FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

- Chapter 11: DOG POUND

---

**_Mittens and Rhino embarks on a journey to find the pound where Benji was taken, but locating a shelter, when you're two pets with nothing but a waffle map, turned out to be harder than they thought. Now, hamster and cat has to work together to find a way to the dog pound. Preferably one that keeps them alive.

Meanwhile, Bolt initiates phase two of his plan to rescue Benji, the infiltration of the dog pound. But that means going up against half-a-dozen or so caretakers before he can get to his locked up Labrador in distress. Armed with nothing but some tricks from his life on the TV-set and an improvised plan, will he make it?_**

- MITTENS -

"I can't believe this!" Her paw flew to her face in an expression of utter frustration. "Another crossroad! We'll never know which way Bolt went!"

She turned to the hamster on her back. "Talk to me rodent. Where are we?"

• "I'll never talk... do your worst... you...you green-eyed aberration..." Rhino's sleep drunken voice came back from her back.

• "Rhino! Wake up!"

• "Oh! Sorry! Navigation? I got you!" The hamster rubbed his tired eyes before quickly leaping to action, his drowsiness replaced by unweaving duty. Jumping down from the cats back, he found and unfolding the, by now, pretty jagged map.

"I'll consult the top-secret waffle map" He announced while unfolding it between his two small hands and skimming over its contents.

"It's a waffle map, not a dog-pound-map, Rhino." Mittens commented as she settled beside the hamster.

• "So what?"

"So, unless those caretakers decided to take Benji to Waffle World, I don't think it's gonna be very helpful in finding Benji. Seeing as, you know, the map lists Waffle World restaurants and Benji is at a dog pound" she continued, using her sarcastic but not too-sarcastic voice.

She knew that Rhino was just trying to help so she tried to keep her sarcasm to a minimum. But Rhino's ability to say things that made absolutely zero sense was overshadowed only by his ability to occasionally blindside everyone by suddenly saying something that makes perfect sense.

"Well, it can still tell us where these roads lead" the hamster retorted. "Besides" he continued. "It has gotten us this far, hasn't it?"

Mittens nodded, knowing that Rhino had a point. The old waffle map which she had grabbed out of a garbage-container one fateful day in New York had proved to be very useful. It made her wonder why none of the three animals, at least not her, had ever thought to finding a_real_map. Something a bit more accurate and perhaps more useful. Any other old map they could have laid their paws on would probably have qualified.

"Besides" the hamster continued, now caught up in one of his formal speeches "In dire moments like these, I often ask myself... what would Bolt do?"

Mittens sighed, still holding back the sarcasm. "Alright, so what would Bolt do?" she asked, realizing that the least painful option would probably be to just entertain the hamster.

"Well, when Calico had captured Penny, he infiltrated their artic hover-base by actually letting them capturing him!" He turned to Mittens. "Are you listening, cat?"

• "Yeah wow, that's fantastic, that what you just said". Mittens studied the waffle map while Rhino continued.

"So then he overwhelmed them with a spectacular surprise attack just as they were putting him into the cryo-champher, by exploding their power generators! It was like beyond be-awesome!" He declared, then went on to illustrate it by making little explosion-sound-effects with his mouth.

Mittens sighed again, ready to tell the hamster how irrelevant artic hover-bases and cryo-champhers were to their current predicament. Then suddenly, she realized that maybe the story wasn't so irrelevant after all.

"Okay so firstly... you might actually have a point!"

• "I do?" Rhino looked up, surprised.

"Yes, I think your pointless rambling might have given me an idea!"

• "Radical! That was my intention!" Rhino answered, happily accepting what was the closest thing to a compliment he had received from the cat to date.

• "Rhino? What's the best way to get to a dog pound?"

The hamster stared at her cluelessly.

"To get captured by the dog pound, of course!" she continued, her tail moving satisfactorily behind her as she walked. "All we have to do is exactly what we've been avoiding so far - getting into trouble with humans!"

• "So where can we find humans?" Rhino asked, still not quite sure what Mittens was suggesting.

