Chapter Text
"Fifteen Dalmatian puppies stolen!"
Is what the headline read. Other newspaper clippings in the scrapbook said something similar.
"Dognapping! Local family pets stolen!"
"Authorities on lookout for two thieves in truck."
"These are-These are the headlines from when we were...Kidnapped aren't they?" Penny asked.
Perdy just nodded. "After Roger called the police and told them what happened, a reporter came in and asked for the story...I don't remember much about it though."
"All I remember is going to bed...And waking up in a bag." Patch said.
"I remember that night though." Perdy said. "No matter how hard I try not to."
"What happened?" Penny. "What happened when you came back from the park?"
Pongo took a deep breath and settled down next to Perdy. "I'm gonna be honest...I hate remembering this. But I guess we need get it over with."
Perdy nodded. "It's not like it's ever going away."
The pups waited.
"Well...We had just arrived at the park."
_____________________________________
Pongo, Perdy, and their pets walked through the streets of London. It had just finished raining so the sidewalks were wet and the night sky cloudy and grey. Pongo loved the streets after it rained. It made so many new smells appear.
Perdy hated getting wet, but seeing Pongo as happy as a pup made it feel worth it.
The couples arrived at the park and Roger and Anita let the Dalmatians loose to be alone.
The two Dalmatians sat by the pond. Perdy resting her head on Pongos side. The moonlight reflecting of the water gave it an otherworldly glimmer.
"Beautiful night. Isn't it darling?" Pongo said.
"Absolutely." Perdy agreed.
"Someday...We've got to take the pups here to see this. They don't get outside much."
"Mm hm." Perdy said. "Do you think we should have let them come. At least tonight...They're getting older...They even knew you were spelling walk tonight."
"They're getting too big too fast. It's like they were hardly little at all."
"They know to behave themselves now...Maybe next time...We should...And if Patch learns to watch his language."
"Really. I don't know where he gets it."
Perdy raised her eyebrow. "Honestly?"
"What?"
She shook her head. "Well he doesn't hear it from me."
"Hey. It's not like I mean to let him hear me." Pongo said defensively.
"Whatever you say....Rolly needs to get out more too. I don't mind him being a little chubby but he needs to get some exercise."
"Definitely." Pongo agreed.
Perdy let out a sigh and laid her head back on her husband’s shoulder...
And suddenly...She couldn't explain it. But something felt wrong...
Really wrong.
Something really bad happened.
Her head shot up. "Pongo. We need to go home."
"What? Why?"
"We need to go home NOW." Perdy said.
Pongo seemed surprised...But knew better than argue.
He barked for their pets but Perdy had already run off.
"Perdy?" Anita called. "Where is she off to?"
Pongo chased after his wife.
"Pongo?!" Roger called. "What has gotten into them?"
The very confused couple chased after their dogs.
.
.
.
Perdy couldn't explain...Call it instinct, or just a gut feeling. But she needed to get home.
Get to her pups.
She skidded to a halt as a car passed by the street.
"Perdy! Perdy what's wrong!?" Pongo said as he caught up.
"I don't know darling but-" Suddenly. They heard the sounds of crying...From someone they knew...
"What's gotten into you animals?" Roger said as him and Anita finally caught up to the Dalmatians.
The two ignored them and went around the corner...To find Nanny sobbing on the front steps.
"Nanny!" Anita cried. "What's wrong?"
The older woman looked up at them with puffy eyes. "Oh mum. I'm so sorry I tried to stop them."
"Who?" Roger asked.
Suddenly, Pongo got a sniff of something he didn't recognize. No. Someone he didn't recognize.
Someone has been in his home. Someone that didn't belong there.
Him and Perdy pushed past the humans into the door. Perdy ran straight into the kitchen while Pongo followed the smell upstairs.
He peeked inside Rogers music room. No one was in here, but it looked like a fight had happened.
