It was the remains of Mrs. Winters’ favorite pillow, and it bore a distinct scent of wolf cub.

He scanned the rest of the room, surveying the damage.  A small table holding a porcelain figure of a deer had been knocked over, and the deer itself had been reduced to powder.  A large chunk had been taken out of the couch, and Charlie’s old crutches (fortunately no longer needed) were covered with tooth marks.

He started toward the couch, hoping to sniff out Loki, but Mrs. Winters seized him by the collar and dragged him toward the front door.  “Oh, no you don’t!” she snapped.  “You’ve done enough damage as it is!  Bad, bad dog!”  And with that she threw him out the door and slammed it behind him.

Toby tried to re-enter by the pet flap, but apparently Mrs. Winters had anticipated such a move and placed a chair up against it.  Toby growled.  ‘When I get my paws on that kid…’

“What’s wrong, mom?” asked Charlie, dashing into the room just as Mrs. Winters slammed the door.

“What’s wrong is that that dog of yours destroyed the living room last night.”

“What?”  Charlie was aghast.  “But Toby would never…”

“Oh, he did.  See for yourself.”  She picked up one of the scraps of pillow.  “This was a wedding present, and that beast ripped it to shreds.”

Charlie shook his head.  “Toby would never do anything like that.  I know him.  He’s no mad dog!”

“Well unless you think there’s a wolf or something sneaking into the house at night, I’d say all the facts point to that mutt of yours.”

“Toby’s not a bad dog!” Charlie insisted, stomping out the door.  He flung himself down on the steps next to Toby and sulked.  Then he slowly patted his dog on the head.  “It’s okay, boy.  I know you better than that.”

Toby whined appreciatively.  ‘At least someone around here believes me,’ he thought.  He stood up and scratched at the door.

“No, Toby.  Mom says no.”  When Toby continued to scratch, Charlie opened the door a crack.  “Mom, Toby wants to come back inside.”

“Not on your life, buster!  That dog is not coming through that door until he’s ready to shape up!”

Charlie thought for a moment and grinned.  “Come on, Toby.”  He lead him around behind the house, where a stack of wood was piled high against the back wall.  “Come on, boy,” he urged, scaling the logs and reaching his bedroom window.  “Mom said you wouldn’t be coming through that door, but she didn’t say anything about the window.”

Toby climbed up and Charlie lifted him through the window.  “Now stay in here and don’t make any noise,” the boy instructed as he closed the window and climbed back down the pile.

He needn’t have worried.  As soon as Toby’s paws touched the floor, the dog began to sniff madly.  “Okay, Loki,” he growled.  “I know you’re in here, so come on out.”

Whimpering, Loki crawled out from under the bed with his tail between his legs.

“Loki, you are in sooo much trouble.”

“What’d I do?”

“What did you do?” Toby repeated, convinced he was hearing wrong.  “You destroyed the living room, got me thrown out, AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU DID?!”

Loki whimpered.  “I didn’t mean to destroy the house.  It just…happened.”

“What is the matter with you?  You’re nothing but a little monster, that’s what you are.  Now listen, I want you to go back under the bed, and don’t you DARE come out until I…”

He was cut off by an odd gurgling sound.  “What was that?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Well, tough.  You can just go without food for a while.  I can’t show my face downstairs.”

Loki nodded and crawled under the bed, but as his stomach growled louder and louder, he began to whine.

“Oh, all right,” Toby caved in.  I’ll try to sneak into the kitchen and get some food, but if you move, you won’t get a bite.”

Loki nodded, and Toby crept out the door.  He snuck downstairs and into the kitchen.  Mrs. Winters was still busy cleaning the living room, and Toby seized his chance to run over to his bowl and grab a mouthful of dog food.

“Toby!” yelled Mrs. Winters.  “How did you…rrgh.”  She stomped over and snatched up the dog.  “I don’t know how you got back in, but when I say out, I mean OUT!”  With that, she heaved him out the door and into the snow.

“Toby!  Are you all right?”

Toby turned and groaned.  “Hi, Luna.”

“What happened?  I saw you get thrown out.”

Toby filled her in on the morning’s events.  Luna shook her head in disbelief.  “Whoa.  So he’s getting you blamed for his trouble?”

“Yeah.  I never should have let him badger me into going downstairs to get him some food.”

“Let me give it a try,” offered Luna.