• "Well, as the closest thing to a human expert in the present company, I'd say that the city is a pretty good bet" she pointed towards the menacing collection of houses and skyscrapers that stretched out as far as they eye could see on the other side of the highway.

"We're in LA" she continued "There's like a bazillion humans here! If we're annoying enough, somebody is gonna have to call animal control on us. It could work, assuming they take us to the same place they took Benji. And Bolt managed to get there as well.

-"But what if they don't take us to a dog pound? What if they take us to a cat pound or a hamster pound?"

• "I think they only got dog pounds, though"

• "Still sounds like a long shot" Rhino stared skeptically at Mittens while rubbing his fuzzy chin. "Do we have any better options?"

• "No, I think this is the best shot we got, Rhino" Mittens replied. She was being completely honest. Between following this endless highway and trying to locate the nearest shelter using the waffle map, she really couldn't think of any better options.

• "Well then. Let's do this thing!" The amped-up hamster took the lead and Mittens followed. And with that, the two animals set off towards the city.

...

After several hours of endless letdown, Mittens had to come to realize that actually getting into trouble with the human species was harder than she had thought.

She and Rhino and spent the better part of the day - clawing, tackling and pushing their way through the streets of Los Angeles, all in order to get in trouble.

The results were varied but underwhelming. She had interrupted the picnic of one elderly couple by throwing herself into their potato salad, but the couple had just laughed and taken pictures. She had mauled the jeans of a busy pedestrian with her paws, only to be completely unnoticed and having her tail accidentally stepped on. Another passing pedestrian made some clumsy, incompetent attempts of kicking her before simply throwing his half-eaten hotdog at her and disappearing into a building.

Rhino's efforts had been even more ineffective. His every attempt of attacking or scaring a human seemed to end in the hamster being picked up and cuddled with. He had given up when that exact thing had happened five times and he decided his self-esteem couldn't take anymore. Now he was sitting right next to Mittens, munching on the same half-eaten hotdog that had been thrown at the cat before.

They were in the middle of a park, surrounded by humans. Humans walking, humans jogging, humans bicycling - and all of them were completely uninterested in the stray cat and her accompanying hamster.

The only exception was one little girl had tried to take Mittens with her, seemingly intent on adopting the cat, a decision that Mittens had vigorously protested to the best of her clawless paws until the girl had given up. The only thing Mittens hated more than big humans were the small, annoying half-grown humans.

"What are we doing wrong here, cat?" A disappointed Rhino sighed deeply, looking at her for answers.

"Beats me." She licked a paw, equally disappointed. "If Benji or Bolt had tried this, they'd been captured on the millisecond!"

When she thought about it, humanity's relationship with dogs were even odder than cats. They were infinitely more eager to give Bolt treats than her, but if either Bolt or Benji as much as barked, animal control showed on the second.

"Maybe we're just not being extreme enough!" Rhino got up and started making his way back towards the street, his determined little hamster feet moving quickly.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to double back to the highway and see if we can ... RHINO!? What are you doing?"

She interrupted herself when she saw the hamster approaching a parked car and clambering up to the vehicle's door handle.

"Rhino? What the heck are you doing? Someone will see us!"

"Would you relax? There's no one inside!" Rhino had clambered up to the door handle, and was now fixing with the keyhole with his tiny rodent hands.

"It doesn't matter" Mittens continued. "There's no way you can get inside of a locked..."

*Click*

The car door slowly opened and the hamster flashed her a triumphant smile before hopping inside, leaving the calico staring blankly at the opened car door.

"As a master of stealth, lock picking is one of my specialties." Rhino said while admiring his tiny hamster hands. "Quickly now cat, get inside before anyone detects us."

"Rhino! We can't just ... gahh!" Mittens gave up and jumped inside, then pulled the door shut using her paws. It clicked again as it shut which Mittens feared might have been the lock.

"Great. Now we're trapped in some asshole's car. What's your plan now - o master of stealth?" she sneered sarcastically.

"Just you wait, my whisker-embellished friend." Rhino smiled while jumping down behind one of the pedals and reaching his tiny hands inside the opening right behind in the gas, searching around amongst cold metal and plastic cables.

