it doesn’t cause you any problems. Your legs do not hurt, right?”
“Why no, of course not. I’m not old. I am a young, vibrant female. Speak for yourself!” Molly replied, turning her head from side to side quickly.
“Okay, I take that as a yes. The arthritis will get worse before it gets better, and you are going to have to go for surgery today. Fannie knew of this for quite some time now, but, as I said, she is really lousy about explaining things.”
Molly didn’t say a word. Fannie looked up at Elvin. “We haven’t fed you yet because its doctors’ orders to feed you right after surgery. Why, your guess is as good as mine, Molly. Well, since we got that out of the way, shall we go? And oh yeah, Molly, we didn’t want to put you in that kennel, but the new law is we must have a cat, or any animal for that matter, in some sort of confinement when transporting them from place to place, so, if it is a little uncomfortable, my apologies.”
Elvin loaded everything in the vehicle. Molly was last to go in thei
r car. Elvin took a deep breath then exhaled it. “You have to trust me on this, Fannie. Where she is going, she is going to be perfectly fine. Remember, there are always other…”
“Elvin don’t say it. She is different. She isn’t like any other cat I’ve had. There isn’t a replacement for Molly.”
“Okay, Fannie, but you know I hate to see you down in the dumps over something that you can’t do anything about. Things will get better for Molly, but you have to let things be as they are. Those things cannot be changed. Come on, I’m sure if we stay here any longer, Molly will start worrying about us. We should get out there. Come on, honey.”
As bad and as addictive as it was to Louis to pass up the grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and his favorite chicken, he did.
This time it can’t be about me. It is about the woodchuck. He helped me and I vowed to help him. Louis stiffened, trying to pick up a scent of grapes. The sent is so vague. Are there any grapes out here? Louis wondered. Then, when he lifted his head up in haste, another scent rushed to the nostrils of his little black nose. It’s her, I smell her, he thought. The smell became stronger and stronger by the second – the smell of human waste. The steps, these forward footsteps that came toward Louis, those same steps that he held so many times in his head before he was finally rescued by the woodchuck, were the same steps made by her man’s shoes. They were not stomping that old wooden, creaky floor in the house, but the ground, that sodden ground that held the stalls in the housing community.
But those man’s shoes weren’t the shoes Edna wore but the shoes of a customer. And the smell of human waste came from the port-a-potty right in front of Louis.
I need to get my brain off Edna. I am a long way away from her. She will never find me. Let’s just stay focused and all of this will be over very soon, then I can look for a home, Louis thought.
His mind wanted to enter into that life where he had a home of love, a place where he could eat all the chicken in the world until he was full. A home where humans loved him and where no humans wanted to hurt him every chance they got.
The door was open to the world but Louis could not go right in yet. In front of him was a fruit stand and in the customer’s hand standing beside it, were a bag of oranges and a bag of grapes. It crossed Louis’s mind that it could have been the woman’s last bit of money, which she was spending to buy the fruit. Then he thought the bag of grapes could have been the last of the grapes she may have wanted to eat, as she was shopping for other items. Nevertheless, nothing empowered Louis more to get the grapes out of the customer’s hands, than the fact that Louis was ready to start a new life. It hadn’t been twenty-four hours since he had been freed from the clutches of Edna, but he wanted to be away from the woodchuck forever and in a decent home as soon as he could.
Louis charged the woman that held the grapes and oranges in her hand.
“Look out, a dog!” the fruit seller yelled.
The customer screamed then swung her handbag. “Get away from me, you bad dog, go!” she shouted, nailing Louis with the handbag.
Louis didn’t want to bite the woman or hurt her in any way, but if he was going to give himself a chance to get the green grapes, he would have to do more than just take hits from the woman’s bag. He would have to do what he didn’t want to do.
“Someone get this dog!”
“Get away from her!” The man behind the counter threw apples and oranges at Louis. The commotion at the fruit booth caused other customers from other booths to stop and observe the incident.
“Someone help me!” the woman yelled, swinging then backing up toward the curb near the house at the back of the booth.
“Well, don’t just stand there; help the darn lady!” the fruit seller said, running around his booth and swinging a broom.
Others came running toward the disturbance. Louis saw it out of the corner of his eye and made his move. With his large and vicious teeth, he gripped the woman’s coat sleeve and pulled on it. Weighing about one hundred and ten pounds, the woman being pulled backwards, tripped over the curb, and fell back onto the lawn and into the puddle of muddy water.