“No, that kid needs to learn his lesson.  Maybe a little hunger will do the trick.  It’s not like he’ll starve or anything.”

Regardless, Luna stomped determinedly up to the door.  After several headbutts, she managed to open the pet flap.  But no sooner had she entered than Toby heard yelling from inside.  A moment later, Luna found herself thrown out as well.  “Sheesh,” she muttered, dusting herself off.  “What a grump.”

“I hope the kid starves,” muttered Toby under his breath.

            After about a week of Loki’s antics, Toby was at the end of his patience.  Every morning it was the same routine: Toby would wake up to discover Loki’s latest rampage, take the blame, and get thrown out of the house before he could have his breakfast.  And as if the nightly demolition derbies weren’t bad enough, the pup refused to paper train.  Naturally, Toby always got blamed for that too.  But the worst was still to come.

            One morning, Toby awoke to an inexplicable silence.  There were no screams from downstairs, no angry Mrs. Winters coming after him with a broom, and no quiet snores from under the bed.  At first he was relieved, but as his brain slowly shifted into daytime mode, he started to wonder what was going on.  He sniffed under the bed.  No sign of the wolf cub, but there was a scent there he recognized…

‘Pete?’  Then his eyes grew wide with panic as he made the connection.  “Loki!”

Fueled by terror, Toby followed his nose downstairs, out the door, and through the streets.  Personally he would have liked nothing better than to see the kid disappear, but not like this.  “I swear,” he muttered to himself, “If that punk did anything to Loki, I’ll…”

“Toby?” asked Luna, running up to him.  “What’s going on?”

“Loki’s in trouble.  Pete and his gang kidnapped him…or worse.”

“Oh no,” gasped Luna.  “I'm coming with you.”

“Thanks.  I could use the backup.”

After what felt like eons, the scent led them to a door.  “Butcher,” Luna read, looking up at the sign.

Toby sniffed at the base of the door.  “Pete was here,” he announced.  Further investigation revealed that Loki’s scent was around the mail slot.  “Pete, what have you done now?”

He didn’t have long to wait.  Right at that moment the butcher came along to open up shop.  No sooner had the man entered the shop than three things came out.  The first was an outraged yell from the butcher.  The second was Loki, running as fast as his little legs would go.  The third was the butcher, chasing after the wolf cub with a knife.  “You thieving little beast!  Come back here!  I’ll teach you to break into my shop!”

Without sparing a thought for all the trouble Loki had given him, Toby dashed after them with Luna right behind him.  Neither of them saw several dogs slip into the shop through the open door.

“Look!” Loki yelled over his shoulder at the butcher.  “I didn’t break into your shop!  I was framed, I swear!”

Ignorant of the cub’s plaintive yips, the butcher pulled back his arm.  Something hit Loki in the side mere moments before the knife struck the snow where he had been.  “Don’t you know they can’t hear us?”

“Toby?” asked Loki.  “What are you doing here?”

“Just the usual.  Sniffing out gangs, running from maniacs with knives, saving pesky-“ he stopped.  “Never mind that last one.  Are you okay?”

“I’ll live.”

“Pete and the Goon Platoon snuck in last night and nabbed you, right?”

“Yeah.  How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess.  Anything else?”

“Yeah, they said they were going to use me as a decoy or something.  I think right now they’re raiding the butcher’s shop.”

Toby’s eyes flashed.  “Why those dirty little…”

“Ow!  That’s my neck!”

“Oh, sorry,” said Toby, unclenching his teeth.

Loki was strangely silent and inactive all day, but later that night he crawled up onto the bed and nudged Toby awake.  “What is it?” asked Toby groggily.

“I just wanted to say…thanks again for what you did today.  I can’t believe you saved my life after I’d been so rotten to you.”

Toby shrugged.  “Well, I try not to hold a grudge.  My dad always says, ‘Toby, if you’re going to go out for revenge, you’d better dig two graves.’”

“What does that mean?” wondered Loki.

“It means that when you try to get even, you usually hurt yourself more than the other person.  That’s why I always try not to hold a grudge.  But I have to admit, you made it really hard to hold onto that resolution sometimes.”

Loki hung his head.  “I know.  I wish I could take it all back and make it like it never happened.”

Toby patted him on the head.  “Well, if you’ll promise not to tear apart the living room anymore, and try to go on the paper from now on, I promise not to yell at you anymore.”

“It’s a deal.”

Toby smiled, enjoying the prospect of a future free of