User blog:InklingBear/Life of Pets - Cage Fright

Story #8 - Cage Fright
 10:30am 

It's a rather typical Thursday morning down in good ol' Royal Woods. Clear skies all around, with mild and humid weather to befall the residential areas. It was bound to be a wonderful day today, down in the Loud House.

In the living room, Rita and Lynn Sr. both talked to each other, starting up an important topic about taking the pets down somewhere this afternoon, that is until the mother of the household checked the time from her cell phone that informed her that they had an hour to get to the place.

"My gosh, we need to hurry up and get Charles and Cliff in the van," Rita stated to her husband. "We've got less than sixty minutes to go before they decide to cancel our appointment and it's about a thirty minute drive to the place!"

"You're right, honey," Lynn Sr. answered back. "You go get the pet cages ready, I'll take care of those mangy animals!"

"How are you gonna do that?" Rita asked before she toned her voice down, in case the pets were around, which they weren't at the very moment. "For all we know, they could see through our little ruse."

The husband tried to calm her wife down. "Don't be ridiculous, hun! They probably won't understand what we intend on doing unless you tell them! And besides, it's not like they're gonna get some shots done or anything like that."

Upstairs in Lincoln tight room was Charles, acting as lazy as ever as he snoozed on his furry back with his salivating tongue sticking out. He wagged his tail in excitement as he dreamed about prancing through a field of bacon, and lots of it. As he was about to munch on some of the greasy pig meat, Cliff grabbed hold of his head and shook him down, waking him up from the dream.

"Dog! Did ya hear?" Cliff panicked before Charles stared into his eyes, curious about his news as he retracted his tongue back into his mouth.

"What is it, cat? I've got some pork meat ta dream about!" Charles answered.

Cliff braved himself as he laid these exact words into the dog's head. "Those humans are gonna take us to the place where they poke us with those sharp, pointy needles!"

The white canine jumped in fear. "Don't play like that, cat!"

"Who said I was playin'?!" The cat retaliated as the dog started gulping down his own saliva.

"Aw rats! I never thought this day would come!" Charles said, placing his paws on his head as he softly shook in fear. "We're gettin' shots?!"

Cliff mimicked the canine's motions, trembling down as his heart slowly dropped. "I'm scared, dog..."

Charles walked over to the fearful cat before he petted him softly on the back. "Me too cat... me too!"

They decided to grab ahold of each other's backs, shaking together in fear for a brief period before they both turned to each other for a plan.

"What are we gonna do?" Cliff asked as Charles brainstormed of a plan. Turns out, he only had one option.

"I've got an idea!" The dog exclaimed, before he bolted out of Lincoln's tight bedroom much to Cliff's surprised reaction.

"Hey! Where ya goin'?!" he frantically questioned.

"No time! Split up!" The dog yelled back as he went to hide in Luan and Luna's bedroom before sounds of creaking stairs emitted loud enough for the feline to hear. He had to do something to not be visible at any cost. He looked around the room, desperate for a good place to hide away from. With no choice, he had to settle with hiding under the pre-teen's bed.

The cat crouched down as low as he could go, and scooched under the furniture before Lynn Sr. entered the bedroom with a glazed doughnut held ever so tightly in the palm of his hand, whistling for the two pets.

"Charles, here boy!" he said as he patted his pants down. He got no response back from the canine. "We've got fifty two minutes left to go and we cannot be late for this appointment!"

Seconds of dead silence befelled the black feline and the father figure before he thoroughly looked around the room for the dog. He checked behind Lincoln's door, his dresser before he finally got to checking his bed. He got down on his fours as he lifted the covers of his bed to find a terrified Cliff, meowing as he scratched his face in morbid fear before he too bolted out of the bedroom, leaving poor Lynn Sr. with small scars on his face as he yelped in pain.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed before exiting the boy's claustrophobic bedroom. "Dang it, Cliff! No more treats for you for a little while!"

Charles looked all around the room for a good spot to hide away from the father figure of eleven children. "C'mon think, where can I hide?" he asked himself.

He settled with hiding in a corner next to Luan's dresser, hoping it wouldn't get him discovered. But, he was completely out in the open from that point. He figured he would need to input some ingenuity for his next suggestion.

The white canine thought to himself. "I wonder if I could fit in here..."

