Scout & The Bullies Of Barksville

 

SCOUT & THE BULLIES OF BARKSVILLE

By

Davan

                                                                 Chapter 1

                                                                

     Barksville is a town where ONLY dogs live. No pet-owners live here—the dogs take

 care of themselves.  Now as far back as anyone can remember, this Barksville place 

has been run by the Golden Retrievers.  Other dog breeds live here as well, but 

remember, it’s the Golden Retrievers that run the show!  The Golden Retrievers got

 dibs on pretty much everything in Barksville.  They got dibs on all the best tables at

 The Biscuit Café.  They got dibs on all the best public water fountains.  (The other

 ones only dribbled warm water.)  And they naturally got dibs on all the golden fire

 hydrants in town.  As you can tell, life in Barksville wasn’t all that great and fair for

 doggies—that is unless, of course, you were shiny-coated Golden Retriever strutting

around with a snout up in the air!

     Anyhow, if that all didn’t seem bad enough, the one thing about Barksville that

 really seemed more crummy than anything else was how these Golden Retrievers

 even had dibs on something called the Giant Golden Biscuit.

     No one knows exactly where this giant biscuit came from.  According to legend, 

however, it was supposed to be the biggest and most dog-drooling, tastiest treat 

imaginable!  It could probably feed a dog town like Barksville, and keep tails wagging

 for a year, (which is really seven years on a dog calendar). 

     Now in the middle of Barksville is a four-story building where this Giant Golden 

Biscuit is kept behind glass on the top floor.  This place is like a museum, but the only

 kind of art shown there, of course, is really for Golden Retrievers.  There’s    all Golden

 Retriever art, like the Bone-alisa and portraits of Golden Retriever presidents.  After 

you press “4” with your paw, you can ride the elevator with the automatic doors up 

to the top floor where there it is, there behind thick glass and guarded by spy 

cameras everywhere—the yummiest of yummy—The Golden Biscuit…

     It was on a rainy Sunday afternoon when a Black Lab by the name of Scout decided

 to go to this museum because he was bored.  Well, after looking at all the Golden

 Retriever art on the second and third floors, he finally got his chance to see for

 himself what this legendary biscuit thing was all about.

     The doors opened and he saw the biggest, shiniest, most golden biscuit of them all,

 and there was a sign under it that read “DO NOT TOUCH.”

     “I don’t get it,” he said to himself.  And then he looked at a dog family of 

Pomeranians all panting and standing next to him.  “What good is looking at a biscuit

 this amazing?” he said to them.  “Biscuits are for eating, aren’t they?… Not looking 

at!”

     They all looked at him as if somebody had rolled-up some newspapers, and then they quickly scampered away. 

     Scout was left there by himself, staring into the glass, wondering why it was under the glass.

     “Someday everyone will share this biscuit!” said Scout.

Then he heard a mean Doberman Pinscher growl, “HEY YOU!  YOUR’E NOT SUPPOSED TO GET THAT CLOSE TO THE BISCUIT!  GIT!” 

     Scout bolted out of there.

Chapter 2

     One breezy, summer afternoon, some of the snobbiest Golden Retrievers strutted 

into Spot’s Meat Shop Deli.  Mac, Ally, and George were ordering sausage and bacon

 and ham from Spot when in walked a little Maltese, panting.  He began slurping a

 bowl of fresh water and ice cubes.

     “Hey, Spot,” said George, “isn’t this deli for Golden Retrievers only?”

     “Ummm, yeah,” replied the owner.  “I’m sorry little guy.  You can’t stay.”

     “Huh?!?! Um, I was just getting a sip …”

     The three Golden Retrievers started all barking at the Maltese.

     “Stop flapping jowls!” growled Mac.  “Spot’s is for GRs only!!”

     The helpless little white dog lowered his head and whimpered all the way out the 

glass door.   The gang chuckled.

     On his way to the dog path, he bumped into a furry, black unfamiliar face.

     “Oh, so sorry,” he said to the Black Lab.  “My name is Tiny.  I’m new here.  Do you

 know where I could get a cold bowl of water?  I just got kicked outta that deli over

 there.”

     “Hello, my name is Scout.  I’m not surprised you got kicked out of Spot’s,” said the

 Lab.  “There are some rules you’re gonna have to learn here if you wanna get along.”

     Tiny tilted his head to one side.

     “What’s that?”

     “The GRs run everything here in Barksville, and they don’t let any other breeds in 

many of the best places.”

