Dusk, Panda, Swinger, Beaner, Quips, and Irish were walking along the street as a group. Quips had
just finished tellinga joke and everyone,
but Panda was laughing. To be honest, no no one knew how far Panda's vocabularly extended, she never
said more than one or two words at a time, and
she rarely raised her voice above a whisper, and never raised it enough so that you didn't have to
strain to hear her.

Everyone was laughing when Panda stopped. Dusk stopped too "Whats dat noise?"

"What noise?" asked Irish, still laughing

"I don't hear anything" said Beaner

Swinger stopped "Neither do I - no wait - I do hear something"

"Your right" said Quips, "But what is it, it sounds like somethings...hurt"

Panda, and Beaner turned around, and walked into a nearby alley, Irish and Quips went into one on
the other side of the street, and Dusk and
Swinger went into one a little ways away.

After a few minutes everyone heard Beaner scream, and saw her run out of the alley. "Its HUGE!!!!"

"What?" asked Quip curious. Since Beaner didn't seem inclined to answer, they looked at Panda. She
surugged "Dog." she said quietly,
then turned and walked back into the alley. Everyone, followed her confusedly.

"Dog" mumbled Beaner "Try a horse"

In the very back of the alley, was a brownish lump, lying motionless on the ground. As they got
closer, they realized that it was indeed a dog.
He had at one time been white, but was so covered in dirt and mud, that it was brown, and its coat
was matted and uneven. It had obviously
been in a fight recently, its left forepaw was chewed up, and it was bleeding profusely from other
cuts, on various parts of his body. It was thin,
and its ribs were obviously sticking out. He didn't appear to be any more that two or three years old
Panda leaned over, and petted him gently
"Its ok pup," she whispered in her quiet voice "Its ok"

"Gee" said Dusk, not unkindly "What is it wit you and gettin injured" She was referring to the way
Panda was found, what Pandas father did to
her, what Pandas father did to Panda what Pandas father did to Race, and now this.

"Sorry" said Panda softly, looking crestfallen

"I was just jokin" said Dusk laughing, "Stop apoligizing!"

"Sor-" Panda stopped realizing what she was about to say. She continued to pet the dog gently, now
joined by Quips.

"Are we just gonna leave him here?" asked Irish looking at the pitiful animal, and clearly not liking
the idea. "We can't!"

"How we gonna do anything bout it?" asked Beaner, having calmd down "Hes huge!"

"Well..." said Swinger hesitating "We could try to carry him..."

"Huh!" snorted Quips "You most be crazy! Hes gotta be at least a hundred and fifty pounds!" She
looked at the dog for a few seconds "But your
right, we can't just leave'em here..."

Dusk looked at everyone "Its eight blocks, you girls up to it?" One by one, they all nodded.

**********************************************************************************

"oof!" was the strangled sound that came out of Irish's mouth as she layed her end of the dog down.
They had been taking turns three at a time, every
other block, and everyone was tired, especially the three that had to carry him upstairs.

Swinger panted "He must weigh five hundred pounds!"

Panda said nothing, but stretched her arms out carefully, wincing. Then she laid on her bed by the
door, petting the dog.
A few minutes later, Dusk came in with her arms full of various bandages, and ointments, and other
things as such. She grinned evilly
"I raided Kloppman's first aid kit!" She set the bandages and things down, and tried to figure out
what to do with them. Panda took a few as well,
and quickly started to bandage up the dog. It must have hurt him, but he didn't snap, or bark, he
raised his head a few times and sniffed the two's
hands, but other than that, he laid still. "How'd ya learn ta do dat?" asked Dusk looking at Pandas
efficiant knots, and secure bandages.

"Practice makes perfect" Panda said quietly, and not in the least sarcastically.

"Oh" said Dusk remembering Panda's father, and what he was like in the Loding house (according to
Race anyway) Dusk patted the dog
one last time, and to her suprise it thumped its tail against the floor once, before it closed its eyes and
went to sleep.

*******************************************************************************
The guys were still asleep, so for some reason
they would never quite understand, the dog sniffed around for a while, and then began to wake up the
guys in the same fasion he woke up the
girls. He never really got to any of the guys but one. Spot. He nosed at Spot, and as a pure reflex
action, Spot rolled over and smacked the dog
hard. This was a very bad thing to do, because immediatly, the do jumped back, and barked
several times. He growled loudly, and
showed his teeth. By this time Spot was obviously awake, and his eyes widened at the sight of a
mudstained, well over a hundred pound,
dog, growling at him, looking ready to attack at any minute.

