The Real Lassie

     “Don’t think you’re going away that easily,” she said, crouching low into the grass as the Buzzer rested on a rock.

     Bibi crouched down even lower, ready to pounce. Then, out of the blue, Pouncer leaped on her.

     “ROOOAAA-” Pouncer started what was supposed to be a roar but ended up coughing madly.

     “Pouncer! That Buzzer was supposed to be mine!” Bibi growled, but I, on the other paw, collapsed with laughter at the sound of such a bad roar.

     The two Kougras stared at me for a moment, looking at their red Lupe of a brother laugh at my brother’s pitiful roar. Then they both joined in the laughter, rolling about on the ground, as the innocent Buzzer escape with what I expect a lot of relief.

     “Buster, Pouncer, Bibi! What are you doing? Get up off the floor, now! Who knows how filthy it is!” said Ruby as she came across the three of us rolling around in the garden.

     She’s a red Uni, and, as we all know, she was just like any other Uni- panics about looks and screams on a bad hair day. But Ruby was like a mother too when Caz, our owner, wasn’t home.

     “Oh, how about having some fun in your life, Ruby?” I said, and with that, flicked some mud in her face.

     We all collapsed with laughter at the look on her face. She glared at me angrily at first, but then joined us, and we played around with each other for ages. That moment I was reminded of a time that happened before Pouncer and Bibi were born. Back when Ruby and I were very young. Back in the Lassie days...

      ****

     “Oh! Come on, Buster! I want to go home!” said Ruby, trotting up to me.

     I had found some unknown interest in grass, and had plonked myself down on the floor and started plucking it, one by one.

     We were very new to Neopia then, and so was Caz. We didn’t know much about Neopia either. I was always up to mischief then, itching to learn more and more about where I lived, though I’ve never really known why I liked to pluck the grass blades.

     “Come on, come on, COME ON!” Ruby said, her voice rising.

     “In a minute, I just want to-”

     “You can leave the grass for some other unfortunate Neopet who has a little enough brain to find joy in picking it!” And with a snort, she tugged me by the scuff and literally dragged me the rest of the way home. She was always like that on the way home from school back then, not now, but then. She seemed to get a bit restless after school and if she somehow got delayed by me she’d get very annoyed.

     Anyway, we soon reached home, and a very huffed up Ruby stomped through the door and collapsed onto the sofa, leaving me sitting at the doorway. We normally arrived home before Caz did, but I could somehow sense someone else was in the house. I went upstairs, no-one there. I looked everywhere downstairs, no-one there. I looked out the back garden, Caz was there. But she wasn’t alone. Next to her was a very playful looking blue Gelert. It was rolling about on the floor, jumping up and down, all the while wagging its tail wildly.

     I stopped and stared. Questions raced through my mind. What’s that Gelert doing here? Did Caz really think she’d been in Neopia long enough to have a third pet? Then, without warning, I just blurted out:

     “What in the name of Diddlers is that Gelert doing here!?”

     Caz looked a bit startled at first to hear my voice, but that was nothing compared to what the Gelert did. It literally jumped five feet, landed with a thud, and ran yelping over to Caz, its tail between its legs. Caz smiled sweetly and petted the Gelert. Then Ruby came out of the house to see what all the noise was about. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of the Gelert.

     “Buster, Ruby, I’d like you to meet your new sister, Lassie,” said Caz softly, stroking our apparently new sister’s head.

     “What were you thinking!? It’s far too early for you to have a third pet!! You’re blooming bonkers!” Ruby didn’t shout, but said loudly, and then added quickly, “but it was very reasonable for you to get a girl.”

     “Could you please explain why you got her,” I asked, looking at the whimpering Gelert.

     “Well, I wasn’t thinking about getting a third pet either, but I was wandering around Neopia when I came across the Neopian Pound. I’d heard of how some horrible owners just abandon their pets, and that the pets are just left in cages in there, literally begging other owners to adopt them. So, I decided to go and have a little peek at the neopets inside, and I spotted little Lassie here and just couldn’t resist her,” said Caz, still stroking Lassie softly on the head.

     “Well, I-”

     “I know, I know. It is early for me to have a third pet. But there’s no use in taking her back now, it would just break her heart. She’s apparently been abandoned many times and had quite a few owners, and she’s just a month or two older than you, Buster.”

