No Beefeaters
The yellow schoolbus rumbled along the road leading to Creech Hill in England. It was a dismal Monday morning. The animals riding the bus were going to see the famous Tower of London. There were many of them. Pipsqueak, Susie, and PeeWee, three puppies, were excited. Chernobyl the cat was nervous. Jazzy, Martika, and Fresh Prince, the dog ghosts, were curious, wondering if they'd meet any other ghosts. [Note--yes, they are all named after pop musicians of the day.] And Lucifer, the old griffon, did'nt [sic] have any feelings about it at all. [Note--here, a "griffon" is a type of dog.]
The bus arrived at the Tower.
"Gee," Chernobyl said, "I do'nt [sic] see any guards or anything."
Fluffy grabbed the cooler that had their lunch in it and said, "Well, let's go eat before we do anything else."
"Look!" Pips, the oldest of the puppies, shouted. Coming towards them was a black cat on an old gray donkey. He stopped a few feet in front of them and said, "Howdy. Need a lil' help with yer lunch?" [Note--don't ask why I have a country hick-type character hanging out in London. No clue.]
"We could use some help," Fluffy said. "We've got all these bags to carry. [Note--missing endquotes.]
"How long ya stayin'?"
"Only today."
"Too bad. You fellers look like the kind who'd like t' stay a bit."
"Why do you mention that?"
"No guards at th' Tower. No guards, no guides, no nothin'."
"What happened?"
"Th' beefeaters went on strike. They wanned t' eat pork."
"I pity them," Shaggy said, licking his chops. [Note--no, not the guy from Scooby-Doo. Shaggy is Fluffy's twin brother and exact opposite, a sheepdog.]
"Oh, wow!" Pips cried. "Can we guard the Tower? Oh, please? Please?"
"We could'nt do that--" Fluffy started, but the cat cut her off with a wave of his paw.
"It'd be no trouble," he said. "I carry groc'ries t' folks 'o lives way out in th' country. I could bring groc'ries to you fellers if ya lived here."
"All right," Fluffy said, giving in to Pips' incessant whining. "But how long?"
"Six weeks at th' least."
"Six weeks!" Fluffy exclaimed. "But that's over a month!"
Susie did her puppy eyes. She was an expert at that. And this time it worked.
The black cat grinned and reached down to shake her hand. "M' name's Jake," he said, turning the donkey around. "I'll be over after lunch with yer dinner. But watch out for ghosts!"
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