It was early morning at the Browns’ mansion at Snob Hill. The sun had only just started to rise above the horizon, but most of the citizens were still sleeping, bar one animal:

 

Tramp had only just started to wake up. He opened his eyes and noticed the early morning light through the open window. He now decided to wake up instead of sleeping for longer because he had a plan for the day. He looked around as he got up on all four paws and saw that all other dogs were still asleep. As he did so, he stretched both his front and back legs as quietly as possible and walked over to his son’s bed. Scamp, now as big as his father, was also fast asleep; but that would be cut short when Tramp nudged him lightly to wake him up.

 

“Scamp. Whirlwind, wake up.” He said softly.

 

“Mmmm…mmhhhhh,” Scamp groaned and sighed sleepily as he half opened his eyes. “Dad?”

 

“That’s your old man, son.” Tramp replied charmfully.

 

“Ohhh, what is it? Why are you waking me up so early? The sun isn’t even up yet.”

 

“Oh, it will be my boy. I just thought that you and I should spend the day together; get an early start.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Scamp,” Tramp sighed as he continued. “There are a lot of things that I think you should know. I should have told you when you were younger about my life on the streets, but I was too wrapped up in the family living. But I realize now that you might be interested in knowing about the Old Tramp. There are some places around town that I would like to show you.”

 

Scamp got up as he heard his father say this. Instead of looking up at him like he used to, he was now looking straight at him. Scamp had grown very fast since his puppy days.

 

Scamp looked both surprised and happy at his father’s idea.

 

“Really? A little father-son adventure?”

 

“I would love to relive some good memories…” Tramp replied with a light pause. “…with my son.”

 

“Hey, slick move!” Scamp responded in excitement. “Let’s go!”

 

“Sshhhhh! Not so loud.” Tramp shushed as he looked at his beautiful cocker spaniel mate, Lady; Angel, who was sleeping in a bed near Scamp’s; and his three daughters who were sleeping next to Lady. “We don’t want to wake them up.”

 

“Sorry, dad. Do they know?”

 

“Your mom does, and she’ll tell your sisters and Angel as well. Don’t worry about them for now; let’s do our business.”

 

“Alright, let’s go.”

 

So they both slipped out through the pet flap and then the gap under the gate around the house that Scamp had once escaped through; which had now been temporarily extended so that Tramp could also squeeze under. When they were both through, they walked away from Snob Hill and towards the southern districts of the town, where the history of Tramp’s street life was ready to be interpreted.  

 

*

 

Tramp took Scamp downtown, and after about ten minutes of walking though the town they eventually came to a small station near the railroad tracks. Opposite the station lay a large steel pipe underneath a water tower that was constantly dripping. This pipe was large enough for a dog to sleep in; and this was the sight where Tramp made his shelter when he was living collar-free.

 

“This is where I always used to sleep.” Tramp was saying to his son. “I would also take shelter here in the rain; and every morning the train would blow its whistle as it would be leaving the station; so it was a good wake up call for me?”

 

“Train whistle?” Scamp asked, slightly confused. “Didn’t it ever disturb you when you needed to sleep at night, or limit your sleeping times?”

 

“No, the train never ran late at night. It would always finish running just after the humans would be sound asleep, so there were no disturbing noises in the night. Plus I never liked sleeping in because there was always so much to do every day, and I feel that you never really live if you are not active enough, so it is important to keep the body moving.”

 

“I know that I like to keep my body moving.”

 

“Good to see that you are still active, whirlwind.”

 

They both chuckled lightly.

 

“This is what I did every morning right after waking up.” Tramp walked over to the small pool that had been created by the leaking water from the water tower, and took a drink from it. He then let himself under the dripping water and let himself get wet all over, before shaking it all off.

 

“Ahh, so that’s how you wake up every morning.” Scamp remarked with a smile.

 

“Splashing water on yourself just takes the sleep right out of you.” Tramp replied. “It kinda gives you the “kickstart of energy” that you need for the start of the day.”

 

“That also doesn’t seem like a bad way to take a bath, considering I used to think that there wasn’t.”

 

“It actually feels pretty good. Try it out for yourself.”

 

So Scamp did the same thing that his father did a moment ago: The drink, shower, then shake. Scamp seemed to like it, much better than a normal bath, so he was already reconsidering the better wash options.

“Boy, that is good. Slick move, dad!”

 

“Slick move, indeed.” Tramp replied, seemingly admiring his son’s favourite quote. “Come on, let’s continue.”

 

So they left the train station and headed through the town, eventually coming to one of the alleyways. This one in particular seemed both a fond and dangerous memory for Tramp.

 

“Ahhh,” Tramp began, thinking of that wonderful time in this alley. “This is the place where I first got to know your mother.”

 

“Here?” Scamp asked curiously. “How did you both end up in the same alleyway?”

 

“I was out eating my lunch near the town, when all of a sudden I heard some fierce barking from a gang of strays. They came into my sight and I spotted this small cocker spaniel being chased by a group of three mutts. I ran after them until they eventually cornered her in this very dead end. It looked like she was done for, but using my street wisdom I found a way around and jumped over the back of this fence to get in front of her in defense. The fight with the three mutts seemed tough, but I was stronger than any of them and was able to defend their attacks and hit them in the weak parts to slow their momentum. Knowing that they were too beaten up to fight back and that I had all the advantage, they retreated. I got scratched and a little banged up, but it was nothing serious.”

 

At this time Scamp was in both awe and shock, thinking about how his father could have taken on three vicious mutts by himself and not only survived, but won. My father really is the best there ever was! How was I supposed to know that I carried these genes all along?

 

“After they left,” Tramp continued. “I then turned to the cocker spaniel and noticed that she had had an awful muzzle put on her, which she didn’t have before when I met her for the first time.”

 

“How on earth did she get that?”

 

“She told me that Aunt Sarah had mistaken her for wrecking the house when it was those rascal Siamese cats of hers who had set Pigeon up; and therefore punished her by strapping that muzzle on her. It was a very selfish and cowardly thing to do.” Tramp scowled as he said this; because he despised Si and Am just as much as the whole family did. “Anyway, we took a trip to the zoo and somehow got a beaver to bite the strap and remove it from her face. He then used the muzzle as a sort of ‘log-puller’ to shift his wood. I suggested the idea to him to convince him to remove it.”

 

“Probably because he was so busy building his beaver dam that he couldn’t stop to chat.” Scamp responded with a seeming knowledge of certain animals. “That seems like a typical beaver to me.”

 

“Oh, you know it, whirlwind.” Tramp replied with a slight chuckle.

 

“But I had a feeling that there was something about Aunt Sarah that I didn’t like.” Scamp scowled. He always despised pretty much everything about Aunt Sarah from the moment he laid eyes on her from his birth, as well as her conceited attitude. “She seems just a typical cat-lover with some serious issues over us canines. She needs an attitude adjustment.”

 

“Maybe. But she has gotten better over time and learned to be more polite, so don’t go saying the wrong things with reference to earlier impressions, Scamp. Some humans just need time to learn.”

 

“Yeah, I suppose. I will try. You know that I will.”

 

Tramp just smiled lightly and then got onto the next topic of the tour.

 

“Come on, let’s continue.”

 

Tramp led Scamp to the street of high-class houses where he used to visit during each week. He explained that he saw each one of them one day a week and they would comfort and feed him.

 

“These people

1 2 3 4 5

Next page