and how scared Toby and Luna probably were…that he never noticed a different sound from above him.

Deep in the recesses of the cave, Toby and Luna heard an odd rumbling sound, accompanied by an abrupt end to the howling.  “What was that?” asked Luna.

Toby shrugged, rising from the floor.  He hadn’t realized up until now that he and Luna were huddling down smack up against each other.  Luna realized it at the same moment he did, and both of them blushed, awkwardly inching away from each other.  “I-I don’t know,” Toby stammered, “But it sounds like it’s gone now.  Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Luna nodded, and the two of them hurried to the exit.  “You know,” she remarked when they got there, “I don’t remember the snow being that high outside before.”

She was right.  Outside the cave there was a pile of snow.  It didn’t block the exit by any means, but it was easily as tall as Toby.  “Whatever was making that noise must have caused a small avalanche,” Toby deduced.

“You think it’s still around?” asked Luna.  She seemed to be somewhere between worrying that whoever or whatever it was might come back and hoping it would so she could teach it a lesson.

Toby climbed to the top of the pile and sat, staring in all directions.  “Don’t see anything,” he reported.

Luna came up and joined him, looking in every direction before satisfying herself that the coast was clear.  “It’s strange,” she remarked.  “For some reason I feel like there’s someone close by.”

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Pete thought with frustration from inside the pile.  He was paralyzed by the weight of the snow, but otherwise unhurt.  Although most of his body was deep in the pile, his head was just close enough to the surface that he could hear most of what they were saying…and he could feel that either Toby or Luna was sitting directly on top of his head.

All day it continued.  Toby and Luna went from place to place, with Pete silently stalking their every step.  Pete, who had eavesdropped as Toby made his plans the day before, had traps laid at every turn, but inevitably they would backfire.  By the end of the day he had fallen off of three roofs, gotten his head stuck in two buckets (one of which had previously been full of rotting garbage), and sat in a snow-covered pile of thorns planned for the canine couple to step in.  Toby and Luna, by some miracle, never knew he was there.

Toby could honestly say he had never enjoyed any day more in his life.  Sure, he made a few mistakes (mostly the results of Pete’s traps), but Luna never let them get under her skin.  In fact, she seemed to like it for some odd reason when he goofed up.

As for Luna, she was having the time of her life as well.  Toby was lots of fun, he took heed when she wanted to do something different from what he had in mind, and he was always so sorry when he made a mistake that Luna couldn’t have stayed mad at him for long even if she had wanted to.  When they watched the sunset from the top of a sand dune on the beach, she felt disappointed that their date was over so soon.  She was all too pleased when Toby suggested a moonlight stroll on the beach.  They walked along for quite a while before either of them spoke.

“I’m glad I agreed to this,” said Luna.

Toby smiled.  “I’m glad I asked you.”

‘Wait for it…’ thought Pete as he watched them move along the shoreline.

“You know, you look different in the moonlight,” Toby went on.

She tilted her head.  “How so?”

He gazed at her, noticing that she looked almost white under the full moon.  “Well, you look…slimmer, for one thing.”

‘Oh, she’ll look slimmer after this one,’ thought Pete.

Luna’s eyes narrowed and her voice grew sharp.  “Oh, so I look fat in the daytime?”

Toby froze and started to panic.  “What?  No, I meant…”

She burst out laughing.  “I’m kidding.”  There was a moment’s silence.  “So what else looks different?”

“Well, your fur looks…shiny.  I mean, it looks good in sunlight too, but right now it makes you look like you’re glowing.”

Luna shifted, half with embarrassment and half with pleasure.  “Go on,” she said.

Toby stared at her.  “And your eyes…gosh, your eyes…” he trailed off, completely at a loss for words.  He felt an overwhelming urge to kiss her, but held back.

‘Come on, come on,’ thought Pete.  The dogs were one step away from being exactly where he wanted them.

At that moment Luna’s stomach growled.  She looked down at it and let out a nervous laugh.  “Uh…”

“Uh-oh,” said Toby.  “We can’t have that.  Come on.  I’ve got supper all figured out.”

