The Runt: Food For Thought

By [Nekko fox]. the continuation of The Runt series


  "Is there anywhere us guys can squeeze in and play, too?"

  Tod stared at the wolf, speechless, seemingly unable to understand what was just asked. Inwardly, he gave a sigh of relief. Dante had just broken a somewhat awkward silence with his ‘innocent’ inquiry. Tod did not want to make Mark angry when he saw the little pup naked beside his cum-covered girlfriend. But, considering the carnal looks that Mark and Eric were giving Amy, Sheila, and Tod as well, he quickly discovered that there was no need for worry.

  He was about to open his mouth to invite the others to join in their play-time, but his stomach interrupted, reminding Tod, and everyone around him, that he had not eaten recently. His ears flushed pink as a helpless smile spread across his face.

  “I think I might be a little hungry…the last time I ate was last night…”

  Mark stepped past Dante and picked Tod up, ruffling his hair with a chuckle.

  “Little one, for how loud your gut rumbled, my guess is you could eat your new family out of house and home right about now…”

  Tod was about to protest that he couldn’t be that hungry, but he was drowned out when everyone began making suggestions as to what they should eat. Eric suggested Chinese food, but Amy and Sheila grimaced. Amy stated that she thought they should stay in and make dinner. Mark groaned, complaining loudly that Eric would surely burn whatever they were cooking and suggested that they go out somewhere nice. As Eric reached over to smack the cat, he lithely jumped aside and set Tod upon the floor.

  Sheila seemed especially keen on this idea, but her first suggestion, a restaurant with a triple digit bill, was quickly shot down. She sulked a little, her ears against her head as she hissed at the others. Amy leaned over and licked the felines face, making her groan and push Amy away in disgust. When the number of suggestions began to fade, Tod made a suggestion of his own.

  “Let’s have pizza!”

  The room went deathly silent as all eyes turned as one to the pup seated upon the floor. Tod suddenly felt his cheeks burning. He had never eaten pizza, but had seen it on the television the few times he had been allowed to watch it with his old family. His family had sniffed in disgust when he asked if they could try it, his father calmly informing Tod that pizza was for the lower classes, and not for a distinguished family like their own.

  With everyone staring silently at Tod, he felt shame burning within him. He was still new to the family, what right had he to make suggestions? He felt a tear trickle down his cheek as he cowered down, his tail wrapping around his leg submissively. He realized that maybe they, too, thought of pizza as lower-class food, and that he may have insulted his new family and friends. Quickly, he began stammering an apology.

  “I...I’m…s-sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything…I’ve just never had it before, I thought we could eat it together…you know, like a family…”

  He sniffled and hiccupped quietly, wishing he could disappear, waiting for some sort of rebuke or angry word, some comment on his numerous failings. He closed his eyes, waiting, but silence continued to reign. He heard a movement coming from all sides, and he cowered down further, expecting a slap of some sort for his rude behavior. He waited, his breath still coming in short fits, his cheeks growing steadily wetter. Then he heard a click, and the pressing of buttons.

  “Hello? Yes, I’d like to order three medium pizzas…”

  It was Sheila speaking, and when Tod opened his eyes, he saw that everyone was now seated around him comfortably in a small semi-circle. Sheila was staring off into the distance, a fancy cell phone complete with rhinestone stickers in the shape of hearts held firmly in her paw. As she was ordering, both Eric and Dante seemed eager to add suggestions for toppings. Mark, on the other hand, merely sat back and laughed at their antics with Amy, snickering as Sheila began fumbling with the order as Dante and Eric began tossing out ideas for pizzas.

  “With extra cheese!”

  “…three medium pizzas with extra cheese…”

  “And olives!”

  “Ew! Olives? No! Oh, fine, extra cheese and olives…”

  “Just kidding, I hate olives!”

  “Dante! Cut it out!”

  “Mushrooms then?”

