The Secret Life of Pets 3

Chapter 46

"I can't breathe, I can't breathe!" Max repeated to himself over and over again, laying on his back in the middle if the living room floor. Most of the other animals were off doing something else, like watching the TV or making sure Katie's grandma didn't find her glasses. Snowball seemed to be doing some kind of arts and crafts project in one corner, muttering to himself as he cut some red string. Daisy sat nearby, watching the white rabbit and handing him whatever he needed from scissors, tape, glue, papaer and a juice box. Only Duke and Rooster were watching Max.

"What should we do?" Duke asked Rooster, his gaze fixed on his brother. He had never seen Max have a panic attack on scales of this magnitude. The Jack Russell terrier was staring at the ceiling fan, trembling all over with his tail tucked between his legs and his eyes opened wide, the eyelids twitching uncontrollably. Furrowing his eyebrows together as he thought for a moment, Rooster got to his paws. "You stay here and make sure no one causes something to startle Max. I'm gonna talk with him, one on one." Watching as the Welsh sheepdog padded over to his brother, the Newfoundland mix was impressed at how calm he was about the situation. Staying put like he was told, he strained his head forward to listen.

Sitting down next to the panicky Max, Rooster looked down at him and asked, "You alright there partner?" His paws making weird jerky movements, the Jack Russell terrier looked up at the Welsh sheepdog. Finding his tongue somewhere in his mouth, he mumbled, "I think I'm gonna have a heart attack." Sighing quietly, the larger dog helped him up into a sitting position. "A little advice..." Rooster spoke softly, lifting Max's chin with his tail, "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly." Closing his eyes, the terrier did what the sheepdog told him too. It actually relieved a huge chunk of anxiety that was on his shoulders. He blinked his eyes open. Smiling, Rooster asked, "Now, did that help at all?"

"No it did not," Duke answered, having had done the same thing. Seeing the glares from both Max and Rooster, the mutt shuffled his paws as he mumbled, "Let me guess, you weren't talking to me." From where he had been watching from his perch on Mel's head, Sweetpea chirped. A nervous smile on his face, Duke lumbered off as he mumbled, "I'm going to stay quiet."

"Attention everyone! I have formulated the perfect plan to find Hu and Laohu!" Snowball shouted, hopping up onto the coffee table. Behind him, Daisy and Tiny held up his plan. String, tape and one weird looking drawing done in red and blue markers, the rabbit's plans looked more like a conspiracy theory plastered on poster paper. And it was quite obvious that no one could tell what was what. The bunny was still an abstract artist as he pointed to various spots of his plans. However, he was rambling so fast that the gang could only catch a few words, like 'tiger' and 'circus', along with whatever 'wham' meant in the rabbit's grand explanation. Smiling at the others, Snowball asked, "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Mel piped up, "Can you repeat all of that one more time? I wasn't listening." There was a chorus of groans that was interrupted by Tiny crying out, "Look!" The young dog was pointing over at the open window. Everyone followed his gaze.

Standing there with Hu and Laohu on either side of her, Gidget yipped, "Hi everyone!"