pulled it quickly into place, dragging some of the sawdust down with it. Angel coughed on the powdered pine until Lily clamped a paw over her mouth to silence her as the door to the room above unlocked.

Over their heads, the butcher stepped in with a frown on his face. Armed with a lantern in one hand and a cleaver in the other, he surveyed the room ready to rid himself of whatever had made the noise.

“Back away from the vent,” hissed Max. Everyone did so, wary lest the man should look down. “Everybody got their chow, right?”

Everyone nodded except Angel. “I forgot my bone,” she admitted.

Buck groaned. “Didn't I tell ya?” he asked. “I knew this was gonna...”

“Shut up,” hissed Max as the butcher let out a cold, “Ah-ha.”

The dogs crouched in silence, aware that he must have discovered Angel's leftovers. “So, something's been getting in,” he grumbled. “I'll have to fix it up, I guess. Can't have wild animals ruining my meat.” And he set about searching for anything with signs of damage, leaving the dogs no choice but to slink out from under the building as silently as they could.

“Nice one, Angel,” grumbled Buck. “You tipped him off, and now...”

“Stuff it, ya mutt,” Max cut him off. “She made a rookie mistake. It's not like we told her not to leave any evidence. Besides, if you had kept your big trap full of meat instead of gas, we wouldn't have had to bail anyway.”

“But why?” asked Angel. “We're not doing anything bad, are we?”

“No, of course not,” explained Max. “But he doesn't know that. Humans are kinda narrow that way. They think we dogs are just stupid animals.”

“So he thought we were stealing?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Max. “But we aren't, so don't worry. As long as he doesn't figure out how we got in, we'll be just fine. We'll go about our business, and let him go about... uh, I mean make it easier for him to go about his.”

This answer placated Angel, and she nodded. “Okay,” she said. “But I've gotta go. My folks'll be wondering where I am.”

“Okay,” said Max. “See ya around, pup.”

As Angel trotted off, the pack stared after her before turning to their business. “How much longer are we gonna keep her in the dark about all this?” asked Buck.

“As long as we have to,” Max replied. “At this rate it's just a matter of time before old Bones gets wise and blocks the place off, and then we'll need someone like her for real.”

Everyone nodded.

Angel climbed through the pet flap and was greeted by Balthasar, who raised his head and yawned expressively. “Angel's home,” he called.

“Oh, good,” said Luna, coming out of the kitchen. “I was starting to wonder what was taking her so long.”

Angel shook what she could of the snow out of her fur and toddled over to the hearth to melt off the more stubborn clumps that still hung on, like frozen cockleburs. “I was just with Lily and some of her friends,” she replied.

Luna sat down, then sank to a lying down position. “Angel, I can appreciate you wanting to play with your friends,” she said, “But when you're out with them, I'd like you to be home on time. Your father and I...”

A startled yelp sounded from the upstairs. This was followed after a moment by rapidly escalating laughter, and then either Caspar or Balthasar called down, “Mom, get a load of this!”

Luna sighed. “Hold on a minute,” she called. Speaking to Angel once again, she finished, “It's not that it's exactly wrong, but your father was here earlier and he likes to know where you'll be in case something happens. And so do I.”

“Sure, Mom,” said Angel, who was becoming more and more practiced at insincerity. “I'll remember.”

“Good,” said Luna. Then she turned and made her way quickly up the stairs. Angel followed, eager to see what all the fuss was about.

When they reached the upstairs hall, they saw the three boy pups rolling on the ground in hysterics outside an open door. Luna raised an eyebrow and proceeded, with Star trundling at her heels. “What's so funny?” the matriarch inquired.

Melchior (who if not for the uncontrolled laughter would have looked like he was having a seizure) giggled, “Get a look at Star!”

They did, and what they saw froze them both like two deer caught in headlights. There, on the nightstand, was Star, her face an absolute mess. Her brown fur was now covered with cream a shade darker than Connie's skin, mottled with other substances ranging from bright pink to jet black. And where normally it lay fairly flat on her body, now around the edges of her face the longer fur stood out in spikes like a hedgehog's. She stood there like some parrot in the window of a pet shop, perched on the nightstand while her brothers laughed.

Angel keeled over and began laughing like her brothers, guffawing until tears rolled down her face and her sides felt as if they were about to split like an overstuffed pillow. Through her laughter, she could hear Luna ask, “What were you thinking?”

The answer came, “I wanted to look pretty.”

“Pretty?!” giggled Angel. “You look like a paint set threw up on you!”

The boy pups laughed even harder at this insult, but a shout of, “That's enough!” from Luna snapped them out of it. Before they knew quite what was happening, she had the four of them on their feet and scampering down the hall. They didn't stop until they reached the ground floor, and there they sat, panting for breath after the hasty flight from their mother's anger.

It was only a matter of seconds for one of the boys to start giggling. Another joined, and soon they were rolling on the floor all over again. “What a dope!” chortled Angel.

“Yeah,” added Mel. “She looked like she jumped in a mud puddle!”

They carried on like this until all of them suddenly became aware that Luna was standing over them with the air of an eagle perched above a warren of rabbits.

“Listen,” she said through clenched teeth. “As funny as you may find it, I want this business of laughing at Star to stop right now.”

Nobody answered.

“Your sister is up there right now crying because she heard all of you laughing at her when I went to bring her back downstairs. So all four of you, go up there and apologize to her.”

“But Mom,” pleaded Angel, “She looked so...”

Luna gave her the look all mothers have that seems to express an infinite range of words in just a few lines of facial creasing. Words like, “Watch it, kiddo, you're already in hot water,” or, “Say another word and you'll be on a straight diet of broccoli till July.” Angel wisely closed her mouth, and as a unit she and her brothers headed up the stairs. What, she wondered, was their mom's problem anyway? So they laughed. Couldn't she see how flat-out funny it was? Parents. Who could figure them out?

They found Star under Connie's bed, hunched up in a shaking ball of misery. “We're sorry,” Caspar said quietly.

“Yeah,” agreed Balthasar. “Real sorry.”

The two of them might have been speaking for themselves and their brother, but Angel's heart, regrettably, was far from contrite. “If there's anything we can do to make up for it,” she offered teasingly.

“Angel!” her brothers all turned to her with foreheads wrinkled and lips drawn back.

Angel shrank from the withering looks and, for a moment, really did feel guilty. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

Star looked out at all of them. “Why did you laugh at me?” she asked weakly.

Melchior smirked just a little at the memory, and his face started to twitch. “Well,” he snerked, “It was kind of funny, the way you...” he stopped, withering under looks from the other two, and as the lines from Star's eyes brightened with fresh grief, the humor left him entirely. “Sorry,” he admitted, tail lowered and ears drooping down the sides of his head. “It may have been funny, but it was wrong to laugh. At you. Really.”

Star wiped her face with a paw, sniffled, and forced a smile. “It's okay,” she said quietly.

Angel did feel sorry for a while, as most youngsters do when caught and reprimanded. In most cases, being forced to face the consequences of her actions and make restitution would have solidified the matter. Sadly, this was not to be. By dinnertime, she had completely blotted out the guilt by privately thinking how silly, how downright stupid, Star had looked in the makeup. So it was to her good fortune, and Star's ill fortune, that at supper the boy pups and Arrow finished quickly. So while Luna was in another part of the house, Angel sauntered over to Star, who invariably ate quite slowly.

“You really did look kind of goofy wearing that stuff,” she said in a sisterly tone. “Why'd you do that?”

“I don't want to talk about it,” Star replied.

“No, really,” Angel persisted. “Why would you smear stuff like that on your face? I mean I know humans do it; they do a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense. But why would you?”

Star