He opened up one of the drawers of Luan's dresser, only to become startled by one of the trickster's snake gags as they sprung out into the air, causing the poor dog to fall on his rear end. The canine grew anxious as he barely had any time remaining to sit and wonder what just happened as there were sounds of footsteps approaching down the hallway. He hopped inside the storage compartment and slid it closed without a problem to show.

Lynn Sr. stuck his head into the room, whistling for the canine to come to him to no avail. "Here Charles!" he said, yet again. There was no response. Charles was determined to not get caught by the man. He hadn't made a single noise the minute the father figure set foot into the bedroom. His nose caught a scent of a half eaten doughnut Lynn Sr. had on him as it pressured him into giving in, but he wasn't gonna let one of his favorite things to snack on give away his hiding place, up until his stomach growled out of nowhere emitting sounds that were identical to a bear's low growl, so much for timing. Now he was starving.

In a strange sort of way, Lynn Sr. slightly jumped, thinking there is a monster hiding inside the bedroom. "What was that...?" he quivered as he looked around for anything unusual.

"Get ahold of yourself. It's only my imagination. Probably nothing to be worried about..." But, there was something. It was the sound of Charles' rumbling stomach that sounds of a mother ursine. As it lasted for more than a single second, the continuous sound sent the man running back out of the room and descended down the flight of stairs.

"Aah! Honey, help!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

As the sound of footsteps seemed to have died down, Charles came out of the drawer compartment as he wiped off his forehead in sweet relief. "Whoa. I'm surprised that my hunger seemed to have scared 'em off their socks."

Back downstairs on the first floor, Lynn Sr. came running to his wife in the kitchen as he trembled in shock. Rita took note of his sudden change in action and curiosity ensued.

"Honey, what's the matter?" she asked. "Where's the cat and the dog?"

"So far, I can't find them!" he answered. "I have a eerie feeling that there might be something scary in Luna and Luan's room!"

"Oh please! I highly doubt there's anything horrifying in their room."

Charles descended down the stairs with Cliff following him close behind as they both looked for another spot to hide in the living room now. They didn't have much time to react as they just had to go with their first suggestion that popped up inside their heads. The two animals decided to press their luck as they settled with hiding behind a sofa and a chair as her husband retaliated and grabbed ahold of her hand. "Honey c'mon! I'll show you what I'm talking about so you won't think I'm a liar!"

"But, we've got forty two minutes left! I'm pretty sure this isn't more important than..." she couldn't finish the rest of her sentence as the father of the house dragged her upstairs to look in the bedroom.

The second the animals were in the clear for now, they emerged from their hiding spots and started up a conversation.

"If I remember this correctly, the humans have around eleven minutes before they have ta leave for that nightmare of a ride." Charles said, in a rather quiet tone.

"Huh. The length of an episode segment." Cliff concernedly replied. "What are we gonna do, dog? Just hide from those humans for the remainder of the time?"

The canine softly sighed as they would have to keep the scheme going. "It would appear so, cat." he answered. "Unless you have a better idea or somethin' like that. Cause I ain't givin' in, lettin' those vets poke me with those... things!"

"Yeah, dog. It's like gettin' stung by bees." Cliff gulped. "...but the only difference is that it lasts for just a second or two."

Charles grunted. "I hate those bugs."

"Yeah, who doesn't?" Cliff added before a good, potential idea came running to his feline mind.

He gasped as it grabbed the attention of Charles. "I think I've got it!"

"Same here." Charles rebutted. "I believe I know what we're gonna be doin' now. No more hidin' around like weak little punks. We're facin' em."

Cliff sat there in small silence before he dropped his idea now. "Actually, your ideas' a bit better than mine."

Upstairs in Luan and Luna's room, Rita and Lynn Sr. still discussed about a noise the husband heard that made him run out of the room.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing those kids have in here that we need to be scared of." Rita assured, up until she realized there are some candidates. "Well... except maybe Lucy and some of Lisa's experiments."

"And I'm telling you that I did hear a growl coming from this room! I'm thinking a bear or something got in this house somehow!" the husband retaliated as Rita stood there silently, thinking that sound could belong to one of the pets they have.

"Well, don't you think that might have been Charles?"

Lynn Sr. hesitated for a few seconds as it slowly started to come to him. "You know what? You may be right." He laughed. "Silly me. For once, I've never actually heard a growl like that before."

Rita chuckled. "When have I ever been wrong?"

"Never, honey. Now we've wasted a bit of time from me worrying about a similar noise but I assure you we're gonna find those animals and make it to the vet on time. Now, let's get the cages. I have a idea, that i'm not sure if it's gonna work."