     I opened my mouth to say something else, but Ruby stopped me.

     “It’s no use, Buster,” she whispered. “Let’s at least go and say hi to our new sister.”

     Ruby was the first to move. She walked up slowly to Lassie.

     “Hi! My name is Ruby. I’m sure we’ll have loads of fun together. Do you like makeup? I’ve got tons. We could give each other makeovers!”

     Lassie didn’t seem too keen on that at all. She peered over at me.

     “What? Oh, that’s just Buster. He’s very weird, and likes to pluck grass, for some very disturbing reason. But he is your new brother, so you might as well get to know him,” said Ruby, flicking her nose in my direction.

     I walked slowly over to them.

     “Hi,” I said shyly. It hadn’t really sunk in yet that this was my new sister. She just looked like any old blue Gelert to me, not a new member of the family.

     “Hi,” she said quietly, looking at the grass.

     “Well, I’ll leave you three in peace,” said Caz. And with that, she walked out of the garden and into the house with a large smile on her face. (She is normally very smiley!)

     Ruby and I looked at each other, then at Lassie. There was a long, quiet pause. The fact that Lassie was so shy made things a bit complicated, on top of that was the fact that we had never seen each other before, and that she was our sister. All through the while I was wondering why she was so bouncy and happy with Caz and the second she saw me she went suddenly quiet. It was like a completely different Gelert. But then Ruby broke the silence.

     “So... I assume you’d be hungry now, Lassie,” she said cheerfully.

     “No, not really,” Lassie mumbled.

     “Well, I’ll get some snacks anyway,” said Ruby, and then whispered in my ear, “Get her talking!”

     And with that, she hurried off into the house. Then the silence returned. Well, what could I say? I thought hard, hoping that Lassie would say something. But, of course, she didn’t.

     “Well. You seem like a nice Gelert. I hope you like this place, and Caz. You seem very quiet. I’m not saying this as an insult; I’m quiet myself sometimes. So I expect everyone gets quiet now and then, except Ruby. She is never quiet; in fact she could yap on and on and on and on and on and on and on to a stranger all day. I expect you think I’m quiet though, because I’ve hardly said anything to you. Anyway, I hope you don’t think I’m mean by saying you’re quiet; it’s just because you haven’t said much, that’s all,” I blabbed on. I was just saying the first things that came to my mind.

     “I’d better go to my bedroom now,” mumbled Lassie, and walked past Ruby, who had just came out of the house with three white chocolate Gelerts and three orange Ixi drinks.

     Ruby turned her head and watched as Lassie walked into the house. Then she turned to me.

     “What were you saying about me never being quiet?” she asked.

     Lassie was ignoring us for the next three days. She wouldn’t talk to us and if we asked her a question she’d just simply say “Hmm...,” or shrug, or answer so quietly we could hardly hear her.

     One day, when I was utterly bored, I thought I’d take a peek to see what Lassie was doing. She had been hidden in her bedroom all day, and as I couldn’t annoy Ruby since she and Caz had gone off shopping together. So, I crept quietly up the stairs and poked my head through the door. Lassie was sitting at her wooden desk, and definitely looked busy doing something, but I wasn’t quite sure what. I walked into the room, without making a single sound, but she must have sensed I was there. I saw her glance up at my reflection in her blue daisy mirror that was leaning on the wall in front of her.

     “Hello?” she asked quietly.

     “Hi, mind if I come in?” I asked.

     “You can if you want,” she whispered.

     I strolled up to her and looked down to see what she was doing. I gasped. She was drawing an amazing picture of a beautiful green Gelert, with a long whipped tail, sparkling amber eyes, a small, friendly smile, and two thin, long ears drooping over her head. It was so life-like; it looked like it could just jump out of the picture. She noticed me staring at the picture.

     “Do you like it?” she asked.

     “Yeah,” I said. “Is it of a certain pet?”

     Lassie turned her gaze to a photo of two very playful Gelerts. One was beautiful and green, with amber eyes, the other one was blue, with sky-blue eyes that sparkled like a star. The green one was sitting down and giggling while the blue one sat on its front legs while its back legs were standing up. With its tongue lolling out, its tail a blur as it wagged. They both looked joyful and happy, and I was sure I’d seen the blue one somewhere, but I couldn’t think where.