Dusk and Panda rushes foward, in an attempt to stop the dog from doing anything. When he saw
this, his eyes widened even more "Dusk!
Get away from'em! Hes vicious! You'll get hoit!"

"Hes harmless...really" Dusk grunted as she and Panda leaned all their weight on him in an attempt to
make him sit. After a moment of not doing anything,
the dog apparently decided to comply, and sat down with a thud which caught Dusk and Panda both
off guard and sent them tumbling to the ground.

"HARMLESS!!!!" Spot yelled "He just tried to KILL me!!!!"

"Well ya did hit him" spoke up Panda quietly, much to the suprise of everyone in the room.

"I - I didn't mean to..." said Spot, almost speechless after hearing Panda say five words, completely un
forced

"Da dog don't know dat" spoke up Beaner, suprising herself by coming to the defense of the dog.

"Oh, I get it!" exclaimed Spot, "your saying its my fault da dogs crazy? If your plannin on keepin him,
den I sure am glad I don't live heah. I'm coitenly
not sleepin heah again till dat dogs gone." he stated firmly.

"Big loss" said Dusk smirking.

Spot calmed down some"Yeah, you don't know what you'd do witout me. You'd be lost if it wasn't for
me." he smirked too

"Sure" Dusk snorted

"Ya know ya - "

"Um guys?" asked Jack, interrupting Spot "What is dis, where'd ya get'em, and what ya gonna do
wit'em?"

"Well..."said Swinger, walking over to Jack "see, we ain't exactally thought dat far ahead yet"

Jack put his arm around her "Ya don't plan on keepin him heah do ya?" he asked raising an eyebrow

Swinger looked at him "Why not?" she asked suddenly getting an idea "He'd be good protection and
company both for us when you guys are gone."

"We shouldn't have to feel scared when were by ourselves." said Dusk, who was currently letting the
dog slobber all over her face, and laughing.

"Exactally" said Swinger "so just in case..." she smiled slowly. The guys knew as well as they did
that the girls could more than take care of
themselves, and the innocent female routine wasn't fooling anyone.

Irish smiled sweetly "And seeing as how he is already here..."

Quips spoke up "Where I used to live, we had a big dog, and in one night, he caught four prowlers.
Two of them had guns. Then a few years later,
he took a bullet, while trying to protect me, and I never quite got over it. It would be so nice to have
another dog...in rememberance of Trooper..."
She said, purposefully tearing up. Trying not to smile amidst the grinning girls

Spot rolled his eyes "OH PLEASE!!! Dats such a load of s - "

"Spot!" warned Dusk. Then she sighed "Oh come on. just let it go Spot." she paused for a
minute then grinned "I promise I won't let'em hoit ya"

"Funny" said Spot sarcastically.

Hesitantly Beaner said "If you think about it, someone could have a gun, and it would be a lot
safer for everyone if mabe he did stay."

At this everyone became serious. Seeing as how it was New York after all, and what with the
increasing number of violent crimes, they started to think
that maybe she was right.

Quips pounced on the oppertunity "What if we keep him on like a trial basis. If things don't woik out,
den we can find'em a home or somethin"

"But whats he gonna eat?" asked Jack "Look at'em, hes huge!"

"Well," said Beaner "I guess we could pool our money, and maybe buy him somethin at least. No
wait!" She said suddenly "I know Larry, maybe
he'll give us some scraps."

"Whos Larry?" asked Quips, confused.

"A waiter at Tibbies" said Dusk "You know, da one dats always dancin around? Dats him."

"Well, what about a name"spoke up Race, coming over near Panda and Dusk.

"I dunno"said Dusk as Panda slowly moved away, and went to lean against the wall. "Any ideas?"

Panda, shocked everyone again, and spoke, quietly, but without prompting, "Why not just Pup?"
People let this, the obvious sink in, and one by one, they, smiled at the simple, yet seemingly just right name.

"I love it!" said Dusk laughing

**********************************************************************************

Soon after, the newsies left. Panda still didn't feel right enough around people to be one, so she stayed
home, and had basically become something of a
housekeeper. Now, several hours later she looked at the dog apprehensively. She knew what she
had to do. It wouldn't be pretty, but she would do it for
everyones sake. She would bravely attempt the impossible. It was bathtime. Actually, it was shower
time. She had clumsily made something of a
barrier, with a piece of board, rope, and whatever else she could find. and put it around a shower
stall. She figured she could put Pup in there, put the
barrier in place, and lean over the barrier and give him a sort of shower. She had soap, towels, and
old clothes. She knew she would have to hurry if
she wanted to get this done before everyone came back. She knew she had been stalling, but giving a
150 pound dog a bath didn't seem like a terribly good
passtime to her.

