“Hey there, it’s King Louie! Your dutiful, roast-beef-loving doggie spy. Just another usual moonlit night, prowling Pawsburg, keeping it safe while giving in to some liver pudding distractions. Life’s one big bone to gnaw on, ain’t it? Shine on, Louie”

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The asphalt pulsated beneath us, jet black as the moonless night. King Louie was on my side, as silent and efficient as a shadow in stealth mode. His sepia and ochre coat blending perfectly with the rock and rubble, almost vanishing into thin air. I was the so called ‘brains’ of this operation, while Louie, my silent companion, was the muscle. Pawsburg was silent tonight, a stark contrast to the bustling canine city-state it was during daylight hours.

“As quiet as the Dalmatian Desert eh Louie?” I asked, in a half-whisper. He cocked his head at me, a flash of mischief in his eyes. “Wrong line Louie, I play the fool tonight,” I reminded him.

Ushering him ahead, we crept into The Bone Appetit, our info source. Freddy, the venerable town butcher whom Louie owed endless favors for his divine liver pudding, was our inside man tonight. As soon as we crossed the threshold, my nostrils hit a wall of tantalizing meat smells, a heady mix of raw endeavor and the succulent promise of juicy rewards. For a moment, Louie’s senses faltered – eyes unfocused, nostrils flaring, olfactory memory working overtime.

He was truly the James Bond-figure of Pawsburg, equally suave and brutish, a competitor in all things canine and roast-beef related.

Louie slipped a paw into mine, pulling me away from the aromatic reverie, towards Freddy who was waiting at a secluded corner of his meaty paradise. Louie barked twice, a code we had established for such covert operations. Freddy’s enormous bulk shifted, and he reached into a hidden compartment, pulling out a tiny dog biscuit inscribed with cryptic symbols – our next lead.

I pocketed our precious find, and before Freddy could comment, we were out of there, blending into the shadows again, out to take on the night and its mysteries. Under the star studded twilight, in between the flickering of neon signs and hush of the wind, King Louie and I, ventured further into the heart of our enigmatic city – Pawsburg. Our mission? To protect the city we loved and the peculiar band of characters we cared for.

Pawsburg may not have been the clean-cut tale of a metropolitan city, gleaming with glass and steel. It was our concrete jungle, an island surrounded by real-life oblivion, and as long as there were shadows to lurk in, mysteries to unravel, and liver puddings to steal, King Louie and I would keep prowling. After all, it’s only after the strikes of midnight in Pawsburg, does the real show begins.

The End.