     “WHY?!?!?” asked Tiny.

     “Well, because they think they’re the best – so don’t even try to talk them out of it 

because they’ll beat you up like they do to everybody who doesn’t go along with

 them.”

     “They sound like nothing but bullies.  That ain’t so great!”

     “Nope,” replied Scout, “but you know what is great?”

     “What?”

     “Chasing your tail!  C’mon!  Try it!”

     They both chased their own tails till they fell to the ground laughing.

     “Hey, Scout.”

     “Yeah, Tiny?”

     “I’ll be your guard if you’ll be mine,” he barked bravely.

     “That’s a great idea,” said Scout.  “Thanks.  I’m glad I made a friend.”

                                        

                                                                Chapter 3

                                                                 

          The next day, after sleeping in the bushes, Tiny saw Scout digging a hole.  This is how he kept his nails super-sharp!  Now since Tiny really had nowhere to rest, Scout

offered him a sofa at his house.  Tiny replied with a happy yes, and he followed Scout 

two blocks home.  When they arrived at Scout’s house, he followed Scout through the

doggie door, and then Scout showed Tiny where he could sleep. 

     “You get my greatest couch, best seat in the house!!”

     “Thank you,” Tiny said.  “Hey, Scout, what breed are you?”

     “Black Lab.  Blackish.  What are you?”

     “Magnificent Maltese.”

     “Cool.”

     Life together at 12 Rottweiler Road was fantastic!  They talked about all kinds of 

stuff, especially what they were going to do about GRG (The Golden Retriever Gang)

and all their bullying, but they really never got anywhere with all their talks.  That 

was until one day, Scout remembered something.

     “Hey, Tiny, you ever hear about the Giant Golden Biscuit?” asked Scout. 

     “No…” answered Tiny

     “Well, let me fill you in on everything…”

      Scout told Tiny everything about the Giant Golden Biscuit in the museum, and how

 the mean GRs would tell everyone in town that the Biscuit was to be seen and never

 eaten.  He finally ran out of words to say. 

     “Hmm, that’s not fair!” howled Tiny, “that is terrible!”

     “Yeah, maybe one day we’ll get to do something about it, eh?”

     “Mmm.  Yeah.  Maybe.”

Chapter 4

     Tiny wanted to surprise his friend Scout with a present for letting him stay for so 

long on his sofa. 

     “I know,” he said as he was walking along the dog path, “a toy from Ally’s Toy

 Store.  Small toys are free on Tuesday!!”

     Tiny poked his furry head into Ally’s Toy Store and went inside.  It was full of toy

 bones, squeaky toys, and balls.  Suddenly, he saw that pack of Golden Retrievers. 

 This scared Tiny. 

     “Oh, no!  GRG!” cried Tiny, “and it’s that George dog from Spot’s deli!”

     He was the roughest GR in town.  Meaner than a hungry lion king.

     “Hey!  Look who it is, gang.”  Their teeth were pointy daggers.  “What’s the 

matter?” asked George, “You afraid or something?”  Instantly, they nipped him and

 then ganged up on him in the corner.

     “Here,” said Mac, “You want a toy?” 

George and Mac pushed a shelf of toys on Tiny.  Poor helpless Tiny squeezed out from 

under a shelf. 

     When they were done laughing, they all sprinted out of Ally’s store and left Tiny

 shivering.  He looked like he’d bungee jumped off the building without a bungee

 cord.   

     For the first time in Ally’s life, she felt bad for the horrible, cruel things GRG did to 

dogs.  Ally picked up a small blue toy and gave it to Tiny. 

     “Here’s your toy.  Sorry.”

     Tiny walked to Scout’s house with a long blue fuzzy toy in his mouth.  Tiny entered 

the doggie door smiling weakly, and he put the funny toy on Scout’s bed.  He went 

back on his sofa like nothing happened but was still shivering.  When Scout saw the 

toy he was happy, until he saw Tiny so beat up. 

     “What happened Tiny!??!!?”

     “Well, I walked into Ally’s to get you something for letting me stay here, because you are so nice, and that’s when I ran into the Golden Retrievers.”

     “Poor thing… I’ll clean you up.”  Scout brought back a wet cloth from the 

bathroom.  “Hey, little buddy, thanks for the toy!” said Scout.  “You know, I’m getting

 sick of the GRG.  We should fight back...”

     “How?  They run everything.”

     “Remember what I told you about that gigantic biscuit at the GR Museum?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Well, we’re gonna steal it.”

