Manson chimney as squeals of delight roared inside. Rosie and her family accepted this new puppy with open arms. Currently, the time was 9:58, and Rosie was waving a small ball in front of the pup as her parents and Jenna watched and laughed. Jenna heard a scratching on the dog-door and immediately jumped out of her basket and rushed over to the flap. She flipped it up and smiled pleasantly when she saw a scruffy tan and brown hybrid walk through. She nuzzled him tenderly and breathed in his musky scent and sighed happily.

“And here I thought you weren’t going to make it back in time,” Jenna chuckled.

“Well you should know by now that I’m full of surprises,” Balto said, winking.

Jenna’s smile widened and she playfully swatted at Balto, laughing. He grinned back at her and headed towards the pet flap once more, looking over his shoulder at her and motioning to her.

“Well, aren’t cha coming? We’re all headed to the boiler room, and we have Morris on cue for when the clock strikes Twelve. It’ll be a blast.”

Jenna glanced at Rosie for a tick, “But what about Rosie. I’m sure she’d like to have me too.”

“But I think her parents could distract her well enough,” he laughed.

“Yeah, I guess your right,” Jenna said before she remembered something,” Oh! But what about Becca?”

Balto cocked his head to the side, “Becca? The name doesn’t ring any bells.”

“Well, I guess it shouldn’t, we actually just met a few nights ago. Becca, can you come here?”

Balto noticed for the pup for the first time. She pranced over and stood closely to Jenna, eying Balto in a curious manner.

“Becca, this is Balto, my most lovely mate,” Jenna winked and caught a glimpse of Balto turning a slight shade of pink and he rubbed his head with a paw.

“Well, I wouldn’t really use lovely as a word to describe me,” he whispered with a smile.

“Oooh, so you’re Balto. I heard so much about you,” Becca said politely.

“Is that a good or bad thing, Jen?” Balto chuckled.

“Do you even have to ask?” she nuzzled him once more, “But shall we get going?”

He nuzzled her back and opened the pet flap and grinned.

“After you.”

Jenna left first, followed by Becca, and lastly came Balto, who quickly sped up besides her as they walked down the street toward the boiler room. They could hear that there was quite a bustle inside before they even reached the door. They pushed it opened and a wave of sound and heat hit them.

“Aye! Is about time you were arriving! I almost give up!” called a voice they recognized all too well.

A snow goose waddled up to Jenna, Balto and Becca, honking as he did so.

“Well, I can say I certainly wasn’t expecting you to show up here Boris.”

“You think I give you moment of piece? Ha!”

Becca hid behind Jenna’s hind leg and looked up at Boris. Jenna saw her and smiled sweetly.

“Oh don’t worry about him, he doesn’t bite. He’s just good at barking.”

“Honking, not barking.”

“Don’t forget nagging, he’s awfully good at that too,” Balto chimed in.

“Always last vord vith you! Is no use vith you.”

Becca cautiously padded away from Jenna and began to sniff Boris, which he didn’t mind in the least.

“Do not be vorried. Balto is only one who suffers wrath of me,” he smiled warmly, “you can be calling me Uncle Boris.”

She returned the gesture and looked around this room. There was the main boiler of course that was placed against one wall, and there was a large stack of barrels besides it. The opposite side of the room had boxes underneath a second level. She became preoccupied and wandered away from her small group. Balto, Jenna, and Boris didn’t even notice as they started to rove around. They spied a blanket laid out that had beef jerky spread across it. Jenna looked at the dog behind the blanket. She seemed rather pudgy, and she had droopy, big ears.

“I see you swiped the jerky Dipsy.”

“Yep, and old Gunderson didn’t see a thing. But you best get it before I start getting hungry,” her stomach growled and she stared down at the jerky.

Balto smirked and picked up a few pieces in his mouth. He turned one of them so it pointed straight out. Jenna saw him wink at her, and she got the idea. He kissed her softly while also exchanging the meat.

“Aw, what a pretty picture!” sang a voice.

Jenna held the jerky in her mouth as she saw her parents pad towards them. Her mother glanced at her father.

“Do you always have to be such a softy?” Duchess asked.

“Well someone has to,” Ritchie replied casually.

“And unfortunately that someone is you.”

Ritchie stuck his tongue out at her and laughed. Duchess rolled her eyes and placed a paw to her forehead.

“I apologize for his behavior. I promised myself I wouldn’t bring him back into the public again, and now I know why.”

Jenna giggled at her parents antics and crossed her front paws.