"There should be a harness connector somewhere here" he mumbled too himself as he searched.

"Oh great, you're gonna hotwire a car now?" All you're gonna do is give some poor schmuck some hefty repair bills. Besides, there's no way you can actually..."

*VROOM*

The dashboard in front of her lit up while the engine vibrated and roared to life while Rhino squealed excitedly. The car had definitely just started, even though Mittens could hardly believe it.

"Rhino! What exactly do you think you're doing?!" She stared at Rhino, an equal mix of disbelief and astonishment in her face. "How did you even do that?"

• "The moving pictures!"

• "You wanna tell me learned auto theft from watching that frickin' Bolt show?"

• "No, those were some other pictures."

• "Alright, so you're gonna have to tell me more about those pictures later" Mittens replied. "Right now, just tell me what the plan is, okay?"

• "Simple! We'll drive to the dog pound ourselves! Bolt's gonna be madly impressed!"

• "Alright, on the long list of things that concerns me about that plan, the first is probably the fact that we don't even know where the dog pound is!"

• "We don't. But this thing does!" Rhino pointed towards a large, shining screen next to the car wheel. "I think it's some kind of human supercomputer".

• "It's just a GPS gadget, Rhino. Like all cars have them. I think."

• "Whatever it is, it can give us a 20 on Bolt's location and then direct us straight to him! It'll tell us where to drive and we'll find that dog pound in no time" Rhino squealed and climbed the dashboard before turning to the supposed supercomputer:

"Computer! Tell us where Bolt is!" he commanded.

• "Could not find any results for "schmolt" a robotic female voice replied, causing both of the animals to jump in surprise.

• "Did the car just talk to us?" Rhino backed away cautiously.

• "Christ Rhino, you're doing it wrong." Pushing the hamster away, she put her paws on the screen and spoke as clearly as possible:

"GPS. Give us directions to the closest dog pound."

• "Could not find any results for 'bog browned'"

• "No. I said, give us directions to the closest dog pound."

• "Could not find any results for 'frog hound'"

• "Useless human crap!" She pawed the screen, angrily.

"Come on rodent, let's split. This thing's busted or malfunctioning or somethin'" Jumping down from the dashboard, Mittens pushed against the door. Then pushed it again. Then pushed it again, a little harder this time, still without result.

• "Rhino, this door thing is still locked. Fix it will, ya?"

• "Sure, I'm on it!"

A couple of seconds passed.

• "Errr, I don't know how..."

• "You just hotwired this thing. You're telling me you don't know how to unlock the flippin' doors!?"

• "They never show that in the pictures!"

• "Dammit, Rhino! There hasn't to be a button on something here..." She started pawing the door frantically, pulling and pushing whatever looked like it might unlock a car door."

• "Ehm cat?"

• "Hold on, Rhino, I'm busy"

• "Okay, it's just that a bunch of those human creatures are looking at us."

Mittens looked up to saw an array of human faces staring distinctly at them through the windows, most of them looking pretty surprised to find a cat and a hamster inside. One of them, who Mittens presumed was the owner, was pulling the door handle from the other side and he seemed less than happy.

"Looks like they want their car back, huh?" Rhino turned to Mittens who was already hyperventilating. "We should probably drive out of here before they call for backup"

"Screw that!" She grabbed the hamster and shock him frantically. "You gotta get these damn doors opened before they decide break in and kill us for the trouble!"

• "They wouldn't actually kill us, would they?"

• "NOW, Rhino!"

• "Alright! Let's try that lever." He pointed towards a black lever between the seats. "Might be that one, I don't know!"

• "It's as good as any! Come on!" With the joint effort of both hamster and cat, they managed to pull the lever until it clicked into place.

Mittens rushed to the door. "It still won't bloody budge!"

• "Yeah, and it seems like we're moving now, too..."

-"What?!"

The cat looked outside, only to notice that the they were in was slowly rolling backwards, picking up speed as their car made its way down the slanting street.

