Lady and the Tramp 3: Angel’s Adventure

“Lady and the Tramp,” and “Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp’s Adventure” and all related characters, logos and elements are © Disney Inc.

Angel, Star and select characters, and storylines are © Alexa “Fido” J./Fido! Studios

            “Junkyard dogs rule this town!”  Buster cried atop the broken car.

            The old thing lay on the peak on one of many garbage piles in the junkyard.  Buster and his gang had been here for some time, calling the place their own.

            He stared at the reeking kingdom with pride.

            Buster could see beyond the junkyard fence, into the town streets.  House dogs on polished leashes were passing by the yard and staring at the scruffy mutts with disgust.  They lowered their ears at the sound of their shrill howls.

            Through a large pipe, Buster saw a dark-gold dog, the tips of his ears flopped, approach.  He was as scruffy and dirty as the rest and once he entered the junkyard, he immediately rolled around in the dirt.

            On his back, Star was approached by the Rottweiler-doberman mutt, his great shadow looming over him.

            “Do you mind, Buster?  You’re blocking my light,” Star said.

            “I almost can’t believe it’s you,” Buster said.

            “Aww, why’s that?”  Star said innocently.

            “You never stop by anymore, always off with that girla yours.”

            “Hey, watch it.  I happen to be in love with ‘that girl.’”

            “Yeah, sure you are.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”  Star challenged, rolling over on his stomach, still keeping his eyes locked with Buster’s.  The larger mutt just smiled down at him.

            “You’ve been in love before, Romeo.  This girl’s no different.”

            “Yeah, well, for the time being I like her company.”

            “She’s stealing you away from us, you should stop by more often.  You and I could run this place like we used to,” Buster said, walking away.

            The other junkyard dogs barked at Star in greeting as he walked through the rotting aisles.

            “You’re just lonely, since The Tramp left,” Star teased.

            Buster’s face hardened.  His huge teeth gleamed.

            “That back-stabber can do whateva he wants; he left all this for some girl!  Don’t do the same.”

            “Well, that won’t happen to me, Buster, old buddy, remember?  Angie’s a stray like me.”

            “She ain’t no stray, she can barely take care of herself, always calling on you.”

            “Relax, Bust, she’s not taking me anywhere,” Star reassured.

            He wasn’t an official member of the junkyard dogs, anyway.  There was a time, when he was younger, when it used to just be him, Buster and The Tramp.  A trio of extremely saavy strays, just doing whatever they felt like doing.

            They earned themselves a heck of a reputation: invisible to dog catchers, impossible to catch.

            But, as word of the trio spread, others wanted to join them, be like them.  The Tramp and Star weren’t too keen on having other tag along, but Buster liked the power that came with running a pack.

            Nowadays, Buster was left with his gang—Ruby, Mooch, Scratchy, Sparky, and Francois—and Star and The Tramp usually went off to do their own thing.  The Tramp was never seen after that, though news of him spread fast (it was hard to tell which stories were rumors and which were true to most dogs, but Buster and Star always knew).  Star, on the other hand, stopped by the junkyard every now and then, just for old time’s sake.

            Though he didn’t go to the junkyard often, he was almost seen as seldomly as The Tramp these days, after meeting “that girl.”

            In this case, “that girl” was Angela—a stray just like him, who lived on her own.  Though she was born into the life of a stray, she was still pretty naive when it came to street smarts.  Just for the heck of it, Star decided to teach her a thing or two when he first met her; he wasn’t planning on falling in love with her.

            Just like with The Tramp, Buster was starting to get jealous.  Their former friend had been hanging around more with a pretty little cocker spaniel named Lady.  It was disgusting, it went against everything the original trio believed in; she was a prissy little house pet and he used to be best street dog around.

            Star had originally felt as disgusted as Buster about Tramp’s decision, but then he fell for Angela and he thought he was starting to understand how Tramp to could abandon everything he once believed.  Star would do anything for Angela.

            One winter night, Star went to go meet Angela in one of the alleys were they first met.  It had been awhile since he’d last seen her.  When he arrived, she was nowhere in sight.

            “Angela?”

            He walked slowly through the dark alley, keeping his senses alert.

            He heard a soft whimper from under a flight of stairs.  Cautiously, he walked towards them.  He found Angela laying under the stairs, terrified.

            Her back was to him and she turned her head with teary eyes.

            “Angela?  What’s wrong?”  He said.  “Come out from under there.”

            She whimpered and did not move.

            Another whimper was heard, but it wasn’t Angela’s.

            Star’s eyes grew s wide as hers.  He quickly jumped through the stairs and came to her side, looked over her, down at her belly.  Nuzzling her side where five tiny, newborn puppies—2 girls and 3 boys.

            Instinctively, Star did not nuzzle his mate, but backed away a few steps.  His ears and tail hung low.

            “Star…help,” she said, obviously worried sick.

            He looked at the worried mother.  He wasn’t ready to be a father, he barely wanted to be a mate.  He was used to looking out for himself.  He looked at her face again, she was shivering, but not from the cold.  She was obviously frightened.

            He couldn’t leave her, not now.

            “Okay…,” he said, gulping and trying to calm his nerves.  “It’s okay,” he repeated.

            He sat next to his mate, nuzzled her.  She started to cry again.

            Star sat there, not thinking about the pups, but weighing his options.  Killing them was out of the question.  But could he abandon them?  It wasn’t fair that Angela didn’t tell him sooner in the