Rogers cello was broken and there was broken glass everywhere. He went downstairs as his pets were coming in. Nanny didn't look hurt but was hysterical.
"And they just-Just took them!" She cried.
"Took them?!" Anita said. "What? What did they take?"
"Are you hurt?" Roger asked.
"No sir but...Oh..." She sobbed.
Pongo suddenly picked up the other scent...In the kitchen...Near his pups!
He ran in....And was not ready for what he saw...
"No..." He whispered. It couldn't be...This couldn't be real. It had to be a nightmare!
Anything. Anything but this!
Perdy turned to him with a thousand yard stare.
Her lip quivered.
"Pongo." Was all she could say.
She was standing over her pups bed....
Their empty bed.
Just then. Their pets came in.
"They stole the puppies mum!" Nanny tearfully said.
Roger and Anita looked at the basket with shock.
"I-I'll call the police!" Roger said in a shaky voice.
Anita bent down and pulled Perdy close.
"Oh Perdy....I'm so sorry."
Pongo ran back outside. Sniffing like mad. He had to pick up that scent. He had to! Anything...His mind raced with both confusion and fear. Who had done this? Why? So many questions. He followed it up to the corner and past the next street. He was so busy following the scent he didn't even notice the car that had to swerve to avoid hitting him! This brought him back to senses. So many smells in the city, so many sounds. The poor father had to accept it. Whoever they were, they were long gone now...
Long gone with his children.
He trudged back home. Everyone was still in the kitchen...
Anita was trying to comfort Perdy. Nanny was still sobbing.
"Anita?" Roger called. "The inspector wants to talk to you."
Anita gave her beloved dog one more pet.
"We'll fix this Perdy. I promise." She said.
Pongo looked up at Nanny. The poor woman seemed almost ashamed to look at him...When she finally did, her face looked pained.
"I'm so sorry love." She said. "I did all I could."
Pongo just rubbed his head against her hand. He knew she did...There was no way he could be angry with her.
She walked out and left the two alone.
"Perdy...I-I tried to follow the scent but...." He stopped.
Perdy looked at him with red, puffy eyes.
"Pongo. Someone took our babies... They took… That just…" Whatever wall was holding back her emotions had finally broke. She threw herself on her husband.
"Someone took our babies, Pongo!" She wailed. He just held her. Tears began streaming down his own face.
The two parents just laid by their puppies empty basket. To human ears it would have sounded like howling...To a dogs, two parents crying over their lost children.
The next day. The small house near Regents Park was surrounded with excitement. Police were searching the house for fingerprints and such. The inspector was talking to Roger and Anita while Nanny gave the story to another officer.
"There were two of them. A tall, skinny one and a short, fat one. Claimed they were from the electric company..."
The whole ordeal was a blur to Pongo. He sat in the kitchen with Perdy who refused to leave her puppies basket.
As the policemen finished up, a police dog who had been brought in approached him.
"I picked up the scent you mentioned." The mastiff said. "Unfortunately, I didn't have any better luck. Whoever it was made a real clean get away."
"I see." Pongo said. "I doubt the scent was familiar?"
The mastiff shook his head. "Not anyone with prior history with us if that's what you mean. I am sorry."
Pongo nodded. "I'm sure you'll do your best." He looked the empty basket. "How did this happen...We've left them with Nanny several times...Why did this happen now?"
"From what you and your pets have told us...I can figure out only one thing. You were being watched."
"What?"
"The thieves seemed to know when you left with your pets every night. I can only guess it was planned out."
Pongo just stared at the floor. His puppies, his children. Someone had been watching them. Made sure when he and his wife wouldn't be there...Just to take them. And he never noticed! As if getting home too late to help them wasn't bad enough!
The mastiff was called as the police were leaving.
"Will let you know as soon as we find something." He said.
"Just tell me one thing." Perdy spoke up. "Is there any hope you'll find them?"
The mastiff's face softened. "There's always hope ma'am." He then followed the policemen out the door.