The oranges and the grapes flew in the opposite direction from where the woman landed.
“Oh, I am all muddy in my brand new coat. Someone help me!” the lady cried out.
Louis ran for the grapes. Meanwhile the fruit seller, with two others, who worked at the hamburger and hot dog stands, together with the woman from the clothing booth rushed him. But not knowing that the water in the yard wasn’t just where the woman laid, but was soaking the lawn, they fell in the muddy puddle in the yard.
“Sorry. I wish I could have done it some other way, but I couldn’t,” Louis said, grabbing the bag of grapes. He then took off running back toward the field behind the community houses. Many of the community people tried their hardest to catch Louis, while others got out of his way and watched him as he ran down the road with a bag full of cold, seedless green grapes in his mouth.
In the open field the woodchuck stood on a rock on his hind legs. “Grapes, grapes, grapes! Ah, I can just taste them now. Oh what a wonderful feeling to have a nice grape in…” He stopped and listened. “What’s that I hear? Is something out here?” the woodchuck yelled. He surveyed the open area but he didn’t see anything.
“It must have been my imagination, as I was saying grapes, grapes, and grapes. Should I eat the whole grape or should I split it in two and have two for the price of one?”
He giggled long enough to hear the footsteps in the grass surrounding him. “Oh no, something is out here with me. Where is help when you are about to be eaten.”
“Don’t you move, groundhog, or else we will eat you right here. That way we can save our wood and fire to roast you on.”
Fannie tried giving Molly wheat crackers but she refused them.
“Why should I take your crackers when I have no idea where I am going? You said the doctor, but this is too quiet in this car for me to be attending another doctor’s appointment. What’s up with that doctor’s appointment anyway?” Molly asked.
“Elvin, she’s not eating her wheat crackers. Wheat crackers are her favorite snack. I don’t understand what has gotten in to her.”
“I guess the same thing that’s in all women, Fannie. That’s stubbornness. Besides, I can’t remember a day in any of the three years that she has been with us that she has ever been in that kennel. Those things have got to be just as bad as a human in prison. Take her out of that thing, Fannie,” Elvin urged.
Fannie opened the kennel as her husband suggested and when Elvin turned his head to the back, Molly seemed to hesitate.
“Come on now, Molly, it’s okay. No one is going to hurt you. You don’t have to be in there anymore,” Fannie said. “She’s strange, different somehow, Elvin.”
“Sure she is. And why would she be anything less than strange now? Everything is foreign to her. I would seem strange too, if I had been imprisoned for a while.”
“I’m not strange. I just don’t want to come out of this cage into your lap where it is cozy and…, and feel relax. Well, on second thought, I do want to come out of my cage, and I better get out before she changes her mind,” Molly said. She walked slowly out of the cage then jumped quickly on Fannie’s lap.
“That’s my girl. How are you, Molly?”
“I don’t think I’m doing that great, Fannie. I’m scared, scared of the cage, scared of where I’m going,” Molly replied.
Fannie took Molly in her arms and held her close for several seconds before she began to stroke the top of her head. “Oh, look at her. Isn’t she cute, Elvin?”
“Yes, she is. She is very cute, Fannie.”
Elvin and Fannie arrived at the Charlotte Humane Animal Shelter. “I think she’s asleep, Elvin.”
“Okay, we don’t want to wake her by putting her in the kennel, I will carry the kennel and you can walk her inside.” Molly didn’t wake up on the way inside the facility. For her that
was good; she wouldn’t be able to read where she was going. Yet inside it was another story – a total madhouse.
“Oh, isn’t she such a beautiful cat? What kind is she?” the woman at the front desk asked.
“She is a Turkish Van Cat.”
“Wow, she is just the cutest little thing. Are you giving her up for adoption?” the lady asked.
Elvin and Fannie exchanged a glance before looking back at the woman behind the counter. Elvin gave her the paperwork concerning Molly. It was Molly’s doctor’s records, shots, and even a birth certificate. When the desk attendant pushed her blonde hair back and read Molly’s report, she too had a somber look on her face.
“So, this explains why she is sleeping?” the desk attendant said.
“Yes, it is because of the medication that she is taking.”
“Ok, I am so sorry, Mrs. Dalton.”
“Oh it’s okay, I think - according to my husband Elvin – that if I cut ties with Molly now versus later, the pain of losing her then would be much greater and probably unbearable, than losing her today.” Fannie kissed Molly on the forehead then gave her to Elvin. “We are going to miss you, Molly. We know being here with other cats would need some getting use to, but it’s for the best.”
