“Hey, it’s Barkley. Hero pup extraordinaire! Got a shock when Pawsburg went dark. Apparently, a cat invasion. Ran faster than ever before. Made peace with Whiskers, plotted with Patches. There were doughnuts. Lots of ’em. Saving the town wasn’t as easy as chasing my tail but we managed. Time for a nap on my hooman’s bed. Chow! 🐾 🦴”

Listen to the story here

Okay, here goes nothing. Let me take you back to the dark, snowy night when Pawsburg was rocked to its foundation by a cat-astrophic event.

There I stood, on top of Husky Hill, my soft silvery-grey coat buffeted by the wind. I, Barkley, the Siberian Husky with eyes as blue as the ocean – well, the same color as Pup-Cake frosting – and muscles honed from a hundred squirrel-less chases.

The city lights winked below, and my favorite spots came into view: Fetch-N-Bites – where I had my first barbecued chicken. Honestly, talking about that place gives me the munchies. Doggy Donuts, the…okay; I haven’t actually gone there. I mean, I’m a carnivore. And, who wants a sugary, gooey mess when they can have something juicy and smoky?

I remember looking back at my peach-colored house, nestled snugly in the valley. My prison, my paradise. My lovely human parents, James and Molly, had installed the tallest fence after Kylie, the Kangaroo, bounded over my previous one. I mean, can’t a guy catch a break?

Suddenly, the lights flickered, dimmed and…poof! complete darkness. Pawsburg plunged into an abyss. So, yeah, it was chaos – yelping dogs, yowling cats, and even tweeting birds.

I recall squinting my bright blue eyes, trying to parse what was happening upto Beagle Beach. What I saw made my tail freeze considering how much I usually wag it at wrong moments: shadowy figures scurrying around, agile and swift. Cats. A Cat-tastrophe.

I dashed off towards the city, my usual bouncy red ball and squeaky rubber chicken forgotten, and resilience forgotten in that moment of hysteria. I was a hero on a mission, and I planned on howling about it later.

Faster than ever, I whizzed past Doggy Donuts and swerved around Best in Show Photography. A what-are-that-Husky’s-muscles-made-of moment later, I was on Beagle Beach, my canine heart pounding in suspense – or was it just excitement?

And there they were – Patches, and that sly cat Whiskers skulking in the corner, looking as confused as a Goldfish in a hookah lounge. We exchanged nervous glances, then shared a determination; a primal instinct to protect, to inherit Pawsburg back from the uninvited feline horde.

“We got to have a plan,” Patches announced, his beagle-ness melting into a kind of Bruce Williesque gravitas.

So, instead of surviving on the usual feast on barbecued chicken and turning my nose up at carrots, we huddled under the dim moonlight – the once bustling Pawsburg, now silent and eerie – plotting a retaliation like some canine Avengers. You gotta admit it; that was kind of rad.

Anyway, the exciting part’s coming next, and trust me, it involves doughnuts. Lots of doughnuts. That’s all to revel for now, but remember: Pawsburg is our town. We may love our human parents, but this – this was our playground to protect.

Well, Whiskers just hissed at me for being overly dramatic. So it’s time for me to take a nap – more specifically, on my human parents’ bed. Until next time!

The End.