  After a good fifteen minutes, and having to call the pizza parlor back three times (they had hung up twice, and the third time they were disconnected when Sheila threw her phone at Eric) the pizza was finally ordered. Tod, no longer crying, was bouncing on his bottom like a child on his way to the fair, his tail wagging incessantly to match his mood.

  “So, does this mean I get to try pizza?”

  Dante nodded and scratched Tod under his chin, laughing.

  “That you will little guy. I can’t believe you’ve never had pizza before!”

  Tod shrugged, self-conscious, and commented quietly that his old family never bought it. He could see that the others were interested in more details, but Tod did not feel up to explaining at the moment. He simply wanted to enjoy their company without marring the moment with sadness. He decided to quickly change the subject by looking over to Sheila.

  “Will it be very long until the pizza gets here?”

  His stomach backed his statement with a tumultuous grumble. Everyone laughed, even Tod. Sheila, between fits of laughter, told Tod that it would be about forty minutes before the pizza arrived. Tod’s ears drooped, and he gave a small sigh. He was very hungry, but he supposed he would have to wait. Another forty minutes wouldn’t be much to him. He then had an idea to pass the time. He looked over at Dante, his eyes glancing over fur-covered muscles.

  He stood up and walked over to where Dante sat, causing the wolf to look over to Tod with a pleasant smile upon his face.

  “What’s up kiddo?”

  Tod’s response was the second surprise of the day for everyone. Tod wrapped his arms around Dante and sank his teeth into the fur on the side of the wolf’s neck. He made sure not to bite hard enough to hurt, but hard enough for Dante to feel the pressure and the small points of Tod’s small teeth.

  Dante gasped and quivered, unmoving, as Tod’s hands began roaming over the wolf’s body in a leisurely fashion, playing over the velvety midnight fur to feel the strong muscles beneath. Tod gave a soft whimper of pleasure and pressed against Dante’s hard body, letting go of his neck and trailing kisses up to his ear. Once reaching Dante’s ear, Tod gave him a playful lick that made the larger canine moan. Tod stepped back, admiring the wolf closely, his body reacting to urges that had arisen quickly.

  Dante, his breath coming in short pants, looked at Tod with a lusty glint in his eye. He grabbed Tod roughly at the shoulders, startling the pup, and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. The puppy whimpered, somewhat worried that Dante would hurt him, but the wolf remained surprisingly gentle despite his outward gruffness. Tod pulled away from the kisses, dropping low onto his knees and with nimble hands undid Dante’s pants.

  He knew the others were watching him, but he was already lost in the moment. Without warning, a soft pair of hands wrapped around Tod’s miniscule waist. He glanced up from where he was kneeling, with his bottom so neatly exposed, and saw Mark smiling down at him. Tod barked at him playfully, his tail wagging as he saw that Mark’s pants were already off. With almost practiced ease, the puppy worked the edge of Dante’s pants down past his gender, revealing him to be hard and, surprisingly, dripping.

  Tod felt pressure against his bottom, and he looked back to find that Mark was rubbing his shaft against his entrance. Evolution and nature had thankfully removed the barbs from the feline’s phallus, but not his tendency to be promiscuous and excitable. He was purring loudly, his eyes closed as he rubbed his throbbing member against the silken fur of Tod’s bottom and his warm, tight tailhole. Tod noted his size and smiled. He wasn’t as big as Eric, but big enough to be good in bed.

  As Tod was contemplating if Mark would try to push in, Dante reached up, put his paw to the back of Tod’s head, and guided him down to his shaft. Tod obediently took him into his mouth, wincing softly at the slightly bitter-salty flavor of the wolf’s pre-cum. As he was sucking, he heard as well as felt Mark lean down and lick his tailhole, the sandpaper tongue feeling surprisingly good on his tender hole. The cool air hit the saliva, making Tod’s body shudder with excitement, and his sucking grew more energetic. Dante seemed to enjoy this because soon his hips were rocking up and down, pushing a little more of his member into Tod’s eager mouth.

