Free The Storm by Dayna Lorentz

dog’s snout.”
    Zeus snorted and sat back on his haunches. “It’s not the big dog’s job to watch out who’s under his butt. It’s the little dog’s job to keep out of the way.”
    â€œIt’s the little dog who just saved that big dog’s butt,” Callie snapped. “So the big dog had better look before he sits, got it?” She stuck her muzzle right in Zeus’s snout, her chest puffed out and hackles raised.
    Zeus began to growl and raise his hackles.
    This is not going to end well , thought Shep. He stuck his nose in. “How about we promise to look before we sit, and you watch for falling butts. Okay? Every dog happy?” He opened his jowls, panting in a friendly manner, and wagged his tail.
    Callie and Zeus stared at each other for a few heartbeats more, then Callie stepped back.
    â€œListen,” she woofed, her head cocked.
    â€œThat’s my Callie!” yipped Frizzle, cuffing Higgins on the ear with his paw. “Is she a fierce little thing or what?”
    Shep heard something: a wail. Not wind, definitely dog.
    â€œI’m going back to bed,” Higgins grumbled.
    â€œWe can’t go back to bed,” Callie barked. “Didn’t you hear that howl? We have to check all the dens.”
    â€œNo,” said Zeus. “We don’t. Those other dogs can take care of themselves.”
    â€œHow would you have liked it if we’d said that about you?” growled Callie. She flicked her snout at Zeus’s den’s open door. Through it, Shep saw the broken window and the palm fronds flapping through it. Fat rain drops spattered the floor inside, blown in on a gust of wind that ruffled the fur on Shep’s muzzle. The wall around the window was cracked. Splintered beams jutted through the gap and the bottom half of the wall sagged into the den. The storm’s claws scratched at the very walls of the building.
    Callie continued, “This is a bad storm, and there are no humans around to help us out. We have to help ourselves.” Her tail stood tall, its slight curl trembling.
    â€œHa-roo!” howled Frizzle. “Let’s get this thing going! Big dog,” he barked at Zeus, “how about you and me start on the next door?”
    Zeus looked ready to trounce the squat yapper. In an effort to keep the fur on every dog’s back, Shep got off his haunches and strode to Callie’s side.
    â€œCallie,” he woofed, “it’s not that Zeus and I don’t want to help.” He shot a quick glance at Zeus, hoping he’d play along. “But freeing the dogs isn’t as easy as all that. All you have to do is stand there, while Zeus and I do all the hard work of opening the knobs. I nearly broke a tooth getting that one open.” He swung his snout toward Zeus’s door. “And we don’t even know where that dog is — it could be Outside, in the storm!”
    Callie’s tail drooped. “So you won’t help us?” she whimpered. “But what about that other dog? What if she was hurt by that awful wind? What if she’s trapped and scared, like I was out on that grate? I can’t bear to think of another dog suffering like that when there’s something that I can do to help.” She began to tremble again. She sat and scratched limply at her ear.
    Frizzle set his little jaw and paraded across the hall to Callie’s side, looking at Shep like he’d attacked the miserable girldog, like it was all his fault.
    â€œDon’t you worry, gorgeous,” Frizzle woofed. “You and me, we’ll find that dog and free any others we scent along the way.” He licked her jowl, and Callie smiled at him and waggled her tail.
    â€œOh, Great Wolf.” Shep sighed. “We’ll search this floor, okay?” He glanced at Zeus, who narrowed his eyes and snorted loudly.
    Callie was instantly on her paws, tail wagging, nose sniffing the air.