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It was pretty chilly out, a heavy wind sounding on the walls outside the Adventure City PAW Patrol tower. It sure was a good thing Ryder was able to get Rubble’s family and Rocky to help pitch in and fix it nice and quick, or Liberty would be stuck back at the boat. She was still thankful for a home, but being on it for so long made her queasy and sea-sick. The Junior Patrollers had seemed to be sticking around a lot more too, often staying the night with her. She really didn’t mind the company, typically the rest PAW Patrol resided back in their own lookout in Adventure Bay. Mini, Nano, and Tot always insisted that their parents and whoever they lived with didn’t mind, but Liberty was very skeptical of that claim. They were such young pups, why would any mother or father want them away for so long? She was no expert, but usually parents were supposed to be worried about their kids, no?
Liberty looked over at the three puff-balls playing around with a ball and a rope. Nano and Tot were playing a good old game of tug-of-war, and Mini was munching away on a green ball. She assumed that the little pup was probably having trouble with teething, the habit could be hard to break. Nano was also hardly house-trained, often having accidents everywhere, but insisted he clean them up. Tot typically got super attached to everyone, he never wanted to be alone. Nine times out of ten, he wanted to be attached to Liberty.
“Liberty! Can we sleep in your bed tonight, with you?” Tot asked, wagging his little curl of a tail.
“What, are you big pups afraid of a little wind?”
Liberty teased lightly. “I feel you should maybe go home and spend some time with your real family, no? They ought to be missing you.”
“No, it’s ok,” Mini shook her head immediately.
“They know we’re doing super important PAW Patrol stuff!” Tot insisted.
“You’ve all been training hard since you guys got here, it’s been a few weeks. I know I always said ‘no stinkin’ breaks,’ but I could make an exception this time. Y’all deserve it.” Liberty brushed them off. “I think you guys have gotten a bit bigger since you came to crash with us!”
“We want to stay though, just one more night? Please? Then we’ll go home for a day or two.” Nano begged.
“That's kinda a long time…” Mini muttered, but Liberty picked it up instantly.
“Don’t you want to see your family?” Liberty cocked her head to the side. “Is something going on at home?”
“Well, we don’t exactly have a home for something to be going on in…” Mini cringed a bit.
“Mini! We promised not to tell!” Tot squeaked, looking mad.
Nano looked a bit nervous, and he was standing in a puddle.
“Oh…” Liberty finally let out a sigh. “I understand.”
“We’re sorry for lying.” Tot had his head bowed down in shame.
“There’s no need for an apology, but I’m just curious why you lied? You know you all always have a warm bed here.” Liberty offered for the three of them to come close.
Nano looked heavily embarrassed, and didn’t move from his spot.
“Come on, it’s ok, we can take a bath later.” Liberty felt sympathy rising within her for the puppies.
Nano sprinted over, pressing his head into her scruffily chest.
“So why’d you even lie in the first place?” Liberty asked, confused.
“Well… we saw all of you, you're all so cool and have a home.” Tot started.
“We thought you wouldn’t take us in if we were just a bunch of random street pups.” Mini finished, looking guilty.
“Really? That’s all?” Liberty chuckled a bit. “Most of the PAW Patrol were strays! I was living on the streets like a year ago!”
“What!” Nano jumped up, shocked. “No way!”
“Yes way!” Liberty nudged the pomeranian playfully. “Chase was a stray, Rocky was a stray, Marshall and Rubble too. Tracker and Everest were… well, you haven’t met them yet, but still!”
“Ooh! Ice or snow I’m ready to go! Right?” Mini chirped.
“And Tracker has big, silly ears!” Nano nodded rapidly.
“Not bad!” Liberty laughed.
“We’re super sorry for lying.” Tot sighed after a brief pause. “I guess it was pretty silly to think we wouldn’t be welcome.”
“Hey, no hard feelings. Just be truthful next time, or all the time…” Liberty thought for a moment, she wasn’t the best at teaching life lessons. “Yes! Always be truthful.”
“Thank you!” Tot snuggled into Liberty.
“Of course, little puff-ball! It’s a good thing you three are good cookies, I’ve warmed up to y’all so fast!” Liberty exclaimed, relaxing. “I’m just curious, how did you end up all alone so young?”
“We used to be at a shelter, but the humans there were really mean!” Tot explained.
“Yeah! Mini said we should escape the next time they opened the door to our cage, so we did.” Nano nodded. “Then Ryder found us a week later, we were super excited to meet the PAW Patrol, but I didn’t know if we’d be allowed to if we were on the streets.”
“But now we know!” Mini chimed in excitedly. “And Ryder won’t care, right?”
“Of course not.” Liberty nuzzled into the three pups. “You guys really are mean, lean, fluffy rescue, machines, huh?”
Tot, Mini, and Nano seemed to perk up instantly, and they were bouncing around, yapping endlessly.
“Alright, let’s not wake up the whole city, trust me, you don’t want to get pelted with shoes by annoyed people!” Liberty settled them down. “It’s a good thing you decided to come to us, the PAW Patrol will accept anyone into our family. Everyone is capable of something.”
“Do you want me to clean up my mess?” Nano asked shyly, changing the topic.
“Don’t worry, little guy, I got it. How about I run a warm bath too? We’ll help get you house-broken, I promise.” Liberty brushed him off, and started to look for cleaning supplies. “I will say, a good bath will certainly make you feel great, I know my first real one was amazing.”
“What about my chewing? I wouldn’t want to chew through Tot’s leg one night!” Mini asked.