• "Rhino!" Mittens grabbed the hamster "We're gonna die!"

• "Yeah, we probably shouldn't have touched that hand-brake" the hamster shrugged. "You know, in moments like these, I always ask myself; what would B..."

• "Shut up and find some way of stopping this thing!"

Rhino did as told, jumping back to the dashboard while the cat rushed to a window and looked outside. The car was definitely picking up speed. She could also see a group of people chasing after them, perhaps thinking that they could stop an impending disaster if they could just catch up with rolling car, something Mittens very much doubted.

The panicked cat switched her attention to the window in the back where the sight of two headlights moving way too quickly towards them made her blood freeze. Next thing she heard was the sound of a horn and screeching tires as the incoming vehicle saw them. But the car was moving too fast and Mittens knew it would be too late.

"Rhino! We're gonna crash!" The panicked cat leaped to the front seat where the grabbed the wheel, spinning it to the best of her paws ability. The vehicle cringed and responded immediately, making a straight, semi-controlled turn to the left which was so sharp that Mittens had to hold-on to the wheel. The incoming car blew passed them like a silver lightning, the collision narrowly avoided.

"Holy shit Rhino, did you see that?!" Mittens exhaled in relief.

Rhino was just about to reply when a loud *bang* rocked the entire car and the sound of shrieking metal pierced his ears. Suddenly all gravity left them as they flew through the air. For a brief moment, everything was just a blur of motion and sound as the crash threw her, Rhino and broken glass through the car - then sudden pain.

Mittens crashed against something that felt as hard as rock. When she painfully opened her eyes, certain that she would find herself in at least two pieces or more, she noticed that she had actually landed on the cushions of the backseat. Pawing up and down her body, she realized that most of her seemed remarkably intact. Rhino had crash-landed in her lap and was, aside from looking completely disorientated and dazed, seemingly okay too. She sat there, hyperventilating while hugging the little hamster frantically, trying to grasp what had just happened.

After a while, Rhino spoke.

"Mittens?"

• "Yes"

• "Are we dead?"

• "I don't think so..."

Looking up, she saw that the car itself however was less than fine. Most windows were shattered and the door right next to them were buckled in so bad it was pure luck that they hadn't landed closer to it. The GPS gadget was lodged half-way through the window beside her. She thanked whatever feline gods may be that it hadn't landed just a couple of inches closer to her face.

What really scared the black feline was what she saw outside. A pair of humans with flashlights, clad in blue clothes with serious expressions on their faces, were looking straight at them through the crushed windows. They were speaking unintelligibly with each other and into black radios.

"I think those... those are cops" Mittens stammered.

• "Looks like we found ourselves some trouble after all" Rhino smiled, his humor unaffected by their current situation.

Mittens could only nod, wondering what was gonna happen next as more and more humans gathered around them and their wrecked car, white lights from various camera lenses flashing and the men clad in blue staring at each other, seemingly unsure what exactly to do.

...

"Sir, are you absolutely certain these are not your pets?"

• "Yes! For God's sake, I've never seen them in my freaking life!"

• "You can't leave your pets in the car. They can overheat"

• "I told you officer, they're not mine!"

• "Then how come they were in your car?"

• "I told you that too, I have no bloody idea!"

• "And why wasn't the hand brake locked?"

• "I don't know! Why don't you ask the freaking cat!?"

• "Well, if these pets aren't yours. We're gonna have take them to the local rescue and see if we can locate their owners."

• "And when you do, make sure to send them the bills for this mess!"

Rhino stared wide-eyed at the arguing people. "What are they talking about?" he whispered to Mittens, pointing at the tall, red-faced man who alternated between screaming at the men clad in blue and pointing angrily at them.

• "I don't know, but I'm guessing it's his BMW we just totaled." Mittens replied.

The two animals had been put in a little white, cage like box, not too different from the ones Mittens had seen really small dogs in at airports. Around them, more humans had gathered. Some taking pictures. Some writing things down on little slips of paper. And some were wearing the familiar greenish overalls the caretakers who took Benji had been wearing.