Both dogs took a step forward, and Pete sprang his trap.  He yanked on the end of a rope he had buried in the sand earlier, pulling a stretch of it tight around Toby’s feet.  Toby pitched to his left, sending Luna into the water with a tremendous splash.

Toby stared in amazement as Luna broke the surface.  With her fur plastered against her body, she looked like a drowned rat.  “Uh, here.”  Toby reached out his neck.  “Grab my collar.”

Luna took his collar in her teeth.  But instead of allowing him to help her get out, she braced her feet and pulled him headfirst into the water.  Toby came up sputtering for breath.  “What was that for?” he asked.

Luna answered with a wry grin.  “Well, two’s company, right?”

Toby grinned and lunged.  Soon the two of them were splashing and nipping at one another, making the surface white with foam.  Pete was hoping they would do something he could use as blackmail, but to his frustration, Toby practically treated Luna as a sister while they were in the water, and Luna behaved in kind.  When at last they emerged, Luna got out first and shook out her fur.  Toby followed suit…and succeeded in thoroughly saturating her all over again.  “Oops,” he chuckled nervously as he stared at her.

Luna just smiled, lifted a paw, and pushed him back in.

After they were done playing in the surf, Toby led Luna to the boiler room and told her to wait by the furnace while he went and got some things.  Ignoring the cold air on his wet fur, he went to his house and checked his food dish.  As usual, they had given him a portion of tonight’s dinner (Charlie insisted on giving him people food at least once a day since he was part of the family).  Tonight it was spaghetti and meatballs, still nice and hot.  ‘There’s a movie here somewhere,’ he thought to himself as he picked up the bowl and slipped out the door.

“Close your eyes, Luna,” he called to her as he approached the boiler room.  He set down the dish and peered in to see her with her eyes closed.  “Cover your nose, too,” he added.

Giggling, Luna placed a paw over her nose.  “You’d better not have something smelly,’ she warned in a nasal voice.

‘Hmm,’ Toby thought to himself.  ‘Maybe next time I’ll see if there’s any limburger in the ice box.’  He laughed and brought in the pasta.  He quickly pushed an overturned crate into place to serve as a table.  Setting down the dish of spaghetti on the table he announced, “Hope you like Italian.”

Luna opened her eyes and looked at the food.  “Toby, how did you get this?” she asked in confusion.

Toby grinned.  “If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he joked.  He didn’t want to let on that he was giving up half his dinner, or she’d refuse to eat a bite.  “Go ahead,” he urged.  “Ladies first.”

“Age before beauty,” she replied.  “Your birthday is two days before mine.”

Toby pushed the plate toward her.  “I insist.”

“Same time?”

“Deal.”

Both dogs positioned their heads over the dish, ready to dig in.  Although neither of them admitted it, both of them found it a little strange to have their faces that close together.  A nice strange, but still strange.  “On the count of three,” said Toby.  “One, two…”

From his hiding place, Pete made his move.  Stomping a paw on a loose floorboard, he shook the makeshift table sitting on the other end.  It was no major earthquake, but it was enough to make the bowl jump at the two dogs, spreading pasta and sauce all over their faces.

There was a moment’s silence as they stared at one another.  Impulsively, Toby began to clean the food off of Luna’s face.  It took him a good ten seconds to realize how he was doing it.  With a start, he yanked his tongue back into his mouth and stared at Luna.  Luna’s face was beet red, and Toby could feel that his was the same color.  It wasn’t the tomato sauce.

“L-Luna, I…I…” Toby tried to come up with something to say, but no words were coming out.  But Luna just smiled and returned the favor.  Toby thanked his lucky stars that no one was watching as he and Luna proceeded to clean each other’s faces and finish their dinner, unaware of their stalker.

Pete grumbled to himself in frustration as he watched them enjoy themselves.  Nothing worked.  He had tried every trick he had up his fur and nothing had worked.  Those two just wouldn’t break up!  He slipped out the door in plain sight, too tired to care if they knew what he’d been doing.  But they didn’t see him at all.  They were too busy staring at each other.

“Come on,” said Toby at