Chapter 4
FOUR
This was Rufus’s first party. He did not like it.
Noisy in here. Too many strangers.
He stayed close to Nice Lady as more people came into the room. He licked his lips and shifted his weight on his paws.
A few people stopped and tried to pet him. He shrank back against Nice Lady’s leg. No touch. Rufus not trust.
“Sorry. He’s come a long way already, but he’s still a little skittish of people.” Nice Lady put a hand on his head and rubbed one of his soundflaps. “You’re okay, buddy.”
Rufus wagged his sweeper a little bit because he liked the way Nice Lady talked to him.
He sniffed the air some more. Yummy smells came from the food room.
Old Lady was in there. Rufus liked her. Sometimes she gave Rufus treats when he did something that made her face crinkle.
The smells were so good he left Nice Lady and crept along the wall to the food room. Ohhh, the smells. Yisss.
Old Lady was in the food room talking to Nice Lady’s fren with the crazy hair. They didn’t notice him at first. Rufus did a mlem with his taster and paused near the tall table in the middle of the room to sniff.
Oh boy, meats! So. Much. Meats.
He knew just how to get some. Rufus smart.
He stood in front of Old Lady.
She stopped talking when she noticed him. “Rufus, what are you doing in here?”
Rufus sat politely and stared at her, soundflaps up. Showing his best manners. Then he lifted a paw, because humans liked that.
Old Lady’s face crinkled. “Oh, you smart, handsome thing. I know you’re manipulating me, but I don’t even care. Here.”
Oh, boy! Rufus wagged his sweeper, tried very hard to sit still when he saw her take a treat in her hand.
Meeaaats! Yiss…
“Nicely, now,” she warned.
Rufus wanted to snatch the meats in his teefs and run to another room so no one could take it from him. But then the fuzzy gray caterpillars above Old Lady’s peepers would slant down, and she would say Rufus was bad.
So he did not snatch the meats. But he wiggled as she brought it close to his snoot while his sniffer quivered.
Old Lady laughed. “Look at him. Shameless.” She held it out close to his sniffer. “Gently.”
Dis very hard for Rufus. He opened his teefs a little bit. Stuck his taster through them. His chops trembled as he took the meats. He glanced up at Old Lady to make sure he was doing it nicely.
Her face crinkled more, and the gray caterpillars did not move. “What a good boy.”
Rufus slurped it down and licked his chops. Aww, yiss. Meats delishus.
“Here, buddy. But don’t tell your mom,” Nice Lady’s crazy hair fren said, and held something out for him in her fingers.
He sniffed. Oh, boy! Cheeeese.
He lunged for it.
“Ah-ah,” she scolded and pulled her hand back.
Rufus froze. his soundflaps drooped. Rufus ashamed.
“Nicely. No snake strikes.”
Rufus huffed out a breath and stared at the cheese. He loved cheese. Almost as much as meats. He booped her leg with his snoot. Give Rufus. He lifted his paw.
She laughed. “Okay. Here.”
His chops quivered as he took it gently from her hand.
“Ohh, good boy, Rufee.”
Rufus gulped it down, wagged his sweeper on the floor.
Crazy Hair Lady laughed. “You didn’t even taste it.”
Rufus sat up tall. Lifted his other paw and looked back and forth between them. Because humans liked that too.
“Oh no, that’s enough,” Old Lady said. “Go on. You go back to your mom now before you get us in trouble and you get the runs.”
Runs? His soundflaps deployed. Rufus loved to run. He looked at the door. Go now? Too loud inside, too many humans.
The ladies started talking, not paying attention to him anymore.
He eyed the top of the tall table on the way by. So many meats up there still.
He started past it slowly. Stopped next to it and looked back at the ladies. They were still ignoring him.
The smell of the meats made Rufus forget all his good manners.
He jumped up on his hind feets and snatched the closest thing he could reach.
Oh, boy, meats with a bone in it!
What a day. He loved parties now.
He trotted out of the food room with his prize clamped between his teefs.
“Rufus!” Old Lady said.
His soundflaps went back as he sped up. No! Dis Rufus’s bone!
His feets scrambled on the floor as he ran. Rufus had to hide before someone caught him and took meats bone away.
He darted under a chair at the far end of the table. Kept bone in his teefs and watched the doorway.
Nice Man came in.
“Rufus, what do you have in your mouth?” Nice Man bent down to look at him under the chair. Reached for meats bone.
Rufus growled. Get own treat! Dis Rufus’s meats bone.
“No. Out,” Nice Man said in a low, stern voice.
Rufus stopped growling but didn’t let go. He glared at Nice Man. No.
“Hey, Will, can I get a hand over here? I can’t get it out of his mouth.” Nice Man said louder.
Rufus tried to tug bone free. Nice Man did not give it.
Nice Lady came in and crouched down to look at him under the chair. “Rufus, you can’t have that. You’ll hurt your teeth and your tummy.” She took the end of the bone from Nice Man. “Out,” she told Rufus.
Rufus curled one of his chops. Just a tiny bit, because he loved Nice Lady.
“Ah-ah,” she scolded sharply.
Rufus dipped his but did not let go. He did not like it when Nice Lady used that tone with him.
“Rufus. Out.” She pulled and twisted on meats bone.
No!
Rufus gave her the puppy eyes and looked up at her with his peepers. Puppy eyes always work on lady humans.
“No. Out.” She yanked the meats bone from his teefs.
Rufus grumbled and laid his chin on the floor with a huff as Nice Lady got up and walked away with his prize and Nice Man. He heaved a sad sigh.
Bye bye, meats bone. Probly best bone ever.
No fair. Nice Lady never let Rufus keep the bones he found. Not here. Not at beach. Dis meats bone juicy and delishus. One at beach had no meats, was dry and cronchy.
Rufus would still have eaten it if Nice Lady had let him though.
He stayed under the chair and pouted while human feets went back and forth in the doorway.
“Don’t mind the boots, I gave them a good wipe before I came back in,” a voice Rufus recognized said.
He lifted his head and thumped the end of his sweeper on the floor as two feets walked by wearing colors Rufus could see.
Rufus knew those feets.
They belonged to the person who had knocked Bad Man down on the road and left him there.