  And then Tod felt Mark press himself against his entrance, gently lifting Tod’s silken tail out of the way and slowly, ever so slowly, pushing himself into the puppy. Tod whimpered as he felt the tip of Mark’s cock pop into him, and gave a whimper as Mark began pushing in deeper. Neither the cat nor the wolf heard his soft whine, and so they continued their pleasuring. Tod glanced off to the right, to see if Amy or Eric had heard his plaintive cry, but his eyes widened at what he saw.

  Eric lay upon his back, with Amy kneeling over his head. By the bobbing of Eric’s ears and the gentle noises of ecstasy Amy was making, Tod knew that Amy was being licked…and she was enjoying it quite a bit. On the other end of Eric sat Sheila, perched neatly atop his mid-section and riding his shaft with the utmost vigor. She pulled her hips upward, and then veritably slammed them down against Eric’s hips, eliciting both a panting moan and a continuous purr from the promiscuous kitten.

  But the distraction was only momentary as Dante pushed his wolfhood too deep into Tod’s mouth, making the puppy gag momentarily. Tod jerked his head back and coughed slightly, and he heard Dante apologize, and a gentle paw rubbed his ears. Tod smiled softly and bent forward, sucking with more vigor on Dante’s shaft, being careful not to take too much again. He tried his best to ignore Mark’s throbbing member in his bottom, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the pain.

  Tod could feel that Mark was being gentle, and not pushing in too deep, but the pain was starting to grow. He cinched his eyes closed, wrapped a paw around Dante’s cock, and rammed his bottom backwards against Mark, forcing every inch of the cat into him. His cry of pain was cut short when Mark’s tip pressed against his prostate. Tod’s pain was momentarily forgotten as his head spun with the sensation. Mark, noting Tod’s movements and mistaking them for eagerness, pulled back and then pushed back in again as far as Tod could take.

  Tod moaned around the cock in his mouth, tears trickling down his cheeks from pain and pleasure alike, Dante gasping for air as Tod sucked on him and Mark grunting as he began rapidly thrusting into Tod’s virgin bottom. The air started to feel hotter and heavier to Tod, the pain making him dizzy and the lack of air because of Dante’s gender in his mouth was beginning to be too much for him.

  Tod opened his eyes and looked up at Dante, and saw the wolf’s back arch suddenly. Tod felt a hot splash across his tongue and into the back of his throat, filling his mouth with the thick, salty fluid of procreation, but he hardly noticed as he swallowed. Tod could hear Dante crying out his pleasure, but it sounded fuzzy to Tod, as if it were heard through many layers of cotton. Tod also vaguely noticed that the pain in his bottom was more intense. He tried leaning back, hoping to feel that special spot pressed again. But, Tod wasn’t sure how, instead of leaning back he tipped sideways.

  He tried to regain his balance, but the world seemed to tilt with him, refusing to allow Tod to right himself. Distantly he registered that he had hit the floor, but it seemed to be happening to someone else entirely. Tod couldn’t seem to make sense of it; the only thing he had a concept of was the pain and his difficulty with breathing. He pondered to himself why it was getting so dark, because he dimly recalled the lights were on. Mark’s voice called out to him from the shadows of his mind, and then all went black.

  There were voices...Soft whispers in the darkness. Tod rolled through the void he felt himself spiraling through. It made him dizzy, but there wasn't anything he could do about it all...He just let himself go, spinning gently through the ebb and flow of nothingness. He had to admit to himself that, despite the dizziness, he felt better than before. Breathing was still difficult, but at least he could breath. His bottom, too, hurt much less. Had he died? Tod gave a small shudder of fear as that thought moved through his mind. But, if he was dead, why did it hurt? Though he didn't feel as much pain as before, it was still present. Tod recalled hearing somewhere that in Death you lose all of your pain...but his was still there. He remembered his small bottom getting rammed by Mark, so he knew all too well why it hurt. But should it hurt?

  After a moment, Tod decided that he wasn't dead, and just as this realization swam over him, he heard Mark’s voice, choked and tearful, begging him to wake up...

