Home Before Dinner

Chapter 32

6:10 pm

Paws practically flying across the pavement, Buddy did his best to keep up with Chloe. Surprisingly, the fat tabby cat was pretty fast when there was danger afoot. And boy were they in danger. They had a tidal wave of alley cats hot on their heels. Knowing that Mel was there no doubt behind them, Buddy trusted Chloe enough to follow her into a narrow alleyway. The pair hid behind a dumpster just in time as the stampede stormed past.

"Buddy, are you okay?" Chloe whispered after a little bit. Blinking his eyes open, Buddy looked up at the cat. Nodding his head quietly, the dachshund mumbled, "Yeah, yeah I think so." Crawling out from behind the safety of the dumpster, the pair sat down. Licking her paw and running it over her ear, Chloe murmured, "That was a close call."

"I'll say. I thought you guys were goners," Tiberius remarked, hopping down from a trash can. Where the hawk had come from, Buddy had no idea. He also had no idea what Chloe was thinking until it was too late. Before either of the guys knew it, the tabby had the red tailed hawk pinned against the wall with a paw on his throat. "What the heck was that?!" Chloe spat angrily, "You ditched us?!"

"I couldn't stay there! Ozone's gonna kill me after what I did!" Tiberius exclaimed. Padding over and pulling Chloe back, Buddy questioned, "What do you mean? What did you do?" Rubbing his shoulder nervously with his wing, the red tailed hawk kept his eyes down as he explained, "Look, so this is gonna sound weird but for once I actually woke up early today. Ya know, before Snowball caught us all."

"Right, what's that gotta do with our current situation?" Chloe hissed. Flinching slightly, Tiberius went on, "Well, I thought I'd go out for a quick morning flight around the neighborhood and so I did that. That's when I saw Ozone sleeping peacefully in this alley. And conveniently, I had a bucket on the roof of the nearby building there." Gasping, Buddy rasped, "You dropped a bucket on Ozone."

"Worse. I volunteered him for an ice bucket challenge. You see, it rained last night and it was a cold rain so..." Tiberius mumbled, his voice trailing off. Their jaws hanging, Chloe and Buddy stared at the hawk in eerie silence. Finally, Chloe broke that silence as she slapped Tiberius upside the head and shouted, "You're supposed to be the smartest out of everyone! This is something Mel would do! How stupid could you be?!"

"Hey, speaking of Mel, where is he? I thought he was with you guys," Tiberius pointed out. It was at this moment that Chloe and Buddy realized that Mel was missing from the group...