Ch. 8— Busted
    
    Angel and Scamp awoke the next day to find it sunny and light. When Scamp woke up, he cheered, “Hee-hee-hee! They haven’t found us yet!”
    “Good job, tenderfoot!” Angel giggled. “Now it’s time to find a family!”
    Angel, at once, moved to a lamppost at the corner of the street, watching the cars and pedestrians pass by. She stared at each car and pedestrian that moved with puppy eyes. “Somebody will come to adopt me,” Angel stated insistently.
    “Can’t we have some fun?” Scamp asked, as he eventually got up and followed her.
    “Okay then,” Angel told him excitedly. They did a lot of things to pass time. Scamp tried to improve his street trick technique, to no avail, and Angel corrected him with some teasing affection. The two of them went to steal some hot dogs for lunch, and, not being caught, went back to standing on the street to look for an owner. “When we find a family… hopefully we’ll find one that will not enforce dumb rules and go to bad shows like yours,” Angel gleefully stated as they continued to sit.
    But the afternoon felt no better. The drivers and pedestrians passing by gave hardly any attention or thought to Angel, who became less and less enthusiastic as the day wore on with no success.
    Discouraged, Angel told Scamp, “Come on tenderfoot… let’s go,” as they walked further and further away from home. As dusk fell, the two of them found themselves in a part of town that even Angel never saw before. It was dark, and with plenty of tall, multi-story buildings. On a couple signs, Scamp read the term, “Hotels”.
    “These are the places where these snobby showers go to stay,” Scamp groaned.
    “At least we’re far off from your parents,” Angel told Scamp fervently
    The two of them rounded another corner, and there, they noticed…
“Oh no, it’s Buster!” Scamp groaned as Angel gasped.
Buster was clearly and unmistakably there, looking malicious and very satisfied about something. Looking delighted was a small white puppy with black spots and a patch on his eye, he looked up at Buster adoringly with great excitement. Two other puppies, also white with black spots followed, but less enthusiastically. All three of them were wearing collars.
Scamp and Angel moved behind a set of bushes, but by then, it was too late. Buster then loudly stated, “All right Patchy… if you do want to be a junkyard dog, you have to go get me those two puppies that went in the bushes to the right,” Buster told the puppy with the patch.
“Why?” the puppy with the patch asked.
“Because if you don’t, they’ll go tell on you. They know your parents,” Buster answered maliciously. “Drag them over, and then I’ll take care of them.”
The puppy with the patch nodded, and Scamp and Angel, cornered with a wall and trapped in the bushes, were too slow to move. The puppy with patch moved in the bushes, looked on either side of him, and then growled at Scamp and Angel when he noticed them at last.
“So, there you two are,” the puppy with the patch growled. “Trying to find us, are you?”
“What?” Scamp asked. “Your… parents?”
“Get out, or I’ll make you!” the puppy with the patch demanded.
Deciding to take the risk, Scamp and Angel walked out, and Buster looked delighted. “Well, well, well, Patchy-boy. You passed your first test… now, it’s my turn!”
But then, Angel blustered out, “Don’t listen to him at all!”
The puppies turned, and she stated nervously, “I was part of his little group beforehand… and he really is horrible!”
Scamp added, “We’re runaways ourselves! We don’t even know your parents!”
One of the other spotted puppies, with spotted ears generally but mostly white, stated quietly, “You know Patch, how would they know your parents?”
    “Don’t ask questions!” Buster roared at the puppy with the spotted ears.
“Listen!” Angel protested. “He did the same thing to Scamp over here as he’s doing to you!”
“That’s enough, Angel-cakes!” Buster roared, and then he moved in to attack Angel and Scamp. The spotted puppies gasped, but then, they were interrupted…
“Wahoo!” came a loud, carrying voice. “A-ha! There are some more hoodlums!”
“Oh no!” Scamp gasped.
Behind them, came the dogcatcher, who drove in his car and drew closer and closer to Buster and the puppies.
Buster himself ran off far ahead, leaving the puppy with the patch to ask, “Wait? Where’re you going?”
“To save myself,” Buster stated. “Buster’s trouble is Buster’s trouble, just like yours, Patchy. That’s the essential motto of being a junkyard dog.”
“But…” the puppy with the patch began, but as Buster faded, Angel added, “You see? He did that to him too once,” Angel indicated toward Scamp.
“And the dogcatcher is dangerous too,” Scamp added worriedly. “He attacks any puppy without a collar like us.”
However, Angel had a look of terror in her eyes, Scamp turned, he did too, and abruptly, they were both lifted into a net.
“There ya go! I never thought I’d see you two again! Full speed ahead!” the dogcatcher cried. But the spotted puppies abruptly jumped from the sidewalk and chewed open the net.
“Hey there! Five against one’s not fair!” the dogcatcher screamed, but by then, the car went far enough ahead to notice Buster, who was lying relaxingly on the street, gazing excitedly at the truck.
“Ah, I hope all of those little house dogs are in there,” he stated devilishly.
The dogcatcher, however, came out, with a very large net. Buster stated, “Well, well, well… he thinks he can fight me.”
But then, the dogcatcher cackled, “A-ha! You again! You won’t be able to get away from this net! It’s a foolproof solution! Ha!”
Buster gasped, and then he realized he was caught. He tried to bite at the net, but this net was too strong. After some effort, the catcher lifted him in the back.
Angel , Scamp, and the puppies peered their heads out of the bushes. Buster just noticed them.
“Hey Scampster! Patchy! Angelcakes!” he roared at them. “I can use some help!”
“Yeah, and you’d leave me out there like that,” the puppy with the patch told Buster contemptuously. “No thanks.”
“Oh, come on!” Buster roared, but Angel shook her head. “Sorry Buster… but you deserve it.”
The dogcatcher rolled off, cheerfully humming as Buster glared at them in the back seat.
“Wahoo!” Scamp cheered as he left the bushes. “No more Buster or dogcatcher to deal with today, haha!”