She was able to get him in the fairly small shower stall with relatively effort. She had just fed him
about ten cold hamburgers, gotten the night before
for just this purpose, so he was pretty sluggish.When she turned the water on however, it was a
different matter. He didn't like it, and he kept shaking,
and throwing himself against the wooden barrier. And Panda realized in alarm that if she didn't
hurry, he would break it down before she finished. So
she put a lot of soap him up, almost loosing the soap several times. She tried and tried to get the
mud out, and finally it was almost all gone. She decided
to soap him up once more, good. This became her downfall. Panda spread soap all over him, and
rubbed it in. The dog was totally covered in bubbles,
and she was just about to rinse. Just as she went to turn on the shower, Pup gave one last ditch effort,
and threw himself against the wood. Panda heard
a cracking sound as the wood split right in two. She made a feeble grab for him as Pup raced by, but
it was useless. She looked at the clock, and realized
that everyone was going to be home any minute. Her eyes widened, and she raced after Pup. He ran
through the bunkroom, and down the steps, his
injuries forgotten. He ran by the door, and Panda thanked God that it wasn't open. She chased him
up the stairs, down the stairs, across rooms, and everywhere
he went, he left a trail of bubbles behind him. Poor Panda was near the point of exhaustion. Every
time she almost got him cornered, he slipped right by her.

She once again raced down the stairs after him, and thats what everyone saw when they first came
through the door. Skittery, the last one through, stood
in the open door staring in amazement. There was Panda desparately chasing Pup right past them.
She had bubbles in her hair, her clothes were soaked, and
she looked disheviled in general, not to mention out of breath. A few minutes they came back the
other way, Pup saw the guys and changed direction.
Panda thought he was finally going to stop. Wrong. He ran by a still flabbergasted Skittery, almost
knocking him over, and right out the door.
Panda practically collapsed against the wall, then seemed to shake herself out of it, and she took off
after Pup. Everyone shrugged and trailed out after her.
To a normal person, it would have been a funny picture. About twenty teenages running don the
street after a huge soapy white dog. But to them it wasn't so funny.
By that time, Panda was running behind everyone else, on the verge of exhaustion. Pup can't really
be blamed, because he thought it was all a new hame. He was
having the time of his life, oblivious to the people screaming his name, and running behind him.

Pup might very well have gotten away if it wasn't for Spot. He was running in one direction, then he
saw Spot and Dusk (Who were on their way back
to the Lodging House) walking towrds him. He skidded to a stop, and stalked cautiously towards
Spot, growling all the way. When he got to them, he
stopped, and sat down, his "game" momentarily forgotten. He simply stared at Spot, but the stare
made his blood run cold, and Spot stood motionless.
Irish snuck up behind Pup, and grabbed him, soon after, Beaner did as well, but Pup paid them no
attention. Quickly, Quip, Panda and Race,
vandalized Mushes suspenders, much to his dismay, and tuned them into a sort of leash. Sensing the
game was over, Pup walked quietly back to
the Lodging House, dragging Jack(Who decided he was the only one strong enough to
control Pup) along behind him)

**********************************************************************************

After this, Pup became something of an accepted nuscience. He was fed and housed, (against
Kloppmans better judgement) and in return,
he did in fact protect them. A few days after he ran off, Beaner woke up to a scratching noise, then
she heard several thumps and a few yells. This
woke everyone up. They heard Pup's growl, then several barks, and the sound of a struggle. After
this there was the sound of several people jumping
from their beds and running out into the hallway, namely, the newsies. There they found Pup with
blood on his face, and a large patch of cloth hanging from
his mouth, and looking rather pleased with himself. Eventually they all went back to sleep.

The next morning at the distribution office, there was Oscar, walking stiffly, and Morris with his shirt
untucked, walking stiffly as well. Quips got an
evil smile on her face, and walked by Oscar smacking him hard on the back."Heya Oscar ol' buddy!
How ya been?!" she smacked him a few more times
for good measure. Oscar just winced and growled at her from between clenched teeth. Then she
walked past Oscar to Morris, her grin growing wider.
"Heya Mooris! Dont'cha know dat dat looks sloppy? Whys your shirt untucked anyways?" before he
could do anything, she grabbed it and yanked
it up. Their suspicions were then confirmed. There was a large place on the seat of Morrises
trousers that lacked...covering. The newsies broke into
unrestrained laughter, and thats when they all knew that Pup was there to stay!