  Tod’s eyes cracked open to reveal a blurred figure above him. Tod blinked a few times, clearing his vision, and found that he was being cradled in the arms of the tabby. Mark’s eyes were wet, but when Tod’s eyes opened his face broke into a smile of relief. The sight somewhat startled Tod. From Mark’s earlier impression, Tod knew he was friendly, but he seemed distant. As if he were afraid to get too close to the little pup. Tod found himself happy to see the cat concerned for his well-being, so he reached up and licked the cat’s cheek.

  “Oh, God! Ew! Gross! It smells like Dante!”


  Everyone started laughing as the cat grimaced, unable to defend his face from the puppy-licks as Tod started licking his face furiously. Finally, after much begging and pleading on Mark’s part, Amy took Mark’s now-giggling burden away from him. Tod glanced back to see the damage he had done and snorted into his paw at the sight that greeted him. Half of the fur that covered Mark’s head stuck out at the oddest angles, and with the spit made ever thicker by Dante’s seminal fluid it looked to be stuck that way permanently. Mark sat their, sulking and reeking of bodily fluids. Tod offered to wash him again and to make the other side match, but this only made Mark scramble away to put distance between himself and the puppy. Dante, smiling, chased after and grabbed the cat under his arms and started dragging the protesting feline over to the puppy.

  “Hey! You hurt Tod! How are you going to make amends for it?”

  Tod was surprised to here these words, and apparently so was Mark. Mark grew quiet and Tod’s ears perked up. Sheila, giggling like a schoolgirl half her age, made a suggestion for reparations.

  “Well, since I think Tod’s bottom is out of order for the moment, why don’t you play with his front Mark? What do you think Tod?”

  Tod sat there for a moment in Amy’s arms, then tentatively touched his body. He winced and pulled back his paw to discover that his tailhole was bloody. He cast an anxious glance at Mark. Seeing the hesitation, Mark looked away. His voice was a barely audible whisper.

  “I promise I won’t hurt you again Tod…I promise…please, let me make it up to you?”

  Tod slowly nodded his head, trying to seem eager for Mark. Deep down, he was much more than hesitant, what if Mark hurt him again? What if he was just lying to gain sympathy? Tod recalled several times when Ashton and Terrance both feigned regret and some level of moral aptitude, and just as Tod showed sympathy and interest in their well-being…WHAM! They would hit him. It seemed to be a running game to see how long they could get Tod to believe they were repentant before they struck him. That game never lasted long, and they often joked afterwards and compared times.

  Tod swallowed a lump in his throat, choking back his inhibitions as best as he could. He knew that Eric and Amy were there, so he could always call for help...But still...His insides gave a small quiver and he wondered where that smile he had earlier had gone. When he saw that Mark was smiling at him, Tod felt an almost brotherly connection to him, like the love Tod felt for Eric. Where had that gone, Tod wondered.

  Mark stepped slowly across the room and knelt before Tod. A soft smile showed on his face, making the whiskers on his cheeks perk up. His paw touched under Tod's chin, making them look eye-to-eye.

  "I'm sorry Tod...I didn't mean to hurt you...I thought you were having fun. I didn't know it was hurting you, and I would like to apologize."

  Mark gently stroked Tod's cheek and a tear slid down Mark's cheek as he spoke, to soft for the others to hear.

  "Fur...soft like Andy's..."

  Tod cocked his head to the side, not quite following, but before he could ask Mark shook his head, stealthily swiping the tear away before turning a brighter smile to Tod. The old sadness seemed to have gone.

  "So, I think, if you'll let me Tod, I know how to make it up to you."

  Tod looked at him, wanting to ask who Andy was, but quickly decided to let it go. Who was he to dig the skeletons out of other people's closets? Tod leaned closer and gave Mark's nose a gentle lick, and showed the tabby a smile of his own, to show him that all was forgiven.

  "Okay, but under one condition."

  Mark nodded and waited.

  "The others get to watch."