Chapter 5

     The day after the bullying, Tiny and Scout went to the GR Museum, and when it

 came time for closing, they kept very, very still. 

     “Tiny, if we pretend that we are statues, no one will know we are real, so when the

 Doberman security guys leave, we can steal that enormous biscuit on the top floor…”

 Scout whispered.

     “Okay, but shouldn’t we be golden?” asked Tiny. 

     Before Tiny finished another wag of his tail, Scout looked around and pointed to a 

sign that read, “NEW EXHIBIT!  NOT READY, YET!!!”  Above the sign was a statue of 

something GR behind glass covered by a golden drape.  Scout got his claw out and 

scraped round and round and round until there was a circle hole.  The glass popped 

out.

     “Come on little buddy, jump in, grab that blanket off the sculpture,” Scout told 

Tiny.  Tiny flopped in and pulled it out.

     When no one was looking, Scout threw the blanket up in the air and once it fell

 over them, they pretended that they were the new exhibit that wasn’t ready yet, Tiny

 hiding underneath Scout. 

     Once they saw the security guard dogs leave for the night and lock the door, the

 blanket flew off and they zoomed to the elevator and pressed the “up” button, their hearts pounding.

     When the elevator opened, they scooted inside and pressed “4.”  Up-up-up.  The 

doors finally opened.   At night, the room was very dark, but the glass case lit up with 

a very dark shade of gold. 

     “Wow!” said Tiny, “it’s beautiful.”

     “Yeah… yummy too.”

     “Yeah, I bet.”

     “Now stay close to me, Tiny, so that the security cameras don’t see you.  I’m black,”

 whispered Scout, “so I blend in with the dark…”

     They walked towards the Giant Golden Biscuit.    

     “Okay,” said Tiny, “now how are we gonna lower it outta here?”

     “We’ll float it out.”

     “Huh?”

     Scout snuck over to a fire hose by the exit door and pulled it back to Tiny.

     “Okay, now take this fire hose, jump up on my head, and drop the nozzle into the case.”

      Scout put his paws up on the glass and once Tiny’s teeth crunched down on nozzle,

 he ran up Scout’s back with it.  Once he was balanced atop of Scout’s big black head

, he dropped it over the side of the glass.  Then he jumped off.

     “Okay, now watch this, “said Scout, returning to the wall.  He used his mouth to 

turn the knob.

     Up-up-up, the water rose.  Up-up-up, the giant biscuit floated.

     “Yipes!” said Tiny.  “It’s almost at the top.”    

     “Okay, now go over to the exit door and open it,” Scout told Tiny. 

     The Giant Golden Biscuit floated up, and over the glass, and then in a waterfall it 

went down in a swoosh and gently floated out the exit door. 

     “Wow!” said Tiny, “Hurry, let’s go and follow it.”

     They watched it splash down the fire escape like a log streaming down a river.

DOWN it dropped until it hit the street and smashed into a million tiny little pieces. 

 Tiny and Scout scurried down after it.

     “Sorry,” Scout said.  “That wasn’t supposed to exactly happen that way, little 

buddy...”

Chapter 6

 

     Lights went on EVERYWHERE all over Barksville. 

     “What do we do now!” asked Tiny.

     “I don’t know…  I think we’re in trouble, little buddy.”

     Dogs of all colors all over town came out to see what happened.  The Golden 

Retrievers came out, too.  And of course, the Doberman Pinscher police arrived there,

 as well.

     Millions of golden biscuit chunks everywhere for as far as anyone could see.  The 

GRs and the Dobermans looked up and down and a police dog saw the exit door at 

the top of the museum open with water still coming out of it.

     The sound of chomping was everywhere!

     “Hey!” shouted Mac, “it’s the Giant Golden Biscuit!”

     “Ain’t so giant anymore,” said Spot.

     “STOP!” yelled George in his most ferocious voice.  “YOU ARE EATING THE GOLDEN

 BISCUIT!  STOP!”

     Ally was there, too, and she sniffed and nibbled a little piece.

     “Umm, George?” she said after she swallowed it.  “This tastes unbelievable.”

     “And we definitely can’t put it back together again…” added Mac. 

     George grumbled and growled and decided to take a bite.  Suddenly a dog smile

 came upon his face. 

     Dog smiles were everywhere!

     “Wow!” shouted Tiny.  “This town oughta be happy for years to come!”

     Scout slurped his jowls.

     “Uh-huh!  Which is reeeeaaaaalllllly long in dog years!”

 

                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                

THE END