 Three Minutes Later 

Charles and Cliff crept to the entrance of Luan and Luna's room. A few seconds later, the two pets glanced towards each other with a good wink before the dog threw his growls into the room to scare off the parents of the household with little to no success.

Seconds go by with no reaction whatsoever before he decided to peek his canine head inside the bedroom as Cliff threw a hissing voice in the room, also to no avail.

"Cat, they're not here!" Charles uttered.

"Huh?" Cliff responded before he walked inside the room alongside Charles. "What do ya mean they're not in here?"

The two pets looked all over the interior of said room for a brief period of time before the dog answered back. "I mean, they're nowhere ta be found."

Silence took place for a good few seconds or so before the cat broke it. "Where do you think they've coulda gone?" he asked. "This is gettin' real strange."

Charles squinted his eyes. "Indeed."

After looking around the interior once more, scents of food emerged from downstairs, crossing paths with the pets' black noses. They reacted as the stench entered their nostrils, thinking that this happened to be another trick the parents were plotting without any hints given to the two.

Charles slightly grew irritated as he sighed. "Again with the temptin', huh..?"

"Somethin's definitely cookin' down there." Cliff added as the thought of chowing down food had them drooling. "I smell what they're doin' now."

Charles deciphered the scent down, his face growing determined after each second. "Bacon."

Cliff got a different scent mixed with the former scent. "...And salmon."

Back downstairs was the father figure, cooking up some food in hopes to lure the pets down into the kitchen to eat. Meanwhile, Rita set up a trap for the pets to encounter.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Rita asked in curiosity.

"Trust me with this, honey." Lynn Sr. reassured. "Those pets can never seem to resist these babies!"

"Let's sure hope so..."

"Believe me, it will!"

Back upstairs, the pets were still being tempted with the food getting cooked in the kitchen. The scents filled up half of the hallway now as their stomachs started growling even more.

"Ohhh, I can't take this!" Charles said. "I gotta eat somethin'!"

"That salmon does smell promisin'..." Cliff added in response before the two decided to give in and get their hunger under control.

The dog was the first to walk down the flight of stairs again, followed by the cat closely behind. By the time they got to the carpet of the first floor, they noticed a sudden change they clearly weren't aware of earlier in the day. They discovered a floral print curtain the parents decided to set up in front of the open doorway, leading into the dining room of the Loud House.

The animals were understandably confused from this point onwards, as they had never seen this before. The parents on the other side of the wide open doorway took note of their little steps approaching the curtain and booted up a conversation as if they weren't trying to make this sound like another ruse they were up to.

"Don't you think this looks a little... bright?" Rita asked her husband.

"I don't think so, but it could use a couple more flowers to make it look less bland than it is now." Lynn Sr. confidently answered.

Rita sighed as to what could have been. "Maybe you're right. I could've gotten a better design actually worth the fifteen dollars I spent on this."

The pets back in the living room glanced at each other as they shrugged in confusion, but they had a date with the bacon and salmon to get to. The two walked simultaneously under the curtains which unfortunately led them right into their cages.

This was it for the parents as they were still unaware of what their real intent was. They both went towards the pet cages and closed them both in.

"Aha! Gotcha!" the parents exclaimed in unison. The pets came to a shock as they were done for now, completely falling victim to their trap.

Charles and Cliff dropped their ears now as they came to a conclusion they have been bested by humans. The dog whined to them to let him out as the cat meowed in infuriation.

"Calm down you two! It's only a simple checkup to make sure you pets are in good health!"

Charles and Cliff calmed their attitude as they heard the man's statement.

"Well, I can't believe that worked." Rita said in surprise.

"To be honest with you honey, me either," Lynn Sr. responded. "Now that we have only..."

He checked the clock for the time before he realized that they had less than half an hour to get to the vet. "Aah! We gotta go now, there's twenty five minutes left!"

"We might be late! Our only chance of luck is if the traffic isn't high!" Rita responded.

The father lifted up Charles' cage and headed for the front door. "Hurry up and grab Cliff's cage and get in the van!"

 Twenty Two Minutes Later

They arrived at the vet with only a few minutes left to spare. One of the vets were waiting for them right outside of the door as the couple raced towards the building with the pet cages as the canine and the feline were in subtle despair.

"Here we are, miss." Lynn Sr. said.

"Yes, you sure are." the vet said in a positive remark. "Come along so we can get started, despite being a couple minutes early."

