Chaos Critter Tails: Dante's Mysterious Training
Is Dante destined for a life of crime? Trained for it by a former police officer? Find out the answer to this and other pressing questions, with puppy pictures and a video this week!
Today we have a story from dog class a few weeks back - regular readers will recognized some of the pictures. Plus, a little bit of inspiration from a fire truck practicing on a Med Center parking garage on Saturday. (Hi
and who do “inspiration” posts!)For the record, every other week Dante and Crokell have a full training class each. Usually, Crokell does more of the beginner class, since we’re having to retrain him to react more automatically, without Anna having to talk to him all the time. The other weeks, when we have a our online Traveller RPG, they split a class.
At the end of the story is a video of Dante going through a tube.
Dante's Mysterious Training
The noise of the garage door opening woke Beleth up. His furry Maine Coon ears perked up, and he stretched, shaking loose his fluffy mane. Slowly, he padded his way into the kitchen and settled down in the corner to wait for his two brothers.
Soon, he heard the door open, and his first brother walked in. Crokell entered at a majestic, inevitable pace unique to Newfies. He walked in and stopped while the larger monkey removed his travel harness.
Behind the big black Newfie was the little Mini American Shepherd. Because they had just come from dog training, Dante was very well behaved. Beleth watched him sitting outside the door next to the little monkey.
Then he heard, "Okay. Free."
And Dante ran into the house at his usual full burst of speed, twenty percent faster than his legs would actually move. Laughing, the two monkeys corralled him and removed his travel harness.
Crokell went to the water bowl to drink it dry while Dante came to talk to his Maine Coon Cat brother.
The little white, black, and tan Mini American came to a screeching halt in front of Beleth. "Beleth, you'll never believe what happened today."
The cat, only slightly smaller than the Mini American, cocked his head and wrapped his tail around his feet.
"You went to training class. Correct?"
"Yes. But that's not all. Class started out like we normally did. The little monkey put the magic chain of command on me, and the big monkey put the magic chain of command on Crokell. But then I had to sit there forever while Crokell had his training. His training went on and on. I finally looked up at the big monkey and asked him when it was gonna be my turn, but it was still a while's off, it turns out."
Beleth looked to one side where Crokell had finished drinking. The big monkey was busy vigorously drying him off, starting at his nose, working his way down Crokell's chin, between the flappy jowls, all the way to the Newfie's armpits. Well, where his armpits would be if he had arms instead of four legs. Beleth waited until Crokell had come up and flopped down beside them. Crokell always had useful opinions on Dante's stories.
Sure enough, Crokell commented on and explained Dante's last bit of story. "Yep. We're doing two classes now. Being older and more experienced, I get to go to the first class. Then Dante gets to have his class."
Dante bounced up and down excitedly, his little stub of a tail wagging his entire behind.
"Yes. And I have to wait and wait, but then it's my turn. Once it was my turn, we started off just like all the other classes. We walked around and around and around, and the little monkey made me sit and lay down and sit. And then she made me do that thing where I have to be on all four legs. I don't remember what it's called again."
Crokell gave a big, Newfie sigh. "It's called a stand, and you always forget what it is. The monkeys say that you have puppy brains still."
Dante cocked his head and turned at his bigger brother. "Puppy brain? I'm a puppy. What other kind of brain would I have?"
He thought about this for a second and went on with his story.
"Anyway, in class, this time, we had these big orange tubes to run through and these white bars that I had to leap across. It was really weird, but it was a lot of fun.
Beleth looked at him thoughtfully. "Why were they having you do that?"
Dante gave a puppy shrug.
"I don't know. But the first tube I went through, I ran through it, and then at the end, it was like the tube had collapsed. I had to find my way out through all this fabric at the end of the tube, but the little monkey was waiting for me when I got there."
Crokell nodded. "Yep. That's the tunnel with a drag."
Beleth shook himself again. "I am so glad they don't make me do those sorts of things. I'm not that kind of dog."
Dante and Crokell both looked at him for a moment. Then Crokell looked at Dante, who went on with his story.
"Then I went through just a plain old tube, open on both ends. I was worried the monkey wouldn't find her way to the other end without me, but she managed it. Although, one time, she had to have me go again because she lost track of where she was. Then, oh, boy. It was so much fun. I got to jump over a bar bigger than my big brother."
Beleth looked up at where Crokell would normally be if he was standing instead of laying down. "Which one of us?"
Dante gave a puppy chuckle. "You silly kitty. My big, big brother, Crokell."
Beleth ignored the diminutive endearment. "And you have no idea why they were having you do this?"
"Not in the least. But on the way home, we all saw something else unusual, so I thought I would tell you about it.
There was a big red truck with a big ladder going up the side of a building. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it was brand new today too."
Beleth thought about this for a moment.
He put on his regal look, or at least as regal as he could since he was wearing a cone.
"I think that the magic user with the dreads - I think he's training you for a heist."
Dante jumped up excitedly and ran around in a circle. "A heist? How exciting!"
He came to a sliding halt. "What's a heist?"
Crokell flopped over on his side with a deep, deep groan. "Beleth, do you really think that the former police officer is training Dante to be a burglar?"
Dante jumped up and looked at Crokell. "A burglar? I don't wanna be a burglar. I don't mind taking things, but I don't want to be a burglar."
Beleth shrugged. "Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that's what you're being trained for."
Crokell looked down at Dante. "It's okay, little guy. I don't think it's for a heist. Maybe they're going to make you do this in order to get carrots."
Beleth watched in dismay as both of his dog worshipers got up and scrambled to the refrigerator, the word "carrots" having activated their instinct to go look for them.
He looked at the two, the big brother and the littler brother sitting in front of the refrigerator.
He shook his head inside his cone.
"I think they need more training."
He licked on paw and tried to groom his head, but couldn’t reach it due to the cone. “But the little one’s stories are getting pretty good. I can actually picture him running through a big orange tube.”
Chaos Tip of the Week
Keep donuts in your pocket. That way, if you need to distract a guard during a heist, you can roll the donut around the corner. Nobody will expect it!
Chaos Question of the Week
Both our dogs love carrots. They like it better than kibble, better than rawhide. They don’t come into the kitchen and beg when I’m cooking anything. But if I open that fridge, they both come and see if they get a carrot.
What unexpected food do your critters like?
Anthologies!
If you liked this, consider purchasing an anthology we’re in from here https://amazon.com/author/casasent. Our newest the the Black Cat Tales Anthology https://www.amazon.com/Black-Cat-Tales-Anthology-Cats-ebook/dp/B0DXMXX5JP/. (We need to see how to claim that for our page, when it doesn’t list all the authors.)
~Tod and Anna