“Aw, c’mon, you’re both embarrassing me,” she said in the whiniest voice she could muster.

“Well Honey, it’s not that hard to do, sorry to say,” Ritchie chuckled quietly before Duchess playfully smacked his head.

Ritchie fell to the floor and covered his head with his paws. “Ow! Ow! My self-esteem! She’s abusing it!” he cried out.

“Vhat a ham,” Boris started before looking at Duchess, “ I vish you the best of luck, you vill be needing it.”

Duchess failed at hiding a smile. Ritchie stood up and dusted himself off before he eyed Boris and rose an eyebrow.

“Joining her side, Bernard? I see. This means wahr.”

Duchess hit him in the head again, but this time it wasn’t so fake. Ritchie rubbed the spot where she had struck and received the message.

“Ahem, so, what have you been up to Jenna? Anything exciting to share?” Ritchie asked, trying to start a conversation.

“Well, actually yes. The other night I heard a scratching on the door, and that’s when I met this little pup named Becca.”

“Huh, strange,” said Duchess, “the same exact thing happened to us a few nights ago too. Only his name was Seth, speaking of which, where’d the little guy go to?”

She looked around them and saw no sign of Seth. Jenna and Balto did the same, but they couldn’t find Becca either. Ritchie had spied Doc wandering around the edge of the room, and figured that he to clear up some things.

“I’ll be right back, just going to have a word with a dog,” Ritchie muttered to Duchess before he walked to Doc.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Meanwhile, Becca had sat down gazing out of a high window at the cloudless night sky. The stars twinkled every so delicately and really made her think about some of the things that had gone on, but she was quickly taken out of her little world when a familiar paw touched her shoulder. She turned around to see Seth staring at her.

“What do you want?”

“I want our mom and dad back. I want to snuggle in our nice warm basket, to hear their voices. But that’s not going to happen…” Seth sighed unhappily as he looked down at his paws.

“Oh cheer up, things will get better, especially since we have Uncle Greg to watch over us,” she said, patting him on the back.

“Ch, he sent us off to live with other’s the first time he got the chance.”

“Don’t say that. He said that we were really important to him, and that he was only allowing us to get out and see the world.”

He looked at Becca distastefully and frowned, “But what about Stevan? He kept that good-for-nothing, and sent us packing. I’m twice the dog he could ever hope to be. I should have been the one who stayed to learn from him.”

Becca’s voice faltered and she fell silent. Seth started to walk away from her quietly, but it was her this time that put a paw on his shoulder.

“Don’t walk away angry. It only makes things worse.”

He shrugged her paw away and continued.

“I’d love to stay and talk, but I have my new mom and dad, and they’re probably worried.”

She wanted to stop him, but she really didn’t know how. They all had to grow up so fast in so short of time, and she wasn’t ready for it. Sure, they didn’t have to fend for themselves, but they had to cope with the fact that they’d never see their parents again. She whimpered quietly as she turned her head back up towards the heavens.

“If you’re watching, please help us to get through. And please, can you watch Seth? I’m started to get worried about him,” she whispered as the stars glimmered through the high windows.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Ritchie pushed his way through the crowd of furs until he reached a St. Bernard. Currently he was talking with a smaller scruffier dog.

“Now Mel, you can’t believe everything you hear. Do you honestly believe I would let something like this happen under my watchful eye?” Doc said.

“But now there’s lost dog posters plastered around everywhere. And there were shouts a few mornings before. I heard them!” Mel looked around cautiously and started to gnaw on his toenails, “What if we have some psychotic nut job running around and, you know? It could be anyone! We don’t even know who it was that was taken out, they must have been hidden really good!”

“Or perhaps they just went missing, and it was the owners shouting. Really now Mel, anything could have happened.”

“Well, maybe you could be right. But I heard it from Sylvia and Dixie, so we should be extra careful.”

“Please don’t worry, everything’ll be taken-”

“Excuse me, but can I speak with you,” Ritchie cut in.

“Alright,” Doc began as Ritchie led him away from the crowd, “but you do realize it’s rude to interrupt.”

“And it’s polite to lie to everyone?”

Doc paused for a moment before he spoke, “… It is if you’re protecting them. Normally I wouldn’t condone such a thing, but this isn’t exactly a normal circumstance.

“But what happens if everyone finds out Doc? What’ll happen then? It’ll just cause a bigger panic then it would cause now. I’m usually a fun-lovin’ dog, but I can’t do that when I’m debating whether I should look over my shoulder just to make sure I can

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