“Hey Mom, we had an epic day in Spencerville, switched up the squirrel chasing for some real excitement. Staged a heist with the gang at Fetch! Toys and Treats. Nothing like plotting for unlimited pizza and toys to feel alive. Oh, and also learned it could literally rain on your parade! How’s that for a summer adventure? – Wriggles”

Listen to the story here.

The heat was oppressive in Spencerville, even though the sun was still hiding beneath the edges of Bulldog Bay. That’s summer for you. Kind of like a pot boiling over, but without any of the stovetop charm. My company were the usual seven direct descendants of wild wolves, but you wouldn’t know it from their devotion to eating primarily processed food and their almost compulsive need for belly scratches.

“Pizza,” Wrigley was lamenting. I listened lazily from my spot beneath our familiar backyard tree. “Why do they lock the pizza in a box? It’s inhumane!” His usual pizza-musing session again. His big brown eyes reflected the frustration of a canine who undoubtedly lived in a universe where pizza was less a treat than a basic food group. He’d gnawed through more pizza boxes than anyone could count, relishing in the crumbs and sniffing in the aroma.

That’s when Chenice barked a reply. Despite being a pint-sized beagle, she had the voice of a dog three times larger. “We just need to rob a pizza parlor… or a doggy food store, yeah! That’d be the jackpot!”

A murmur of agreement swelled among us, a collective response that bounced from Wrigley to Smokey, from Maddie to Camden. Even Glennie and Rusty piped up, their usual couch-potato ways thrown out the window for a fraction of a minute. Only Leia seemed apprehensive, a constant worrier with beautiful eyes that always seemed filled with concern. That didn’t stem the tide of excitement in our little Spencerville clique, though—as much as we loved her, we were prone to painting her concerns as “imagined.”

“Wrigley,” Maddie commented, popping her head up to look directly at him. There was visible admiration in her eyes as she spoke. “You’d be perfect for the job. You’ve got the strength, the brains, and… and that goofy smile! Who could resist!”

And just like that, a decision was made. We were going to stage a heist in Fetch! Toys and Treats. It was almost absurdly perfect in its absurdity. A group of house pets, upturning the very pillars of our indulgent society in our pursuit of an unlimited supply of peanut butter flavor chews and squeaky stuffed ducks. But it wasn’t just driven by Wrigley’s ambition or my desire to make a riveting memory – it was about seizing the day before the sun even rose. I suppose some might call it greed, but to us? It was the epitome of living life to the fullest.

Now, Spencerville has seen quite a few things in its time, but I truly don’t believe it was quite ready for the spectacle that was Wrigley, leading a pack of fiercely loyal mutts, on a heist for Doggy Delight pizza and a lifetime supply of squeaking toys. Needless to say, it was, undoubtedly, an adventure worth wagging tail continuously. And just as any tale coming out of Spencerville, it promised the joy of triumph, the thrill of the chase – and when the sun finally rose, a cup of icy delights from Pupsicle Palace… or the wrath of a rain shower from the sky, quite literally raining on our parade. With eyes twinkling with mischief and hearts pulsing with excitement, we jumped headfirst into the heist – after all, that’s what you get when you put a group of dogs with human-like existence and an itch for a lifetime supply of toys and treats together in a place like Spencerville!

The End.