Mittens didn't usually like cages, but considering how angry the man outside was, she felt pretty safe inside this one. And even more importantly, it seemed like they had succeed. They were differently in trouble. Perhaps a bit too much trouble than she had wanted, but at least those caretakers looked like they had been called there to take care of her and Rhino.

"What's gonna happen to us" Rhino asked warily.

• "Don't worry Rhino. I think they're gonna take us to the dog pound. With a little luck, we'll find our canine friends there. Our plan worked."

• "Does that mean I did good?" A wide, goofy smile spread on the little hamster.

• "You did great!" Perhaps it was the adrenaline in her, but before she knew it, she was hugging the hamster again, whose smile grew even wider.

"I never thought I'd say this, cat, but we make a pretty good team"

- BOLT -

Alright, it's now or never Bolty. The white German Shepherd took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.You're cool Bolt. You're cool...

A slight shake had awaken him, causing the shepherd to leap to his paws at the sound, poised for action and ready to power-kick and/or karate chop whatever humans might come to take him. He might not have superpowers, but he was ready to eradicate whatever and whoever stood between him and his Benji.

When he had realized that all that had happened was that the van he was in had parked at its final location, the superhero dog made a plan.

He knew he only had a couple of seconds between when the two drivers stepped out of the vehicle and when they would open the back of the van to find him there. On top of that, he was dreadfully aware that he didn't have any superpowers. His painful brush with reality had taught him that, over and over again. What he did have was speed and surprise, both of which he planned to utilize.

His sensitive ears sprung up at the sound of the humans stepping out. It was time...

You're cool Bolt... you're cool...

In the interim between the humans leaving the passenger seat and opening the doors in the back, Bolt leaped to the front seat. There, he waited silently. After a second, he heard the distinctive jingle of keys and a quiet click. The doors were unlocked!

Ready to execute the next phase of his plan, Bolt turned to the strange-looking console in front of him. The instrument board on this vehicle didn't look like anything he'd seen before, but he nonetheless started pawing over the board, hitting and pressing whatever buttons he could find. However, none of it had any effect. And he was running out of time.

In a last, desperate attempt to make the vehicle distract the guards outside, he pressed his nose against the wheel in front of him. A loud, beeping noise instantly sounded from the van. Bolt repeated the action, happy to notice that the van made the same noise again.

It had worked!

He heard muffled voices outside, indistinct but surprised. Instead of opening the backdoors, they were heading back to the passenger seat. Whatever he had done to the vehicle, it had caused the attention he wanted. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Through the half-tinted windows, Bolt could see the two humans leaving the back of the van and returning to the passenger seat, seemingly confused by the noise he had caused. With a robust kick of his strong hindpaw, he managed to push the button on the wheel in place, causing the van to whine continuously while the agile superdog leaped down from the passenger seat and returned to the back of the van.

Just like he had expected, the backdoors were unlocked and unguarded! He quietly nosed them opened with his nose pad, sneaking out the back of the van while the two humans were investigating the front. Objective accomplished!

Sneaking out of the van, the white shepherd smiled to himself, proud to have fooled the two drivers and, perhaps for the first time since he left his TV-show, having done something right. Now he only had to locate Benji and bust him out. From behind the van, he could see a large building in the middle of a seemingly abandoned parking lot.It must be the dog prison!

He was just about to leave the shadow of the van and leap across the parking lot when he pumped against something. Falling back on his hunches, the surprised canine looked up and stared straight into the eyes of another equally surprised human.

Holding a box in his hands, this third guard was tall, bearded and stared confusedly at Bolt while a forgotten cigar fell out of his dropped jaw. The two species stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, neither of them sure of what to do. Suddenly, the human dropped the box and called out to his colleagues.

"Hey, there's some bloody escaped dog on..." *POW!*

He was interrupted as seventy pounds of German Shepherd came crashing into his chest, a well delivered paw kicking him so hard that he fell to the asphalt while his fuzzy attacker landed straight on him. Bolt hopped off the chest of the struggling person who shrieked and scrambled to get up while grabbing after him, screaming and swearing angrily.