     “That’s me with my first sister, Amber,” said Lassie. “She was named after her eyes.”

     I glanced from her, to the picture.

     “You mean this is you?” I asked, pointing at the blue Gelert. That’s where I’d seen that Gelert before! I did feel slightly guilty for not knowing who she was, but I couldn’t be blamed. She looked so different. The sparkle in her eyes had gone, the joyful look on her face had disappeared, that wide smile was no-where to be seen, and her tail just looked like a floppy piece of blue string instead of a big blue blur.

     “We were best friends in the whole world, me and Amber, we could never be separated, endlessly playing, and we couldn’t bear to be without each other. But then... one horrible day...” She paused for a second or two, like she was re-living it all. She took a deep breath. “One day, we were walking around Neopia Central with our owner, happily chatting with each other, when my owner just basically grabbed me and took me to the Neopian pound. I hoped so much that she was just going to adopt another pet, but by the way she was dragging me I could tell deep down that I was going to be abandoned. She gave me to this scary looking Techo, and he just dragged me to the back of the pound, as I wailed and cried, and I saw Amber trying to run after me, calling my name...” and then she just burst into tears.

     “Hey, don’t get upset!” I said. I was quite uncomfortable being in this situation. I patted her back, to try and reassure her that everything was okay.

     “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “But that was the last time I ever saw her.”

     She wiped her eyes and blinked hard.

     “I went to several homes after that,” she said. “But every owner was the same. They’d throw me out in a matter of days. One even got fed up of me so quickly that he abandoned me the very next day. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but everyone just keeps abandoning me. I always thought I’d somehow get re-adopted by my first owner and things will go back to normal again, but of course, I know now that I won’t, and that every owner I’ll have will just abandon me. That’s why I’ve been so boring lately. I try not to make friends because I know I’ll just end up losing them.”

     That explained a lot. That’s why she had been hiding that playful Gelert I saw in the garden with Caz away from me and Ruby. And yet, her story had upset me, knowing there are such mean owners out in Neopia, just abandoning their pets for no reason at all, and they’re the reason that Lassie has had such a bad life so far.

     “But Lassie, I know Caz, and she’s never abandoned anyone before, and just look at how happy Ruby and I are. We’ve had a great life so far, and I’m sure you will too. You shouldn’t just try your best to be ignored, you should make friends. Okay, you might have to leave them sometime, but at least you had fun. So why not give me and Ruby a chance? You never know, we might get as close to each other as you were to Amber,” I said. I looked at her. She was just staring at her drawing of Amber. “And don’t worry. Caz won’t ever abandon you. I promise.”

     Lassie sighed. “Okay,” she said. “But let me give you some advice, Buster.”

     “What?”

     “Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.”

     I looked at her. She looked serious. I nodded and then walked out of the room to leave her in peace.

     She was silent for the rest of the day. She acted like I’d never even spoken to her that afternoon. By the time I had gone to bed, I began to think that she wasn’t going to try and be friends with me and Ruby, which made me slightly angry because she’d said that she’d at least try. But the following morning, she did try, and succeeded. She started chatting with Ruby and me about her interests, and before I knew it we were all playing around in the back garden, laughing away. And I soon noticed that the happy, joyful Lassie was back. The real Lassie.

     After that, it was like we were sown together. It was very rare to see us on our own, (unless we were asleep in bed or on the toilet!). We’d just be stuck to each other all day. I can remember one day Lassie tried to teach us how to draw, and she drew a spitting image of a red Lupe, a red Uni and a blue Gelert, while Ruby’s looked like more or less 3 ovals with four stick sticking out at the bottom with circles with a big wobbly smile on top, and my picture just looked like three un-identifiable objects with crooked smiles. We all stared at the drawings and just decided to take photos of each other.

     We took several photos of each other poking our tongues out, pouncing each other, or even just having a good laugh. Once we finished, we got all the photos together and made a scrapbook out of them. One photo we all particularly liked was one of me and Lassie sitting side by side, with Ruby standing behind us, a wide grin on every face.

