Sully, an orange-marmalade house cat, lived in a tough neighborhood. Too many dogs ran free, slobbering like the slobs they were, barking and chasing anything that moved. A particularly nasty bulldog lived next door and fiercely guarded every inch of his yard like it was the Promised Land. And a pair of spiteful cats lived across the street.
Sully had to roam; it was in his nature, he couldn’t fight it. So he put on a dog costume and took off on a well-imitated dogtrot down the sidewalk. One of the dogs, an indefinable mutt called Bomber, ran over and sniffed Sully’s nether regions. This confused Bomber, who was no brain trust to begin with. Bomber decided to fall in behind this unusual smelling and looking dog.
Soon Sully was leading a pack of mutts, all trying in vain to trot in the odd feline way that he did. Sully decided that he could easily be the alpha dog of this ragtag crew of canines and that started his clever cat brain working.
First off, he ordered his dimwitted crew to chase and tree those spiteful cats from across the street. The dogs jumped, yelped and snarled at the base of the tree giving those two cats the scare of their nine lives. When one nearly fell while climbing higher for safety, Mookie, the boxer-Doberman mix, nipped the cat’s tail and left both cats shivering in fear, deciding to never leave their safe house again.
Sully felt powerful now. He wanted to own the block. And he had just the bully boys to make that happen. All they needed was a smart leader, and that was him.
So the next victim became that anal-retentive bulldog next door. A simultaneous, multi-directional invasion of the bulldog’s yard with plenty of barking, bared teeth and dripping, frothy slobber caused the poor bulldog such a mental breakdown that he chased his own nub of a tail way into the night. Sully went blissfully to sleep listening to the bulldog’s pitiful whimpering.
Sully decided to expand his kingdom. The next block looked ripe for the taking. The dogs on it were just as simple-minded as his team and were easy to add to the pack. There was just one problem. A cat.
This block was under the despotic paw of a cat. A larger than normal, real scraper of a feline. No tail, apparently lost in a battle. Pretty heavy muscles on him but not much of a climber. Lacked a cat’s natural gracefulness as well. Sully calculated the odds and decided to go one-on-one with him. After all, he was only a cat and Sully was feeling pretty powerful these days.
The cat’s name was Kipper. He and Sully met in the little playground park at the end of the block. A mismatched army of dogs watched excitedly from the sidelines. There was the scent of danger in the air.
And that wasn’t the only scent. Sully noticed it right away. So, apparently, did Kipper. After a couple of fake lunges and wild swipes, the pair took off on a dead run, through the park, around human legs, over fences, under hedges, then down a narrow alley until they were finally alone.
“So,” Sully ordered, catching his breath, “what’s the deal with you? You’re no cat.”
“And you’re no dog,” Kipper responded.
The pair removed their respective dog and cat cowl masks. And revealed a cat and dog underneath. Kipper was a dog disguised in a cat costume.
“Why?” was all Sully could ask.
A grin crossed Kipper’s muzzle. “Same as you, I imagine. Trying life on the other side. Plus I had a bunch of cats terrorizing my neighborhood. If you can’t beat them, become them.”
Sully added, “And then dominate them.”
“Exactly. You know, a smart cat and dog team could rule this part of town.”
“And beyond,” Sully added smiling like a Cheshire cat.
Rod Drake hoped to grow up to be a cowboy, fireman or space explorer; a writer is kind of all those things. Check out Rod’s other stories published in Fictional Musings, Flash Flooding, Flash Forward, MicroHorror, Six Sentences and AcmeShorts.
This actually reminds me a bit of the movie Cats & Dogs.