Dodging his hands, the white dog jumped out of the way, then dashed towards the large building.

The couple from the van came running towards him, hollering some indistinguishable words between each other while they threw themselves after Bolt in an attempt to capture the out of control dog. Bolt cleared them easily, slaloming between the two attackers before power-sliding under the legs of fourth who came running to the assistance of his collugues.

He then darted towards the building as fast as his legs could carry him. Angry, surprised voices could be heard behind him, not entirely unlike those of the Green Eyed Man's henchmen. Luckily for Bolt, these ones didn't seem to have any plasma rifles.

He kept running until he reached the large glass doors of the building. Suddenly, a familiar, intimate scent of fur, warmth and friendliness struck his nostrils. Benji! It came from inside too, confirming his hypothesis.This must be the right place! It made his heart beat even faster.

"I'm coming Benji! Hold on!" he screamed before throwing himself against the glass doors.

That was a mistake.

Rather than breaking through as the canine had expected, Bolt crashed head-first into the flat, hard surface and fell backwards like a ping-pong-ball. When he came to, he was bleeding from a cut on his furry, white forehead and he could he the footsteps of the humans he had outrun approaching him.

They were getting closer!

Now hyperventilating and absolutely petrified, Bolt scratched the surface, then tried kicking it. It didn't break. It didn't even scratch.He simply wasn't strong enough.

Looking behind, he saw that the humans were running towards him. They would be there in a matter of seconds. The desperate canine started to panic. He looked around but could not see any other ways inside, and the footsteps from the approaching guards grew louder and louder.He could not let it end like this!

With his ears pressed tightly against his head, Bolt made one final leap towards the window and this time, the surface shattered as his friable furry body flew through the glass like a fuzzy, white projectile. The shepherd landed on his side, his fur covered in shards and broken glass. He got up on wobbly legs, shook them off and started running down the corridor, not caring much about his health or the cuts on his paws, or anything else than finding his friend. Nothing could stop him now.

"Benji! Benji where are you!?" he shouted out.

All he could see around him was sterile, white corridors, all identical, with equally identical, black doors aligning the walls. There was humans, no scent, no signs or indications. No reply. No noise except his steadily beating heart.

Bolt jumped and yelped in surprise as he heard the glass doors slam open and footsteps approaching.The guards were catching up with him!

He needed to get out of there. It didn't matter where, just so he could break line of sight before they saw him. He ran off to the left, following the white corridor until suddenly, Benji's scent was back. It was back and much stronger.He was heading the right way!

He continued through a door and followed the scent down the corridor, took left, ran down another corridor as the scent in his nostril grew stronger. He was locating his friend now, and he was so close.

"Benji! Benji, I'm coming!"

He stopped when he spotted a black door with a white dog logo on it.Benji must be in there!

He rushed towards it, overwhelmed by happiness, when suddenly a couple of rough hands grabbed him by his midsection, making him yelp as strong arms held him down to the floor.

Before he could fight the attacker, another human caught up with them and a net was put over him. Growling and biting, Bolt fought the net and any hands that got close to him while humans surrounded him. Then another couple of hands grabbed him and something sharp was inserted into his midsection. Suddenly, the entire rooming started spinning while his vision become increasingly blurry.

All power left him, rendering him completely motionless. Looking up, he saw several, human caretakers looking down on him, one of them holding a syringe. They didn't seem angry. They seemed concerned.

Bolt wanted to get up and run. He wanted to bark and growl at the creatures, or at least ask them what they had inserted into him.Sedatives? Poison? Was he dying?

But he couldn't move his paws, or his head and the rest of his body and gone completely, utterly numb. As it become harder and harder to focus and keep his eyes opened, his fear faded way and one single thought started taking over.

He had failed.

He failed his mission. He had failed Benji. He didn't know or cared what would happen to himself now. As he lied there incapable of moving, the only thing he could think about was what would happen to his friend.

Would Benji have to spend an eternity, alone in this place?

Would he think Bolt had abandoned him?

Would he ever see his friend again?

And then he blacked out and everything around him disappeared into a dizzy darkness.