Perdy sadly laid her head in the basket.
"Oh my little ones." She sniffed. "Where are you?"
Pongo laid next to her. "Who would do something like this?" He said. "And why'd it have to be them?"
"We shouldn't have left them." Perdy said. "Why did we have to leave them?"
"Now darling. Don't do that to yourself."
"Why?" The mother wailed. "Why did we leave them? Why?!"
"Perdy..." Was all Pongo could say. But even he was hurting from all the what ifs. If they hadn't left that night...Would it have made a difference? Could he have even stopped whoever took them? It all didn't matter. In the end, he left his little ones alone. He wasn't there when they needed him the most.
He failed his children...
_____________________________________
"Days past and no news came...We were absolutely devastated." Pongo said.
The pups were cuddled against their mother as he finished. Patch trying his best control his anger...It was one thing if those horrible people kidnapped him with full intentions of skinning him. But making his mother cry was a step too far!
"And that's that night." Pongo said. "The worst night of our lives."
"Absolutely dreadful." Perdy said. "And it only got worse. The police weren't able to find anything...I had almost excepted that-That I would never see you again." She nuzzled her pups as if they were going to disappear.
"But you did mother." Penny said. "You and Dad found us."
"We never would have alone though." Perdy said. "Your father got the idea to use the twilight bark, I thought it was just a gossip chain but what else could we do?"
"I sent the message one night. And by our lucky stars it worked. The Great Dane picked it up and past it along. It eventually reached the Colonel who found you and...Well, I guess you know the rest."
"You saved us and the others and brought us home!" Lucky said.
"And you gave those two Badduns what for!" Patch said.
"So you don't have to worry about it mother." Penny said.
"I know love. But when I think about how to men came in and just took you. How for two weeks I had no idea where you were. And to find out what that monster wanted to do to you..."
Pongo shuddered. "That hurts the most...We could have lost you forever...To that...Psychopath in human skin!"
The pups seemed hesitant...But knew they had to break this ice.
"You mean Cruella?" Lucky asked.
The parents seemed surprised. But had to relent.
Perdy nodded. "That witch has been a dark cloud in my life for a long time. The moment I saw her I knew she was evil. She was always inserting herself into other people's lives. Sometimes...Before we met Pongo and Roger. She would come over and just go on about gossip or what not...And she would insist on always stroking me with those horridly long nails of hers...I put up with it for Anita's sake."
"And that day she came over before you were born..." Pongo said. "She walked into our home like she owned it and talked about you like she owned you. Your poor mother hid under the oven just to avoid her. Even then she knew she had ill intentions. And the day you born she showed up...After Roger had just saved my sons life. And had the audacity to try and buy you off us!"
The pups gasped.
"Roger and Anita were gonna sell us?" Lucky asked.
"No!" Pongo said. "But she was adamant." Pongo smiled a bit. "Roger...He told her off good. First saving our littlest and then telling that woman off. I've never been so proud. She stormed off in a huff, swearing to get even....I didn't know how serious she was...Anyway, she huffed off, I barked some things I can't repeat at her and we never gave her a second thought."
"Until that awful night." Perdy said.
"Did you know it was her that did it?" Penny asked.
"We all suspected her at first. Roger especially. The police even investigated her. But she was smart, she had her goons hide you far away in her ancestral home away from the city were no one could find you. She-" Pongo had to stop to calm himself. "She even called us. Offering her condolences...What kind of monster does that? She stole you from us, played mind games with Roger and Anita...I feel sick knowing I share a planet with someone like her!"
"And then when we found out what she wanted to do to you..." Perdy said. "It would've been one thing if she wanted to sell you or smuggle you, but she was going to-" She stopped.
"Mother..." Penny said. "You don't have to hide anything...We know what she wanted to..."
"It sounds like you need to say it." Patch said.
Perdy nuzzled her pups with tears in her eyes.