     But then, one day as Ruby and I were making our way back from school (Lassie apparently never went to school) we went into the house to find Caz sitting on a chair, her face pale and her hair looked like she had been running her hands through it. We instantly knew that something wasn’t right.

     “What’s wrong, Caz?” asked Ruby, panicking.

     Caz looked up at us.

     “It’s Lassie. She’s ill. You can go upstairs to see her if you like, but don’t go in her room or you might catch the illness,” she said.

     Ruby and I raced upstairs to see Lassie. It was such a poor sight to see. She lay in her bed, fast asleep. She was extremely pale, almost baby-blue, and there were several bags under her eyes. She looked exhausted, and very uncomfortable as she twisted and turned in her sleep.

     “Oh she looks horrible,” said Ruby after we’d gone downstairs. “I hope she gets better.”

     “But that’s the thing,” Caz began. “She has Neomonia. The only cure for it is the Medicinal soap. But, it’s never in stock at the Pharmacy and they’re far too expensive at the market. She’s in such a state; I think I can only do the unthinkable.”

     I swallowed. “What’s the unthinkable?”

     Caz took a deep breath. “To abandon Lassie, so that she has an owner who can cure her.”

     “No!” cried Ruby. “You can’t! You mustn’t!”

     “I’m sorry, Ruby, but it’s the only way we can cure her. Think of all the misery she’s in now. If we abandon her, maybe her new owner will be able to cure her.”

     “So it’s definite? We’re abandoning her?” I asked quietly.

     “I’ve looked in every shop, Buster. So I’m afraid so.”

     We told Lassie later on that night. She seemed upset, but a lot calmer than I expected. The next day she was so bad we had to abandon her that day. The walk to the pound was the longest walk of my life. It was full of sadness, everyone dreading the future. Once we’d reached the pound, and Caz had said everything needed to be said, it was time for our last goodbye.

     “I’ll miss you so much,” said Lassie.

     “And don’t worry, Buster. That promise of yours was never made.” She smiled at me. I smiled back. She said goodbye, and then, left.

     It was quiet for the rest of the week. No-one wanted to talk. We knew we’d done one of the worst and best things we could do. We abandoned her to help her, but yet she’d always hated that place.

     “At least she won’t be ill anymore,” I told myself.

     Then, one day, Caz had a neomail from one of her neofriends, Lollypop.

      It said: Hey! Guess what! I have a new neopet! I’ll bring her over later on! Bye, Lollypop.

     Caz groaned. She was not in the mood to have any visitors. Lollypop had a blue Peophin called Sky and a blue Lupe called Max. I had to admit, they could be a tiny bit annoying, yet fun.

     They came over later at night. I lay stretched out on my bed, when I heard a knock at the door. Then I heard it swing open, and then several barks that I knew oh so well.

     “Lassie? Lassie!” I yelled.

     I heard Caz and Ruby scream with joy. I ran downstairs to see Caz swinging a healthy blue Gelert round in circles. When she’d finally put her down she looked at Lollypop.

     “How did you heal her?” she asked.

     “Oh, it’s easy, I just took her to the healing springs,” said Lollypop. Mine, Ruby’s and Caz’s jaws dropped, but soon started patting Lassie again.

     “I can’t believe how much luck I’ve had,” said Lassie after the fuss was over.

     “Yeah, but I’m glad you didn’t make them ignore you like you did to us,” I said.

     “Well, then they wouldn’t know the real Lassie!”

      ***

     All four of us lay on the grass, watching the sunset. Then we all heard several barks. Pouncer sat up.

     “It’s Lassie!” he said.

     I looked up and smiled. Not only was it Lassie, but her whole family, Max, Sky and Lollypop had come over.

     “Hey guys! Hope you don’t mind us popping over, do you?” said Lassie, smiling.

     “Not at all!” said Ruby.

     “Come on, Caz is inside. We’ve got plenty of chocolate for you to eat!” said Pouncer.

     “So, how’s life with Lollypop?” I asked Lassie as we ate our chocolate.

     “Great! In fact, I found a little something for you and Ruby to share.”

     She handed over and old scrapbook. Inside, was a photo of Me and Lassie sitting side by side, with Ruby standing behind us, every face with a grin.

The End

Hi! This is my fourth story. If you wish to neomail me, please do!