Hey there! Just a quick update – I’ve been super busy ensuring everyone around me is happy and well-loved. I’ve also sniffed out a mystery or two along the way. Heroic tail wags and maybe a treat or two – all in a day’s work. 🐾
– Your loyal buddy, Colby

It was a dark and stormy evening in Pawsburg when I, Colby, a sleek black Labrador retriever, found myself paw-deep in one of the town’s most peculiar mysteries. This tale begins in the heart of Cocker Courtyard, where the full moon cast eerie shadows upon the cobblestones. Anyone who knows me might figure me too sociable for clandestine adventures, but even a dog as amiable as myself has a nose for sniffing out trouble.

I met up with my closest buddies near The Cat’s Cradle Craft Store. There was Whiskers, ever the dapper Westie with a penchant for drama, and Sasha, the golden-haired Papillon whose ears were always twitching with curiosity. Digby also joined us, a stocky Bulldog with a hard exterior but a heart as soft as old tennis balls.

We were loitering about, bemoaning our humans’ absence, when an unsettling howling echoed from the depths of Kelpie Keys. It was a sound not born of a canine throat we knew. Sasha’s ears shot straight up.

“Colby, reckon we ought to investigate?” she asked, her tail a little more tucked than usual.

Digby snorted, “Will we retrieve it? We gotta retrieve it.”

“Hold ’em horses, we ain’t no scaredy-cats. Let’s see what’s what,” Whiskers announced. We unanimously decided that whatever haunted Kelpie Keys deserved our attention.

As we trotted into Kelpie Keys, the trees seemed to arch in on us, whispering secrets through their leaves. There, by an ancient willow, we saw it—a shimmering portal, glowing with an energy that sang straight to our bones. It made your fur stand on end, like rolling in a delightfully forbidden mud puddle.

“Well, I’ll be dog-gone,” I muttered.

A figure stumbled through the portal—grizzled and scarred, eyes wide with that look of someone who’s seen too much. It was an old shepherd dog, Rufus, who’d been missing for weeks.

“Rufus! What in tarnation?” I barked.

“G-g-gnomes!” Rufus babbled. “Gotta help…gnomes had me trapped!”

Whiskers, ever the dramatic, gasped like an opera star. “Gnomes means trouble! Those tricksters will nip at your flanks and lead you into the wildest goose chase of your life!”

The storm intensified, and so did the chilling winds from within the portal. We knew then that Pawsburg was teetering on the brink of disaster, the kind only the unity of loyal four-paws could thwart. We decided to lock-paws and venture through.

On the other side, we found ourselves not in Pawsburg, but in a mirror version of it where everything was dark and twisted. The air smelled of fear, and the gnomes, small but devilishly cheeky, encircled us.

Time for paws to action!

Digby charged forward, scattering the gnomes with his bulldog ferocity, while Whiskers weaved around them, his white fur cutting through the darkness like a spotlight. Sasha and I dashed towards a stone altar that emanated the same otherworldly glow as the portal. We had to close it to prevent the gnomes from breaching Pawsburg.

“Sasha,” I panted, “There’s gotta be a lever or something to seal this doggone thing!”

Sasha spotted an ancient pawprint indentation on the altar. “Team effort, Colby, get your paw in here!”

We pressed our paws together into the indentation, and with a thunderous roar, the portal began to shrink. The gnomes yelped and scampered away, shrieking in defeat. We were pulled back into our beloved Pawsburg just as the portal collapsed behind us.

Exhausted, we sprawled under the willow, the storm calming to a gentle drizzle.

“Whiskers,” I sighed, “I reckon that was the strangest adventure we’ve ever been on.”

“Aye,” Whiskers nodded. “And we’ll be tellin’ our humans of it, won’t we? They’ll never believe a waggin’ word.”

With a laugh, we pledged to keep our secret adventure, a tale of supernatural bravery, ever snug in the heart of Pawsburg—a testament to the boundless spirit of doghood.