if you don’t mind.”

“Oh,” whispered the dog with a chuckle.  “Planning a surprise for him, huh?”

 Luna thought carefully before answering.  “You might say that.”

“Okay, I’ll leave you alone.”  And the dog left, much to Luna’s relief.

‘Now where did Toby go?’ she wondered, scanning the crowd of people and dogs.  There was no sign of him.  ‘He must have slipped away,’ she thought.  She considered going to the granary anyway, but decided against it.  ‘If I went there, he might catch me and wonder what I was doing there,’ she reasoned.  ‘Besides, this whole thing is a waste of time.  Toby wouldn’t do anything sneaky- at least not to me.’  And she walked away, hoping that she was right.

Meanwhile, Toby was just a short distance from the granary when he heard noises coming from an alley.  Peering in, he saw an older male dog cornering a grayish husky only slightly younger than Toby himself.  “Come on,” the female whimpered plaintively.  “I just wanna…”

“No!” growled the big dog.  “And if you say another word, I'll...”

“Hey!” barked Toby.  “Leave her alone, mutt!”

 The other dog turned an angry gaze on Toby.  “Don’t butt in, junior,” he growled.  “This is between me and her.”  He turned back to the female and bared his teeth.  “Now then…”

Toby lunged and caught the older dog by the back of the neck.  The dog twisted around and tried to bite Toby in the flank, but the younger dog outmaneuvered him and gave a violent jerk, trying to throw his opponent off-balance.  The two grappled for several minutes and exchanged several heavy blows before Toby managed to throw the older dog into the street.  He braced himself in anticipation of a counterattack, but the dog just picked himself up, looked at him, and snorted.  “Fine,” he growled, walking away.  “She’s all yours.”

Toby looked after the older dog in confusion for a moment, then turned his attention to the female.  “You okay?” he asked, panting.

 She nodded.  “Yeah, thanks.”  She frowned.  “That guy has problems, seriously.  I just wanted to talk, and…”

“Don’t let it worry you,” Toby consoled her.  “You’ll be fine now.  I’m Toby.”

“Violet,” she replied, stepping forward.  “Thanks for the save, Toby.  You were great.”

Toby nodded.   “Well, if you’re alright then I guess I should be going.”

She giggled.  “What’s the hurry?” she asked.  “Don’t you want to talk a bit?”  In response to Toby’s confused expression, she continued, “See, I’m new in town.  My house is the green one just a block from here on Blizzard Street.  I was hoping to find a friend here…” she trailed off, giving him a look which he interpreted as hoping he could help find her friend.

“Anyone in particular?” he inquired.

“Oh, just someone tough and brave and gentlemanly,” she said in a tone that reminded Toby of how Luna had talked several times since they became mates.

“Oh, I see.”  Toby gulped.  There was no denying that Violet was very attractive.  “Listen, Violet, I…”

He didn’t get a chance to finish.  Instead, he found himself mouth-to-mouth with the strange female.

From across the street, Phoebe and Haley watched with interested disapproval.  “Well,” said Phoebe, “We’ve got him dead to rights now.”

Haley shook her head.  “Luna’s not gonna be happy about this,” she said in a low voice.

As they walked away, Phoebe remarked, “It’s kinda hard to believe.  I mean, Toby always seemed so honest.”

“It’s the quiet ones you have to worry about,” replied Haley.

Luna stared at her sisters.  “Did you two hit your heads or something?” she demanded.

“We’re telling you, sis, we saw the whole thing!” insisted Phoebe.  “He chased off another dog who was bothering her, and then they talked, and then they kissed!”

“And it wasn’t even the same dog he was visiting at the bakery,” added Haley.  “He’s double-two-timing you.”

“Yeah, he’s…” Phoebe stopped and seemed to be thinking hard.  Luna resisted an urge to warn her not to strain herself, and finally Phoebe blurted out, “Triple-timing you!”

Luna scowled.  “You’re crazy, you know that?” she asked as her fur started to rise.  At the moment she looked pretty close to crazy herself, but her sisters wisely decided not to say so.  “Both of you are just plain crazy.  You can’t even handle simple math, and you’re trying to tell me that Toby’s cheating on me?  Even for gossips like you, that’s beyond stupid.”

Phoebe blinked, surprised at Luna’s harsh tone and vicious posture.  “But we saw…”

“You saw what you wanted to see!” snapped Luna.  “Now I want you out.”

