The Wizard of Paws chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE
The Scarecrow 


Dorothy and Checkers were walking along the path of yellow sticks, which Dorothy found even more impractical because they crunched under their feet, when they came to a field surrounded by a fence, with a scarecrow in the middle of the field. Dorothy sat on the fence, staring at the scarecrow and expecting it to start talking. "Dorothy?" Checkers, who had sat down on the road, asked. "What?" Dorothy said. "Can we play a game?" "No." "Aw, why not? Look at the road! We could play fetch!" "No!" "Or we could play Simon Says or charades or checkers or the Alphabet game or--" "I said NO, alright, you idiot?!" Dorothy screamed at Checkers, who whimpered and dashed into a bush. Dorothy sighed. "Something is wrong with that dog," she said to herself, and she climbed down from the fence to look for Checkers, who was laying on his back, counting the clouds. "Five hundred and fifty ONE...five hundred and fifty TWO...five hundred and fifty THREE...five hundred and--oh, hi, Dorothy." "Hi, Checkers. Let me guess--you're the Scarecrow?" "Um...what's a scarecrow?" Checkers asked, rolling over. "Let's just say that it's a rather dull person who has no brains and won't leave you alone." "Okay, then. I could be a scarecrow!" Checkers said, flailing and trying to make crow sounds. Dorothy rolled her eyes. "Scarecrows aren't actually crows, silly," she said, poking Checkers with her toe. "Ack! I have been wounded! Alas, this world..." Checkers moaned, writhing. "Honestly, you're acting like Loco! So either focus or I'm leaving you here." "YESSIR!" Checkers barked, jumping up and attempting to salute, which caused him to fall back down. Dorothy started to walk away, and winced when she saw that Checkers the Scarecrow had decided to keep following her. 


"I'm hungry," Checkers complained. 
"I'm completely out of food," Dorothy replied. "By the way, what do you guys eat? Dog bones?" 
"WHATTHEHEY?!" Checkers yelped. "We are not cannibals! And Queenie already stated that we eat anything." 
"Well, then go start gnawing on that tree over there," Dorothy said, pointing to a tree that was growing by the side of the road. Checkers gave her a hard stare. "Do you realize," he said coldly, "that for one, residents of Terrier Town are environmentalists, and for two, we are dogs, not beavers?" "You SAID you'd eat anything!" Dorothy shouted back, wanting very much to kick Checkers back to Terrier Town. "HEY!" Cried a voice from the bushes, and Loco jumped out. "There's too much fighting and not enough getting on with the story!" Dorothy and Checkers gave Loco the Look, and he shrugged (as much as a Scottish terrier can) and said, "fine, then." Then he took off down the path.