“I actually don’t think this will be too difficult,” Stick Dog said to Stripes, Poo-Poo, and Mutt. He spoke loud enough for Karen to hear from the hole as well. “I think if you guys hold my back paws, I can lower myself down and press my front paws against the bottom of the hole. Then Karen can just climb up my back and out of the hole. And then you guys can pull me up.” Poo-Poo, Mutt, and Stripes looked at him dubiously. They had their doubts.
Karen had some questions. She called up from the bottom of the hole, “Where’s the style in that? Where’s the thrill? Where’s the panache?”
“Where’s the drool?” asked Poo-Poo.
Stripes asked, “Where are the balloons?”
“Where’s the world travel?” asked Mutt.
“I’m going in,” Stick Dog said, figuring he had done enough explaining. He was ready to get Karen out of the hole—and find the meat truck with Lucy in it. “You guys grab my paws.”
Thankfully, his friends did as Stick Dog instructed. As he got down on his belly and began to slowly lower himself down into the hole, Poo-Poo and Mutt grabbed his back paws. In several seconds, Stick Dog’s whole body was in the hole. He stretched forward and planted his front paws firmly into the dirt at the bottom.
“Hi, Stick Dog,” Karen said upon his face-first arrival.
“Hi,” he answered, and grunted a bit. It was a pretty uncomfortable position. Uncomfortable—but not painful.
“What do you think of my hole?” Karen asked. “Pretty sweet, right?”
“It is, yes,” Stick Dog replied. He could feel the blood rushing to his head a bit.
“You didn’t even look around,” Karen said, sounding disappointed. “How could you know how nice my hole is if you don’t even look around?”
In this awkward position, it was quite difficult for Stick Dog to turn his head in any direction. But he did it anyway, scanning and surveying Karen’s hole.
“It really is something,” Stick Dog said after wrenching his head around the best he could. “I love what you’ve done with the, umm, walls. And the dirt—well, it’s just, umm, really nice dirt. Not too clumpy. Not too gritty. It’s just right. It’s a most excellent hole.”
“Thanks, Stick Dog!” Karen exclaimed. “I’m very proud of it.”
“You should be, for sure,” Stick Dog said. Holding still in that position was getting harder as the seconds passed by. “Why don’t you go ahead and climb up me now? You can grab my fur if you start to slip.”
“Sounds good,” Karen said.
But she didn’t start to climb out.
“Karen?” Stick Dog asked. He couldn’t really see her now, because his head was smashed sort of sideways into the ground. And his eyes were squeezed shut. His whole body was starting to hurt. “Are you going to climb out now?”
“Just a minute, Stick Dog,” she replied simply. “I want to take a look around. You know, I really want to get a feel for the place. It took a lot of work to dig this magnificent hole, after all. I mean, I want to remember it years from now.”
Stick Dog counted backward from ten silently. He wanted to concentrate his mind on something besides the blood rushing to his head, his totally uncomfortable position—and how he had to wait for Karen to get a “feel for the place.”
While Stick Dog waited for Karen, the others were having a very different conversation up top.
“This doesn’t seem fair to me,” Stripes said.
“Why’s that?” Poo-Poo asked as he held Stick Dog’s back left paw. Mutt held the one on the right.
“I don’t have anything to hold on to, that’s why,” said Stripes.
Mutt shot a quick look at the thing between Poo-Poo and himself. He said, “Why don’t you hold on to Stick Dog’s tail?”
“That’s a great idea!” Stripes exclaimed. She was happy to participate in Karen’s rescue.
Stripes reached down and grabbed the end of Stick Dog’s tail. She squeezed and pulled on it.
“There’s not much to grab here,” Stripes said, noticing that her grip was already slipping. “You guys have his paw pads to hold. They’re grippy. And you have his ankles as a place to hold. His tail doesn’t have stuff like that.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t use your paws,” Poo-Poo said.
“What should I use?”
“Try your mouth,” Poo-Poo suggested.
“Your teeth should be able to get a pretty good grip.”
“But won’t biting down on Stick Dog’s tail hurt him?” Mutt asked, showing concern.
“I don’t think so. And let me tell you why,” Poo-Poo replied. “When you get hurt—you know, step on a rock or something—your foot sends a signal to your head to tell you that it hurt.”
Mutt and Stripes nodded, but you could kind of tell they weren’t really following Poo-Poo’s train of thought. He noticed this and explained further.
“So if you’re biting down on his tail at the end of his body,” Poo-Poo continued, “I’m not even sure he’s going to know it hurts. His head is way down in that hole. I mean, we can’t even see it from here. I doubt very much that a bite on his tail will travel all that way to his brain.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Mutt said.
Stripes seemed to be warming to the idea, but still appeared to have some doubts.
So, Poo-Poo added a little more encouragement.
“Besides,” he said, “we have to look at the bigger picture here. This is an emergency rescue operation! I’m sure Stick Dog would agree that a bite on the tail is a small price to pay for rescuing our good buddy Karen.”
Well, that was all the extra encouragement they needed.
Mutt nodded his head toward Stripes and then toward Stick Dog’s tail.
And Stripes opened her mouth.
She leaned down.
And bit.
Hard.
That’s what happened outside the hole.
At that exact moment, something else happened inside the hole.
Karen had finished observing and appreciating her hole and began her ascent up Stick Dog’s body.
Right when Stripes bit down hard on Stick Dog’s tail, Karen climbed onto Stick Dog’s head. Her weight pushed his mouth together so that he couldn’t yelp in pain as Stripes bit.
Up top, Poo-Poo said, “See, he didn’t yell or anything. Not a sound.”
Karen quickly scurried off Stick Dog’s head, across his shoulder blades, and up his back. In less than two seconds, she was out of the hole. When Stripes saw her emerge, she let go of Stick Dog and hurried toward Karen.
So did Poo-Poo.
And so did Mutt.
They were so happy to see their friend.
And Stick Dog tumbled down into the hole.