Elvin wiped away a few tears then passed Molly to the desk attendant. “She will be treated well here, Mrs. Dalton. She will have the best life, just like the other cats and dogs do.”
“Thank you, and oh, by the way, her favorite snack is wheat crackers.”
The attendant smiled. “Okay, we will make sure Molly here has all the wheat crackers she wants.”
When the woodchuck opened his eyes, he saw dimmed lights and small foot prints all around him. He tried hard to move, but he felt that his front and hind legs were tied with some type of coiled rope. When he tried to fight against it the coil got tighter around his ankles.
“Help, somebody, anybody…? Please, come help this poor woodchuck. I believe I’ve been taken by the Fox Gang!”
“Oh shut up, Woodchuck, your voice is carrying.”
“What do you think I want my voice to do? You kidnapped me and if you were a human you would be locked away in jail.”
The fox began to laugh. The woodchuck, who was lying in a puddle of dirt water, squirmed around when he saw a set of white paws approach him. He then closed his eyes and shook his head in defeat when he saw who was in front of him.
“How quickly we forget, Woodchuck? If I can recall, you broke into my newly structured home. You and some of your woodchuck buddies cleaned me out. I didn’t give you permission to take anything out of my house. If you wanted to take something, why didn’t you ask? I could have told you no,” the fox said.
“Come on, White Paw, you have to let me out of here!”
“No can do,” said the baby fox, “you owe me the winter supply of food you took from me last winter, and just as I recall you telling me once that you clean my family and I out, Woodchuck rules, well now, White Paw rules!”
If I can chew through rusty metal, I am sure I can chew through this rope, the woodchuck thought. “What do you want from me, White Paw? You have me tied up like I am some type of criminal.”
“You are a criminal. You stole my supply of winter food. I just told you that you are a very forgetful groundhog. Here’s what I am going to do, groundhog. I have changed my mind. I’m not going to eat you,” White Paw said.
“Yes, you have to be the best Fox in the whole entire world. I was starting to think the worst; fire, wood, the smell of burning. Ugh, I don’t think you would have liked the taste of woodchuck. I have heard I taste just like human waste. I don’t think you would like human waste, would you, White Paw?” the woodchuck asked.
“No, I wouldn’t, but I know who would like human waste and woodchuck meat.”
“I don’t know what you mean. What are you talking about, White Paw?”
“Over a period of three days, you and your woodchuck thieving friends took all the food that I had in my house, so I take it from the looks of you with all the mud and the smell that is coming off you, you are living like a drifter from hovel to hovel.”
The woodchuck wasn’t feeling optimistic. He was a few seconds from White Paw going on more than once about him cleaning White Paw out and him living from pillar to post, so to speak.
The woodchuck thought some more about tearing the coiled rope by chewing through it.
“I believe that since you are living from hovel to hovel, Woodchuck, even if you had the time to get all of what you stole from me, you couldn’t. The only inventory of food that you have is what you steal from other fox holes and other holes that have a resource of food in them. As I said before, you took everything I had and it took me months to build up my inventory. And even longer for my fox gang to sniff you out and finally find you. I would be a bad, bad fox to let you out of my fox cave. So, although I’m not going to eat you, since you will make such a horrible meal for me, but those hawks that hover over my cave from time to time, waiting for the next woodchuck, would find you quite tasty,” White Paw said before he vanished out of sight.
“Please, White Paw, you must reconsider. I didn’t mean to do it. I wasn’t thinking. I had a lot on my mind. My woodchuck buddies blackmailed me. They told me if I didn’t show them to your cave, they were going to do something very, very bad to me and I wouldn’t like it. I didn’t know what it was, so I was like, ‘yeah whatever, I’ll do it’. Come on, White Paw, you got to understand,” the woodchuck yelled, his voice sounding as if it was about to give up the ghost any second. He felt his hind legs being released from the coiled rope, then the fox broke the coil band on his front paws. When the woodchuck realized he was free from the coiled rope, he attempted to make a dash for it, but was stopped in his track, when the fox with black paws, who freed him, swiped at his back leg. Woodchuck fell over on his side.
“Awh! Come on, why did you do that? I could have been out of here!”
“Alright, let’s get him out of here.”
“Darling!” White Paw yelled.
“Yes, honey.”
“I’m going to take care of this woodchuck; the one that I told you stole all of our food last winter.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“What should I tell him? Is he going to meet the hawks?”
“Tell him that the hawks love woodchuck meat.”