“Why my leg?! Ahh! Liberty, don’t let her eat my leg!” Tot screeched, scurrying away from his sister.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you all grow out of any habits or puppy-problems.” Liberty chuckled, rolling her eyes a bit. “Everyone has their own little bad habit.”
Liberty gathered a sponge and some paper towels, and carefully wiped up Nano’s accident. She then made her way over to the bathroom, and propped herself up on the porcelain tub.
Liberty stopped for a moment, realizing what she was doing. Just a few weeks ago she was claiming she knew nothing about baby-sitting young pups, yet here she was, giving them life lessons, and running them a bath. Next thing she knew, they’d be snuggled up next to her in bed. Liberty didn’t mind though, what was not to love about the fuzzy pups? The three pomeranians were a ton of fun, and down-right hilarious with all their daily shenanigans. They even made that epic rescue, saving everyone’s tails from being squished by Mayor Humdinger. The dachshund smiled, and turned the tap off for the tub, and then dabbed a paw into the water, making the water the perfect temperature.
“Come on in, let’s get all that dirt scrubbed off of ya.” Liberty winked, and helped each Junior Patroller into the tub.
Mini started to paddle around her brothers with ease. The tub was low, and they could all stand up straight in the water
“Good thing I taught you to swim in your training.” Liberty winked at her, and watched them get used to the water for a few minutes.
She had been on the streets her whole life, but she at least had her mother for the first part of her life before being sent away. It was interesting to see the three balls of fluff still standing, and with so much energy too! Liberty was glad to not have as much hair as them. Another couple weeks without any care, and their fur would’ve been matted to hell. Liberty had definitely misjudged them, they were pretty strong for young puppies
“Bear with me here, I’ve never washed another pup before. I’m going to scrub some of this soap into each of you. It‘ll take a lot of work to really get it on there, and to wash it out.” Liberty started by squeezing some soap onto Tot’s head.
As careful as she could manage, she started to work her paws into the first layer of his fur, and after a lot of effort, she got down to the dirtier layers further in.
“Yeesh! There’s still dust in here from the meteor that crashed into the city.” Liberty started to submerge Tot in water to get all the bubbles out. “Wrap yourself in this towel for now I guess, I’ll have to figure out how to get all that water out.”
Tot looked ten times smaller than he actually was, and Liberty couldn’t hold back her small laugh. She slowly repeated what she did to Tot for Nano and Mini, and then she had three shivering puppies wrapped in towels.
“Uhhhh…” Liberty tried to think of something to warm them up.
“Ooh!” Nano piped up, his voice trembling. “Why don’t w-we go stand in the w-w-wind outside?”
“You’ll all turn into little puppy-popsicles! If it was warmer, maybe.” Liberty denied the suggestion.
She poked her head out of the bathroom, at a loss for what to do. It would take forever to get the three air-dried, and no matter how hard she rubbed them with towels, they’d still be soaked to the very bone. Liberty then noticed some of the vents in the hallway, and she put her paw over one of them. Perfect! They were blasting out heat!
“Come on over, it’s nice and warm!” Liberty nudged the door open more with one of her back legs, presenting the vents.
Tot ran over first, ditching his towel and leaving a trail of water. But it was worth it, as he looked much more comfortable as the heat started to dry him.
“Let me try!” Mini shoved her brother over a bit, the force of the heat lifted her up a few inches for a moment.
Nano went over a bit more cautiously to another vent, but he seemed more willing when he felt the hot air blast through his fur. Liberty chuckled at the puff-balls, it almost looked like they’d fly away with how powerful the air seemed on their small bodies. By the time they were done drying, they looked much happier, but… they’d need a good brushing.
“You look crazy!” Mini giggled at Nano.
“We all do! Whoa, I didn’t know we could puff up anymore!” Tot stumbled away from the vent.
“Uhhhh, well, I’m definitely no doggie groomer, but if I can wash y’all, I can probably get this fur under control, yeah?” Liberty studied the three puppies closely, and then looked around for something to settle the hair down.
“Maybe Ryder’s comb? He’s got some thick hair on his head.” Liberty stood up on her hind paws so she could reach the sink to grab the plastic rod.
Liberty soon got to work on Mini, trying her best to flattened whatever fur she could. She moved to Nano and Tot eventually, it seemed to take forever just to get one knot out!
“Yeesh! I’m definitely not cut out for this.” Liberty chuckled.
The three pups definitely didn’t look perfect, but it was much better than before. Their fur seemed to puff up even more than before though, maybe they could get it trimmed soon? Their fur took a lot more work than hers, probably even more than Skye or Everest’s!
“Well, that tuckered me out,” She huffed. “I’m ready to hit the sack.
“What sack are you hitting? That doesn’t sound very nice.” Mini asked, confused.
“Um… don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s get to bed.” Liberty motioned for the Junior Patrollers to follow her to the bedroom.
She still always half-expected them to curl up in bed beside her, but as she settled down, there were no puffy faces rubbing against her.
“You coming?” Liberty yawned, one eye open.
“Are you sure it’s ok we sleep with you?” Tot seemed a bit hesitant.
“Of course! It wouldn’t be the same.” Liberty waved them over. “Hurry before I take the whole bed up.”
The three siblings scurried over immediately, snuggling into Liberty’s long body. Sleep seemed to hit them all instantly; the cuddle pile clearly playing a factor in it. Now that Liberty knew what was going on, there seemed to be a deeper connection formed between the four of them. The Juniors seemed to be sleeping less restlessly. It would be a peaceful night tonight, and for many to come. Everyone was safe with their found family, the PAW Patrol.