Haley tried to calm Luna down.  “Now, Luna, I know you feel hurt, but…”

“The only ones hurting me right now are you two with your giant mouths and empty heads!” Luna shouted.  “Now both of you just get lost before I do something we’ll all regret!”

Phoebe looked to Haley for direction.  “Come one, Phoebe,” advised Haley.  “We’d better give her so time to calm down.”

Luna snatched up her dog dish in her teeth and flung it, managing to deliver a hard blow to Haley as she left.  “Better give me plenty of time!” she shouted.  She watched as the pet flap swung closed and the dog dish landed on the floor, breaking in two.  With a snort, Luna stomped over to the rug by the fire and threw herself down.  ‘Why won’t they just leave me alone?’ she wondered.  ‘What do they know?’

But where her sisters were wearing away at her before, now even her own thoughts gave her no peace.  ‘Maybe they weren’t just seeing things,’ said a nagging voice in her mind.  ‘Maybe Toby really is…’ she shook her head.  ‘No, he wouldn’t.  Not Toby, and definitely not this soon.  Heck, we’ve only been mates for two weeks.’  But as she went on arguing with herself, her trust started to slip.

‘I’ll follow him again tomorrow,’ she decided.  ‘This time I’ll find out for sure.’

As planned, Luna trailed Toby all the way to the granary the following afternoon.  Hoping to avoid being seen, she slipped into a crowd of dogs nearby and watched as Toby approached a sandy-colored female dog outside the granary.

“Toby!” the dog barked.  “Thanks for showing up!  I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to get here!”

‘She’s excited,’ noted Luna, ‘but that’s no crime.  I’m usually excited to see him too.’  But the rising suspicion in her mind argued, ‘You have a reason.  What’s hers?’

“Yeah, I’m here,” replied Toby.  “I told you I’d come.  Now let’s get up there and I’ll show you how it’s done.”

The girl laughed a little.  “Did you make that rhyme up yourself?”

Toby shrugged.  “No, it just came out.  I’ll have to remember it the next time I drop by Luna’s.”

Luna’s heart sank as Toby followed the female into the building.  Still, there might be a logical explanation.  Maybe she was a friend of his, just like he’d said.  But what had Toby meant by, “Show you how it’s done?”  With a sickening sense of distrust, she followed them inside.  She got there just in time to hear the door upstairs close.

Soon after, strange noises emitted from the closed door.  She could hear running, as if Toby were chasing the female around.  “You’re getting better at this,” he said at one point.

‘No, it’s not possible…’ Luna thought.  But those sounds and more talking kept coming until finally Luna left in despair and disgust.  It looked like her sisters had been right after all.

‘I gave him everything,’ she thought.  ‘I gave him my love, my support, myself… and he went and threw it away.’  Love had been a challenge sometimes, and support wasn’t always that easy either.  But most of the time they had been pleasant to give, and the last had never been anything but a joy up until now.  But now she felt as if she had taken everything she had and thrown it to a pig. 

After about an hour, Toby nodded to Terra.  “I’d better get going,” he said.

“Thanks, Toby,” she said with a smile.  “I think I’m getting the hang of this.”

“Good,” Toby grinned.  “I’m going to go see Luna again.  She’s been acting kind of strange the last couple of days.  I think somebody might have seen us around here and told her about it.”

“Uh-oh,” remarked Terra.

Toby nodded.  “You know, maybe I should just tell her…”

“No!” insisted Terra.  “You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“Oh, alright,” groaned Toby, although it killed him to keep a secret from Luna, especially now.

“OK, see you,” called Terra as Toby nosed the door open and left.

As Toby exited the building he ran smack into the unwelcome face of Pete.  “Toby,” chuckled Pete, as if they were old buddies.  “How’s it going?”

“Until now, just fine,” Toby muttered.

“So, I hear you’re a bad boy now, huh?” asked Pete.

“Bad boy?” asked Toby.  “What does that mean?”

“You and what’s-her-name up there,” replied Pete with a nasty grin.  “You’re giving Luna the runaround, aren’t ya?”

Toby growled.  “No, I’m not,” he snapped.  “I wouldn’t even think of doing that to her, and you know it.  I’m just helping someone learn to… do her job, that’s all.”

“Well,” replied Pete offhandedly, “you might want to tell her that.”

Toby’s eyes widened.  “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked testily.

“Well, not that I really care, but I saw Luna running out of here about an hour ago.  It looked like she might even be crying.”

“Oh, good Lord, no,” gasped Toby.  Without any further thought about his urge to rearrange his brother, he ran off toward Luna’s house.

“If she ditches you, tell