“I told him, but I don’t think he is much in a talking mood, honey.”
“Okay, tell him good luck.”
The fox with the black paws carried the woodchuck out of the foxhole along with another black paw fox and White Paw. The woodchuck looked around, but he didn’t recognize the area. There were several other rock made holes, an old run-down office and several trees spreading around this open space.
“Where am I, White Paw?”
“Does it really matter where you are, Woodchuck? The only thing that matters is you paying for what you done to me last winter. Now hold him up so when those birds fly across the skies they can see that they have a free meal!”
“Come on, White Paw, you don’t want to do this!”
The fox that held the woodchuck walked out from the cave and out to the middle of the field.
“You will pay for your crimes, Woodchuck. How does it feel to know that you will be taken by the birds, Woodchuck?” White Paw asked.
“I told you that I was sorry. Can’t you take a simple sorry? What do you want me to do, beg?” the woodchuck asked.
“I don’t want you to do anything but keep quiet. If you can do that, which I don’t believe you can, Woodchuck.”
“I think I see them, White Paw. They see us!” one of the black paw foxes said.
“Very good. I see them. It looks like it’s two of them.”
The woodchuck tried to wriggle his way out of the grip of the fox, but the fox mouth was unmovable.
“Hey you, foxes, what you holding down there and why are you standing there in our
field?” one of the hawks asked, flying down closer to the foxes.
“I have your dinner. Nice fresh woodchuck, fresh out of this field,” White Paw yelled up to the hawks.
“Fresh woodchuck? Ummm, delicious. So what are you proposing in exchange for the woodchuck, fox?” one of the hawks asked.
“My name is White Paw. I think since we are going to be business partners, we need to introduce ourselves,” White Paw yelled.
“No, I don’t think I am going to be doing that. You refer to me as Hawk, and I refer to you as Fox.”
“And you can refer to me as Worm,” the second hawk said. He was very different from the first hawk. He had a light red beak.
“Who’s in charge here?”
“I’m in charge, but Worm is second in charge.”
White Paw shook his head. He was disappointed in the disorderly actions which the hawks displayed. “I have a woodchuck here that I am willing to give the both of you, since woodchucks are so hard to come by. And I know they are. I have seen other hawks in other areas wait and wait and still no woodchuck would appear. Woodchucks are becoming wiser since they are traveling under the ground.”
“Wow, why haven’t I tried that?” the woodchuck said.
“What am I asking in return, hawks? All I am asking is to plant some fruits and vegetables out here in this field, without you or any of you hawks coming by whenever you get the notion, and eating up everything before it is ready to eat?”
“Yes, that is a great deal. We agree to it!” Worm yelled out, flying closer to where the fox held the woodchuck.
“No! That is a bad and unreasonable deal, I will not accept. Your planting bring worms, mice, rats, and of course woodchucks. We will pass on the deal!”
“Let me get this right. You hawks are going to pass up on this fresh, delicious piece of woodchuck?” White Paw asked.
“What part of “no” don’t you understand, White Paw? The hawks agreed that it’s a no!” the woodchuck said.
“Just be patient they are going to come to an agreement shortly and when they do then…” As White Paw assured the woodchuck that he would be given over to the hawks, they began tossing about and fighting in midair.
“I said I want that woodchuck!”
“And I said no, I want the fox’s garden!”
With excessive tossing and fighting, soon the two hawks were out of sight.
“Come back! I have a woodchuck for you, you birds love woodchucks!” White Paw yelled.
“If you want something done right than you have to do it yourself!”
“Until I figure out what I am going to do with this groundhog, let’s get him back to the hole!”
“We are friends, White Paw, remember? I help you build your first hole, I was even there when you needed someone to talk, after you decided you wasn’t going to eat me,” the woodchuck said.
“Yes, you are absolutely right. I can’t deny that. That is why I can’t understand; the foxhole you helped me build was the same foxhole you, along with your depraved woodchuck friends tore to the ground when you ransacked it. I am mad. I am very mad. Now get him out of here!”
“Wait, White Paw!”
“What is it now, Woodchuck?”
“I think this relationship between you and me is workable. We can work this thing out. Come on; let us reason together over…, over coffee cake, tea and milk. I say milk because I like milk and most like tea. I hate tea almost as much as I hate meat, you know something, White Paw I…”
“Save it, Woodchuck, I have nothing else to say to you,” White Paw said.
Then, suddenly, out of the bushes came Louis. In his mouth he held two bags of grapes and a bag of oranges.
