Cherry's Adventures of Rover Dangerfield

chapter 9

Rover was a bit of a mess when he first woke up. Connie woke up early, already dressed so she could get going with the ones who wanted to go with her. Patch woke up next as he started to stretch. Cherry was asleep on her back, so she snored kind of loudly.

"Come on, Cherry, time to wake up..." Atticus gently shook his best friend awake.

Cherry punched him in the face before her hand twitched. "OW!"

"Come on, time to wake up." Atticus smiled.

Cherry groaned and sat up. "I was having a nice dream for once."

"Ooh." Atticus smiled.

"Shut up..." Cherry glowered as she then went to the bathroom to freshen up and get ready for the road trip.

Connie was in the kitchen and was cooking up a steak to give to Rover before she would leave.

"Mm." Patch smiled as he smelled a steak.

"Pass the tuna..." Maisy said sleepily with a sleep mask on.

"Maisy, why do you have a sleep mask on?" Ellie May asked.

Maisy removed her sleep mask with narrowed eyes. "So I can sleep?"

"Ohh." Ellie May smiled.

Maisy rolled her eyes. "Puppies..."

"Kittens." Colette sighed.

Maisy hissed to that.

Darla came into the kitchen and yawned. "Why do we have to leave so early?"

"Sorry, sweetie, but don't worry, you can sleep on the way there." Connie promised.

"Yay!" Darla smiled. "I still can't believe how thoughtful Atlas was as he agreed to be here with Atticus and Rocky to watch over the pets while we're away."

"Yeah, he's a real sweetheart." Connie smiled about that.

"You seem to like him a lot more than Rocky." Darla smiled.

"Oh, I don't know about that..." Connie replied. "If only you knew the Rocky that I knew."

'If only YOU knew the Rocky WE knew...' Patch firmly thought to himself in response about Connie's comment about her current boyfriend.

"Well I guess he's not that bad." Darla said.

Rover stumbled as he woke up.

"You okay, Rover?" Colette asked in worry. "You must be shook up from what we saw last night."

"Yeah, I think so." Rover said.

"Don't worry, Atticus will be right here if Rocky tries anything." Colette soothed maternally, despite being younger than the hound dog.

"Thanks." Rover said.

Colette smiled comfortingly.

"Rover, honey, wake up now," Connie called gently. "We're leaving now. We're going on the road."

"Yep." Darla smiled.

"The road?" Rover asked.

"Here's a nice piece of steak from Joe the Cook." Connie bent down with a smile and pet her dog.

Rover sniffed the steak and actually winced in disgust. Patch looked like he wanted to eat the steak. Rover pushed the steak over to Patch. Patch smiled thankfully and then started to eat the steak since Rover didn't seem to want it.

"Why didn't you want the steak?" Colette asked.

"I'm not hungry." Rover moaned slightly.

"Oh, okay." Ellie May said.