Stick Dog spoke quickly.
“I’m going to throw this ball of twine over the branch that the unicorn is tied to,” he explained, and pointed. “I’m going to tie the string around Karen’s midsection and then pull her up. When she gets high enough, she can bite through the string holding the unicorn and it will fall down.”
“I’ve always wanted to fly!” Karen exclaimed. Apparently, she already felt better about not riding a horse today. “Just look at this streamlined body of mine! I’m a sleek, torpedo-shaped flying machine! You want me to fly? Tie me up, Stick Dog! Tie me up!”
Stick Dog gripped that ball of twine in his mouth again, twisted his head back and to the left—and then snapped his head forward and to the right. He released the twine ball at the greatest point of his forward thrust.
The ball of twine soared through the air perfectly. It passed the hanging unicorn—and reached the apex of its arc above that thick branch. It then fell down to the ground among Mutt, Poo-Poo, Karen, and Stripes.
It was a perfect throw.
While the twine ball started and ended its graceful journey through the air, Stick Dog leaped from the top of the picnic table, skipped the bench entirely, and landed on the patio. He hustled toward his friends and got there before the ball of twine even rolled to a stop.
“Sixteen to sixteen!” the dad called.
Stick Dog heard the score and moved even faster. He knew his very little time was turning quickly into no time at all.
He wrapped the twine around Karen’s belly two times as fast as he could.
“Stick Dog?” Poo-Poo asked.
“Yes?” he answered, wrapping the twine a third time.
“How are you going to make sure that Karen doesn’t slip out of that string?”
“I’m going to tie a good, strong knot,” answered Stick Dog as he began to tie that very knot.
“What kind of knot will you use?”
“Umm, I don’t have a name for it,” answered Stick Dog honestly. “Just something really secure and safe.”
“Hmm,” Poo-Poo said with doubt in his voice. “You’re not going to use a Rapala Improved-Clinch Non-Slip Loop Knot?”
“Umm. What?”
“You’re not using a Rapala Improved-Clinch Non-Slip Loop Knot?”
“Umm, what’s that?”
“It’s a really, really good knot,” Poo-Poo responded authoritatively. “And since, you know, Karen’s going to be hanging there and everything, I thought you should tie a really good knot.”
This all intrigued Stripes very much. She asked, “How do you know so much about knots, Poo-Poo?”
“I come from a long line of poodle pirates,” Poo-Poo said without delay. “And pirates need to use knots all the time. On their boats and whatnot.”
“You’re kidding?!” Karen said, and took an awkward step closer. Mutt came nearer too.
“Umm, guys? We should really—” Stick Dog tried to say, but he didn’t get anywhere. Everyone was way too wrapped up in Poo-Poo’s story.
“It’s all true,” Poo-Poo continued with supreme confidence. “I am descended from a band of powerful poodle pirates. For centuries, my relatives used to rule bodies of water across the globe. Why, you couldn’t cast your gaze across an ocean, sea, river, bay, stream, creek, or puddle without seeing a poodle pirate marauding about.”
From the side yard, the dad called, “Seventeen to seventeen!”
Stick Dog listened as he worked. He completed the knot, tested its strength, and hurried back to the picnic table. As he did, Poo-Poo went on about his pirate ancestors.
“The poodle pirates ruled the waters! Ruled them, let me tell you,” he exclaimed. “There was Three-Legged Gus, Two-Legged Jillian, and One-Legged Billy—all famous conquerors and brave beyond brave.”
“What did they do?” asked Mutt.
By this time, Stick Dog had retrieved the other end of the twine and wrapped it tightly around his front left paw.
“Oh, you know, the typical pirate-y type things,” Poo-Poo answered as Stick Dog kept busy. “Marauding, pillaging, gallivanting—that kind of stuff.”
Poo-Poo would have likely continued to talk about his mighty poodle pirate ancestors for some time, but right then something occurred that stole all of their attention.
Karen began to rise up into the air.