“You may not have anything to say to him but I have something to say to you,” Louis yelled.
“Louis!” the woodchuck shouted while trying to twist his way free.
“Oh no! Run for it. It’s a wire fox terrier!” one of the black paw foxes shouted.
“If you are going to run for it, wouldn’t you like a bag of grapes and oranges? That’s at least a start in replacing what that bad woodchuck stole from you, isn’t it?”
“Louis, you have to be kidding me. I know you’re not going to give these bandits my grapes.”
“Shut up, Woodchuck,” Louis yelled.
“Just what are you saying? I may look like an idiot, but I am not an idiot. You are a Fox Terrier. I know one when I see one and your kind hunt my kind for sport.”
“Yes, that is true, but I don’t. I am one of the good guys. My name is Louis and I am willing to make a deal with you foxes, if you are willing to listen.”
White Paw looked at his two comrades then back at Louis.
“My name is White Paw and that fox with the black paw is Black Paw and the one who has the woodchuck is Orange Paw. He has a little black in him but mostly orange, that’s why his mother named him Orange Paw. I’m not too certain on that though.”
“Enough with the preamble. Geezs! I feel like I am at a woodchuck family reunion. Can you please let go of me? Looks like you have no other choice, Louis. You’ve to get ready to make a bargain for my grapes,” the woodchuck said.
“The woodchuck is right. You hand him over to me and I hand over all this fruit. What do you say, White Paw?”
“I’m thinking!” White Paw deliberated with his two comrades then came up with a question. “If I chose not to take your offer, then what, Louis?”
“Then I will have to take other measures, White Paw, and I don’t think you have enough members out here to prevent me from taking the woodchuck from you.”
“I think the deal is perfectly alright with me, Louis,” Orange Paw said.
“I have no problem with the deal either. I will hand him over to you now, Louis,” Black Paw replied, ignoring the stare that he felt from his leader, White Paw.
“Okay, what can I say? I am out-numbered. He is all yours,” White Paw said.
The woodchuck ran as fast as he could away from the three foxes and in the shelter of Louis. “You are three all of you: Black Paw, Orange Paw and White Paw. If it wasn’t for my friend Louis holding me back, I would be beating the living grapes out of you three. Let me at them, Louis. Let me at them.”
The foxes paid the woodchuck no mind. “Is there any way that we can make amends for all of this? The dog, the woodchuck and the foxes? I vow to respect all foxes that I come across, only if you vow to do the same with all woodchucks that you come across, White Paw.”
“Louis, this freedom has really gotten to you. The foxes will only turn against us woodchucks, and in the back of their minds they will always consider us as a meal!” the woodchuck yelled.
“And you, Woodchuck, especially the ones who hang out with you, will always be thieves. And in the back of their minds, they will always want to steal from every fox that they befriend and everyone else with you, Louis. I want to make amends,” White Paw said.
White Paw and his two comrades nodded and agreed with Louis’s offer.
Then, unexpectedly, as their paws interlocked with each handshake, a glow lit their paws and went through their bodies.
“Now, with every Fox Terrier that may cross your path he or she will not want to hunt you or your kind, but help anyway we can and vise-versa.”
“I like that, Louis. Welcome, friend,” White Paw said.
They all looked at the woodchuck. “What? Just because Louis wants to be gullible and sell his soul to the foxes, that doesn’t mean I have to. They were going to kill me. They were going to give me over to hawks,” the woodchuck said in a huff.
Then Orange Paw stepped forward. “Yes, White Paw was, but I felt in my heart that it wasn’t right. I would have stopped it before they got to you, Woodchuck.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure you were. And I am supposed to believe that now since all the hoop-la is over, and Mr. Resolution here has saved the day. Save it. I don’t want to befriend the foxes. I want to go and continue my grape hunt,”
the woodchuck declared staunchly.
He turned his back to walk off when Orange Paw began to speak again. “My sister Foxy Paw makes a fantastic grape cream pie. I think you would really like it. I could invite you back to the den, not to eat you but so you can have your very own grape cream pie!”
The woodchuck turned to Orange Paw, his eye-lids fluttering in the glimmer of the words that were spoken to him. “Grape cream pie? That sounds awfully good, a little too good to be true.”
Louis looked at him and said, “It’s your decision, Woodchuck, but if it was up to me, I would take that offer really quickly. You never know if you will have an offer that good ever again.”
“I guess I was unaware of the benefits a treaty has. Let’s make this a treaty.”
Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck Page 3