Inside the back room, the vet carefully examined a whimpering Charles, with Cliff watching beside him in a sympathetic direction. Lynn Sr. and Rita sat in some chairs as they quietly observed the vet doing his work.

"Looks like everything seems fine to me for your animals, Mr. Loud."

The parents both sighed in relief as the vet walked towards the two parents. The pets on the other side were just as relieved as the parents were as they didn't have to worry about a thing anymore. Their thought of actually not having to get poked by needles brought a little smile to their face.

"Oh, thank gosh." The mother said.

"Although I may need to ask, have your pets ever been vaccinated before?"

The parents both looked at each other in a concerned way. Lynn Sr. thought it was just a simple check up as he didn't think a question like this would be brought into play.

"Well... no they... haven't?" Lynn Sr. nervously answered.

"Oh. Well, I do highly recommend that you do make an appointment for a core vaccination at least once per year for your animals. It's to make sure they don't fall victim to any potential risks that could happen to them later on in their lives. And because I trust that you'll be good owners to these animals, I'll start the vaccination in a few minutes."

"Oh, you have no idea." Rita said as Lynn Sr. thought about the vaccination before he gave in a few seconds later. He broke out sweating as he was afraid the the pets reaction to the needles would throw their behavior all out of whack.

The vet walked back over to his desk to where the pets were and talked to them in case their anxiety would get the better of the two. "Don't you worry, everything will be over in just a couple of seconds."

Charles and Cliff quickly glanced at each other as they don't know what's going to befall the two animals next. The vet brought out two unused syringes filled with vaccination medicine as the two pets' eyes widened and their irises shrank before the two of them slowly gulped in terror.

"Hold still now, this isn't gonna hurt a bit."

The latter six words had the pets covering their eyes as they got into their coward positions, shaking so swiftly. The dog whined in fear before it influenced the vet to pause his session.

"Miss, would you mind carrying your pets in your arms? I'd figure it'd be easier since I can see they're kinda jerking around."

"I can do that." The mother said.

 Thirty Minutes Later 

Back in the Loud House, Charles and Cliff were sitting on the couch. They were really upset with the two parents of the household as the husband was removing the bandages off of their feet. The father felt the urge to apologize to the pets for the unfortunate misunderstanding.

"I'm real sorry you two," he said. "I was pretty sure that it was just going to be a regular checkup."

Rita gave her husband a pat on the shoulder as he just finished up taking the bandages off the animals. "It's for the best anyway, as we just wanted to make sure our sweet little pets stay with us for a long while."

The pets started to show a bit of remorse after a few seconds of the parents' chatter, up until their stomachs started rumbling again.

"Oh, and you're pretty hungry too," Lynn Sr. said as he took notice before heading into the kitchen. "I'm gonna go into the kitchen and get you guys something."

Rita soon went to her room to change. A couple seconds of silence flew by before the black feline softly sighed.

"Y'know dog, I feel that I should apologize as well." he said.

"Why ya apologizin' ta me?" Charles asked.

Cliff stroked the dog's head. "It's my fault that I misheard those humans and told ya the wrong information..."

Charles grabbed ahold of the cat's paw and set it back on the couch. "But, as it turns out in the end, you were right all along. Not only that, I'm actually more mad about them teasin' us with food just so they could get us trapped in those cages than gettin' poked by a steel needle."

"Yeah, same here."

Charles started feeling his paw as it was still in a small amount of pain from the shot. "Hopefully this pain in my paw'll start goin' away soon."

Cliff did the same thing the canine did as he tilted his head down a bit. "I couldn't agree more, dog."

Lynn Sr. came back into the living room with a plate of bacon and salmon, delivering it to the couch in between the two pets.

"Here you are," he said before he left to two animals alone as he headed into his room. "And again, I'm sorry!"

Charles licked his lips. "Oh boy!" he exclaimed, as he bean to dig in the plate of pig meat. Cliff extended his claws to cut up his salmon into a couple slices before grabbing one soon after and took a small bite out of it.

"Well, at least somethin' good came out of all of this." the black feline said. "Our little hunger problem's solved, and our health is in good standin!"

"And now, we won't have ta worry 'bout that for another year!"

"Yep! Ya got that right. Although that's the only con of this situation, but anythin' to help us live through each day without a problem."

The two resumed eating their bacon and salmon as the cat winked directly to the audience.

~End~

Trivia

 * This one's probably not my best one to be honest.