“The two young gentlemen left angrily,” Bones continued, jumping down and heading for the living room, before anyone could ask what he had meant by “disastrous results.” The rest of us followed. “It is not always wise to provoke bad people, for it is impossible to guess what they might do with their anger.”

“And what did they do?” asked Puppy #4, breathlessly from the position he had taken on the floor.

By this point, any idea of the military seating of the puppies lined up with backs straight on the couch had completely deteriorated. Now they were all on the floor with Bones, so wrapped up in his story that their heads were propped up on paws as they clustered together in a comfortable puppy pile. They were like human children listening to a parent at bedtime – I’ve read of such things. Next, they’d be expecting Mr. Javier to serve them cookies and milk to go with the tale. But Mr. Javier wouldn’t be doing that. He was too busy pretending to dust as he listened raptly to the story too. And since he was pretending to be busy, I was able to take back my comfy window seat. Although it felt somewhat less comfy now that I felt as though a squirrel of questionable character might be peeking in at me at any moment. The very idea made my hair stand slightly on end.

“Initially?” The dog shrugged. “Nothing. In the immediate aftermath of their departure, Joe Fur and Lucy were left to wait, hoping for the man she really loved to return in time.”

Something struck me. “They were hoping for Hope,” I said with wonder.

“Just so, Catson,” Bones said. “They were hoping for Hope! Sadly, hope did not bring Hope that day or that night. Instead, the next morning, having had to go to sleep at some point, Joe Fur woke to find that a note written in the Leader’s hand had somehow found its way into his home.”

He paused.

I hoped he wasn’t going to ask me the contents of the note. Sure, I had already guessed the identities of a couple of the people in his story, but I couldn’t guess the contents of an entire note, much less one written decades before!

But no, the dog was merely milking the drama, completing the air of urgency as he leaned forward to say:

“The note said, in essence, that Joe Fur must comply with the wishes of the Group … or else … ”