Family of 101

Chapter 9: A Day to Remember

"Aaaah! Is this the human little brother you were talking about?!" A Rottweiler, evidently taller than me in a simple pink shirt and denim shorts with a German accent gushed in awe at me before picking me up and hugging me very tightly, but thankfully not tight enough to suppress my breathing. "Eeeee, he is so cute I could just keep him forever!" Dolly stood by, laughing at the little bonding moment I was having with said Rottweiler. "Yep, that's Cody for ya, Roxy! Cute, cool and heroic."

Dolly's idea of celebrating me saving Dimitri 2 from Brian the previous night was to spend the day out in the city with me and my other brothers and sisters to do whatever I pleased. And how could I say "No" to that? We stopped at Regent's Park since it seemed like the perfect place for my siblings to play in whilst I could look around for some potential sketching. Fortunately, Clarissa wasn't here today. That was when Dolly and I came across her best friend whom I now knew as Roxy. The dog in question still had her arms around me, I just managed to return the embrace with a blush on my face before she finally let me go. "So Cody, what do you like to do in your spare time?" Roxy asked me, panting happily, her expression making it obvious that she was still infatuated with me. "Well, I do like to sketch from time to-" My answer was cut off when I heard a distant yet audible thud on the ground accompanied by a grunt. Me and the two dogs turned around to see Dizzy on the ground, whimpering as she clutched one of her arms, tears threatening to leave her face. The three of us instantly knew something was wrong as we rushed over to her aid as did Dee Dee.

"Dizzy, what happened?!" I asked her worriedly as she struggled to get up. "Ow... Ow... Ow...!" She cried out as she lifted her fingers up as slowly as possible to show us her injury whilst causing as little pain as possible. I didn't hesitate to pull out a small medical kit from my pocket which Dylan had given to me before we left for Regent's Park as a precaution upon seeing the cut on Dizzy's arm. I had Dizzy sit on the ground with me as I took out a cotton ball from the kit to clean the wound, eliciting a suppressed cry of agony from the Dalmatian. With the cut as clean as possible, I then took out a roll of gauze and wrapped some of it around her arm. "It'll be okay, Dizzy." I tried to reassure her to lift her spirits as I started to tie a knot on the gauze to keep it wrapped securely on her wound. "I-It hurrrts!" Dizzy sobbed, finally letting the tears run down her cheeks as Dee Dee rubbed her back to comfort her. After completing the gauze, I remembered a little trick my mom used to do whenever she found me injured. I leaned over and gently kissed Dizzy's bandaged wound to ease the stinging pain. And it seemed to work as she wiped her eyes before hugging me with a small smile. "Thanks, Cody." She sniffled a little as I patted her back.

"Awww, you're so good with them!" Roxy said, fawning over me again as Dizzy ran off with Dee Dee, now seemingly already in better spirits. I chuckled and rubbed the back of my head in response. "Oh, Dolly! I just remembered something. Something about that Hansel guy you li-" Roxy was suddenly cut off as Dolly shoved a hand over her mouth. "U-Uhhh what, what are you talking about? I don't know anyone called 'Hansel' that I'm interested in, ahahahaha...!" Dolly laughed nervously with a very embarrassed look on her face. "I-I mean uhh... I just remembered they added something cool to the park that I gotta show you like uhhh... really urgently! I'll be right back, Cody!" Dolly glanced at me as she said the last sentence before ushering Roxy with her. I was pretty confused on who Roxy was talking about with this person called Hansel, but judging by how Dolly reacted, this was definitely something she wasn't comfortable with so I shrugged and decided to forget about it. I think Dolly would most appreciate it if I never brought up this Hansel person with her.

"Hey. Human boy." A heavy female Russian accent snapped me out of my thoughts as I looked around for the source of the voice until I looked behind me to see a Pomeranian in a black and white striped shirt and grey pants under a black skirt. "Word has got around about your fight with a human bullying one of yous brothers. You is becoming quite the talk in Dalmatian Street" Even with her broken English, I could tell what she was talking about. Had someone really been watching what had happened the other night? "All I say is, jus' watch yourself for sake of your family. Ya never know when it may get out to the wrong people." Did she mean the police? Or maybe an older sibling whom was protective of Brian? A chill ran down my spine from the thoughts. I really hoped Brian would never tell anyone about what I had to do to help Dimitri 2 and possibly twist the story to make me look like I was in the wrong. "Ah! I'm sorry! I'd not meant to make you panic!" The Pomeranian sensed my overgrowing concern and knelt down and held her hands out to calm me down. Maybe I was overreacting. Besides, if such a thing did happen then Dimitri and his brothers would back me up, so I eased up a little.