“Why was the dog goin’ crazy then?”

 “Who knows, now I have important work to do and so do you.  You can start by haulin’ that box down to the dumpster.”

 “How come I always gotta take the trash out?”

 “Cause I says!  Now hurry up and get busy. We need to have this place cleaned up so we can have new potential renters come in and look around,” Ralph said leaving the room.

 “Come on Butch,” Tom said to the dog. “You heard the man time to get busy!

  I am gonna go round up some more trash.  I ain’t gonna waste a trip.”

 I heard foot steps leaving the bathroom, but I didn’t dare move not until I was sure that the dog had followed him. I sat and wondered what I should do next.  If I let Tom take me down to the dumpster at least I would be out of the apartment and away from Butch. That is a definite bonus or I could be eaten by a horrible trash monster kind of like the one that lives in the sink!  Wow that thing is grumpy.  All of a sudden I felt something, something hot like mom’s hair dryer. 

 I knew he had found my hiding place, I knew he was right behind me breathing down my neck.  Slowly, I turned my head and I came face to face with him.  His teeth were long white and sharp.  And his breath… on his breath!  Whew!  I blinked once as his snout came closer to me. I tried to give him sad little kitten eyes that could melt anyone’s heart, but he wasn’t budging. His lip was curled, drool coming down his jowls and his mouth opened wide.  I saw my life flash in front of me.  It went pretty fast because I am not very old.  Wait a second, I’m not very old!  I have my whole nine lives ahead of me and it wasn’t going to end in this old box that smelled funny.  I held up my paw and had five weapons at my disposal and I let Butch have them right across his big nose!