Cherry and Atticus Go West

chapter 9

They then went to see Wylie Burp again and the sun was slowly coming up.

Wylie stood up once they came and after an introduction, he took a look at Tiger. "So you're the frivolous feline I've got to whip into shape? I've got my work cut out for me."

"I don't have to listen to this," Tiger scoffed in return. "I am a god!"

"Doesn't eat mice." Atticus said.

Tiger glanced at him for that.

"Fetch, dog." Wylie took out a stick and threw it, not going after it like a traditional dog would since he was the one who threw it.

"Moi?" Tiger smirked poshly.

Wylie glared at him, snarling aggressively to make him move.

"You better do it." Atticus said.

Tiger was frightened of Wylie's 'jaws of death' and walked casually over to collect the bone. Fievel laughed at Tiger's attempt, he found it very silly. Tiger picked up the bone, gave it a small sniff, and handed it over.

"No, no, all wrong." Wylie shook his head.

"Should I show Tiger how it's done, sir?" Atticus asked the dog.

Wylie gave Atticus a strange look since he was a mouse. "Um..."

"Trust me, Atticus knows a lot about dogs." Cherry agreed, knowing where this was going.

"Well... All right," Wylie allowed him to, he then took the bone from Tiger's paws and threw it. "Fetch!"

Atticus started to run off after the bone like dog so he could try to catch it with his mouth. Fievel, Cherry, Wylie, and Tiger watched as Atticus fetched the bone the correct way and bring it back to Wylie the correct way, which surprised Tiger, Wylie, and Fievel.

"Thank you..." Wylie gave a small smile to Atticus once he took the bone back. "Ya see how it's done, pussycat?"

"So what did I do wrong?" Tiger took the bone then. "You want me to hold it in my mouth and dribble all over it?" he then salivated over the bone, mocking how messy dogs could be.

"You wanna act like a dog, you gotta think like a dog 'til you smell like a dog." Wylie coached.

"Yeah." Atticus nodded.

"No self-respecting dog fetches anything, unless he's good and feels like it," Wylie continued, coming behind the cat. "You wanna intimidate someone, give 'em the la-a-zy eye."

"Aw, gee, I'm afraid to ask..." Tiger got nervous. "Okay, what's the la-a-zy eye?"

Wylie then turned him around and forced their eyes to meet so he could demonstrate. "The la-a-zy eye!"

"Whoa!" Tiger jumped back, a little scared and surprised from that.

"Yikes." Atticus said.

Tiger then gave the lazy eye a try for himself.

"That's interesting." Atticus said.

"I guess..." Cherry shrugged, but the eye popping disgusted her slightly.

"Okay, now that is disturbing." Atticus said.

They moved on to a high height. Cherry remained calm since there was enough space to go around without dropping.

"Now, lemme see you walk." Wylie instructed.

Tiger tried to walk, which was of course wrong.

"You're wiggling like a French poodle," Wylie stopped him. "Get down on all fours and get a snoot full of Mother Earth."

"Yeah." Atticus said.

"Yuck! That goes against my grain." Tiger shuddered.

"Come on, Tiger, do it for Miss Kitty." Atticus said.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." Fievel sighed about Tiger's training.

"You have no idea." Atticus said.

"Mmm..." Cherry slowly shut her eyes. "Time for a training montage."

"Yep, seems like that time." Atticus said.

"Training montage?" Fievel asked.

"You'll see." Cherry and Atticus told him.

"Um, okay?" Fievel said, confused.

And so Wylie's training to Tiger began. They were now in an abandoned mine shaft and Wylie and Atticus started training Tiger on how to bark like a dog. And where it took a while for him to start barking like a dog. He even started to snarl and put it into better use. Wylie then shook paws with Fievel because of how well this was going for everybody now.

"This is going better than I thought." Atticus said.

They were then taken to a horse stable and Tiger was now doing warm-ups to exercise himself to take on the cats.

'Wow.' Atticus thought to himself.

The sit-ups did not go as well as the pull-ups, but they would improve. Tiger was now running across wooden buckets like tires in the Rocky movie series.

After that came lasso training.

"Too bad Applejack's not here, I'm sure she could give him some pointers." Cherry spoke up.

"Yeah." Atticus nodded.

Tiger ended up losing control of the lasso and ended up tying himself up in a ropey mess. This made Fievel laugh however. Tiger was now beating up a cat dummy.

"This is going rather well." Fievel said.

Tiger even karate chopped the hat off and ran over with a pitchfork, stabbing the dummy and making it fly up with feathers.

"Oh, yes, quite." Cherry agreed.

Wylie and Fievel shook their heads. That was rather over the top.

Tiger was now using a slingshot with great ease and put it away in his new belt like a professional cowboy.

'I think he's almost ready.' Atticus thought to himself.

Wylie picked up a newspaper and threw it.

Tiger panted like an excited dog and chased after the paper. He caught it in his mouth and then scratched behind his ear with his right hind leg. Fievel still laughed at Tiger acting like a dog, first he's a cat that doesn't chase or eat mice and now he's a cat who acts more like a dog.

"He's almost there, he needs a new look though." Cherry suggested.

"Yeah." Atticus added.

Wylie gave a look to the new and improved Tiger. "You got a point there, little lady..." he then moved Tiger's muzzle, stretched out his ears and made them floppy and gave Tiger a collar that read 'Fido' on it.

Fievel, Atticus, and Cherry climbed down in front of Tiger and they all gave a salute to Wylie. Wylie saluted them back and now they were ready to take on the cats and foil their mouse burger plan.

"Time to foil an evil cat's plan." Atticus said.

"Come." Wylie told the young mice.

They all trudged out through the sand like true cowboys to make it to the evil cats and stop them. Cherry, Atticus, and Fievel had to take more steps since Wylie and Tiger were much bigger than them and they needed to catch up.