"She was going to butcher you! What kind of twisted monster would do that?! How's is the only thing she saw about you your fur?"
"She petted us a lot." Lucky said.
"What?"
"She used to pick us up and stroke us...Saying how soft and smooth our fur was...She said we were going to be beautiful...I didn't know what she meant but now..."
Perdy scoffed. "'Beautiful.' You're beautiful as you are. Living, breathing puppies. How that witch couldn't see that is beyond me."
"She told the Badduns to do it." Patch said. "And they would have if Sgt Tibbs hadn't helped us."
"Bless that cat." Perdy said. "We all owe so much to animals who didn't owe us anything. Him, the colonel, captain, the collie and the cows, and of course the Labrador...They saved all of us and are the reason we're sitting here today."
"And Tibbs was prepared to die to save you." Pongo added. "That's not something we can ever repay."
Hearing all this was a bit heavy for the pups. But one thing they understood...
"All this is because of Cruella?" Penny said.
"One person can cause a lot of trouble...A lot of heartache." Perdy said.
"......Still...." Pongo said.
"Still what?"
"It's funny. Even with all that said, all the horrible things she did and was going to do....We have to thank her..."
"Huh?!" Patch said.
"What do you have to thank her for?" Lucky asked.
"Without her. We wouldn't have found and rescued 84 kids who needed us. We have the most amazing family in the world and it's because of the actions of that woman..."
"And even more perverse is how...Empowering it is really." Perdy said. "What happened to us was ever parents worst nightmare. And we came out of singing. Literally! How can she or anyone do anything worse to us?"
"So...What you're saying is, by hurting you she made you happier?" Penny asked.
"I guess that is what I'm saying...." Perdy said. "Life's funny like that."
She finally turned the page to show all 101 of the Dalmatians still covered in soot in the Radcliffe’s home. The caption under it read, "the best Christmas present ever!"
"Now that is much better." Pongo said.
"Goodness! We were a mess!" Perdy said. "It took us a full day to wash all the soot off of you and the others."
"I loved being a 'Labrador' for a little while." Lucky said.
"Well I for one am glad we don't have to hide from anyone like that anymore." Penny said. "But I was happy to be home."
"We all were." Perdy said. "And we were so fortunate Roger and Anita welcomed all of them in. Like they had always known them." She smiled as she recalled the day after they came home. "After you were all cleaned and put to bed, Anita sat down with me and had the most heart to heart we've ever had. She told me, 'Perdita. You're going to have dozens of children. Dozens of little ones to raise. Do you really think you can do that?' I nodded. There was no way I could send any of them away. Not after all we've been through. She then told me. 'Well you and Pongo are going to have to keep a handle on them. I won't have them chewing up the carpets or anything.' I just shook my head...I raised fifteen of you to be good, respectful pups. I could do eighty four more."
"And you did." Pongo agreed. "Although I like to think I helped a little." He winked to his pups.
"Maybe a little." Perdy said. She finally flipped to the last page with a picture of Roger, Anita, Nanny, and all 101 Dalmatians. The caption under this read. "Our family!"
"And that's that." Perdy said. "After all that. Here we all are. If you had told me that meeting the love of my life would lead to me having ninety-nine wonderful children, I would have called you crazy."
"I'll always wonder what we ever did to deserve being this happy." Pongo said.
The five Dalmatians looked at the last picture in the scrapbook. Until they heard Nanny call out, "Dinner!" The sound of numerous little paws running through the house followed soon.
"Better get downstairs loves." Perdy said.
The three pups did as they were told. Leaving the parents alone.
"Ninety-nine puppies." Pongo said. "Not in a million years would I have dreamt it."
"And soon we'll be in a place with room for all of them." Perdy added.
"And never have to worry about that woman ever again."
"Not bad for a relationship that began with getting dumped in a lake." Pongo said.
Perdy gave a sly smile. "Not bad at all."