The Runaway Adventures

Chapter 8:Busted!

Angel and Scamp awoke the next day to find a cloudless blue sky and a shining sun. When Scamp opened his eyes, he looked at his surroundings. He was still out on the streets, and nobody was there but Angel and himself! He cheered, "Hee-hee-hee! They haven't found us yet!"

"Good job, tenderfoot!" Angel giggled, also overjoyed that she was undiscovered. "Now it's time to find a family!"

They walked out of their garbage can and at once Angel moved to a lamppost at the corner of the street. She began to watch the cars and pedestrians pass by. She stared at each car and pedestrian that moved with puppy eyes and a persistently wagging tail. "Somebody will come to adopt me!" Angel declared happily.

"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 while waiting for their new owner. They started by continuing to play with their ball that they found last night. Then Scamp tried to improve his street trick technique but to no avail, and Angel corrected him with some teasing affection. After a while, the two of them were getting hungry again.

"How about let's find some food?" Scamp asked Angel.

"Okay then," Angel told Scamp, preoccupied. The two of them went to grab some hot dogs at a hot dog stand for lunch. The salesperson was giving a hot dog to a young boy. Angel was excited. "Maybe he'll take us in!" Angel excitedly said.

She instantly rubbed against the little kid, who began laughing. Meanwhile, Scamp jumped up and grabbed a pair of hotdogs standing at the edge of the stand.

"Cute puppy!" the kid declared.

"Willy, time to go home now," came a voice.

"Oh! Buh-bye!" the boy told Angel, and he rushed back to his mother towards the car. Angel tried to follow him, but as the car drove away, her ears wilted in disappointment.

"Psst... Angel, I got the hot dogs," Scamp whispered. "Let's get out of here."

"Oh, all right," Angel told Scamp sadly. "But I was so close."

"Cheer up," Scamp told Angel. "We'll find someone else."

Angel smiled at Scamp, feeling happier. They returned to standing on the street corner to look for an owner, and began eating hot dogs. "Tenderfoot, I guess you were right," Angel told Scamp. "That mother probably was too strict. We're gonna find a family that will not enforce dumb rules and go to bad shows like yours." Scamp happily nodded his tail in agreement.

But the afternoon turned out to be no better than the morning. The drivers and pedestrians passing by hardly gave any attention or thought to Angel, no matter how cute her puppy eyes or wagging tail were. She became less and less enthusiastic as the day wore on with no success.

Discouraged, Angel told Scamp, "Come on tenderfoot... let's go," and they walked further and further into town. As dusk fell, the two of them found themselves in a part of town that even Angel never saw before. The street was dark, and was filled with plenty of tall buildings. On a couple of signs, Scamp read the word, "Hotels".

"These are the places where these snobby dog showers go to stay," Scamp groaned.

"At least we're far away from your parents," Angel told Scamp fervently.

The two of them rounded another corner, and there, they noticed a familiar sight.

"Oh no, it's Buster!" Scamp groaned as Angel gasped.

Buster, Scamp and Angel's old gang leader, was clearly and unmistakably there. He was looking malicious and very satisfied about something. Accompanying him was a small white puppy with black spots and a patch on his eye. This puppy looked up at Buster adoringly and with great excitement. Two other puppies, also white with black spots followed, but less enthusiastically. All three of them were wearing collars.