  Mark looked over his shoulder. Indeed, everyone was watching. Amy lay comfortably in Dante's lap, stroking his testicals while Sheila sat behind Eric, her paws wrapped tightly around his still stiff cock. All eyes were on the Tabby, with four wide grins egging him on. Mark groaned aloud, closing his eyes.

  "Do they have to watch Tod?"

  The puppy nodded eagerly. He was starting to become excited, his curiosity as to what Mark was going to do pushing past the barriers he had built around himself. Tod felt, if nothing else, like a puppy! His tail thumped the floor as he wagged, leaning close to hear what Mark was going to do. Mark, after a moment’s hesitation because of his audience, finally conceded. He picked Tod up and moved them to the bed. Being careful of Tod's sore bottom, he placed the pup in his lap. Tod, for the life of him, was squirming and wriggling like a batch of worms under a hungry bird, moving every direction at once. This set Mark into fits of laughter as he tried to settled down the puppy with his hands and words, but this failed quickly and caused the others to laugh uproariously.

  Mark seemed to have an idea because his paw suddenly whipped around Tod's middle and grabbed between the young one's legs, cupping his testicals with ease. Tod gasped and his body grew still as he felt his young testes being rubbed and stroked by the cat. He closed his eyes with a soft murr of pleasure, leaning back against Mark who turn, wrapped his arms around Tod in a comfortable embrace.

  Tod let a small sigh escape him as Mark began work his way upward toward his sheath. All of the playful excitement earlier had left Tod soft, so Mark began by stroke up and down the pup’s gender. Tod gave a soft giggle as the cat began using only a single finger, rubbing and stroking until Tod’s pink tip began emerging from his sheath. Tod open an eye to see what was going outside of his little bubble of pleasure and got a small thrill as he saw what the others were doing.

  Amy was still in Dante’s lap, but somehow she moved herself to more advantageous position so as to suck on the wolf’s thick cock. Eric, like Mark, had his eyes closed, but his head was leaning back against Sheila’s shoulder as she stroked him while rubbing his testicals with her other hand. The scent of pheromones in the room was so thick Tod could practically taste them on his tongue. His nose, being as sensitive as it was, was burning slightly from the erotic aroma in the room. He heard Mark gasp behind him as Tod started growing hard under Mark’s touch.

  Tod closed his eyes and imitated Eric, leaning his head on Mark’s shoulder as best as he could due to his small stature, and let Mark play between his legs. Mark’s paw fur was silky smooth and, with his claws sheathed, felt wonderful on Tod’s exposed sex. Deep down, Tod felt mild embarrassment that Mark’s paw was larger than Tod’s shaft, but the feeling was merely one in many that were swimming through his head at the moment, and soon the feeling was lost in the ebb and flow of pleasure that Mark was granting Tod.

  Tod opened his eyes again, watching the others play with one another. They all cast the occasional knowing smiles at him, enjoying the sight of him being pleasured just as much as he enjoyed watching them fool around. The sights excited him, and Mark wasn’t exactly ignoring Tod at the moment. The tabby began stroking up and down the young dogs shaft, squeezing gently from the knot at the base of Tod’s shaft all the way up to the tip, pushing out small droplets of his precum.

  While this was occurring, Tod watched as Dante began fingering Amy while she sucked on him, just as Sheila took away the hand she was using to fondle Eric’s testicals and moved it behind his back. Her moans made Tod assume that the hand relocated to a place between her legs. The air was getting hotter and heavier, but this time Tod wasn’t in pain, and had no trouble breathing. He was enjoying Mark’s swift hand movement, stroking rapidly up and down his cock, lubricated by his own juices.

  With the same swiftness that Mark was using on Tod’s shaft with his paw the tabby shifted his weight to the side and pulled Tod backwards. For a frightened moment, Tod thought that Mark was going to hit him just as his old brothers had done when Tod gave in to his sympathy. But his worries dissipated when the cat dropped his head into Tod’s lap, taking the puppy’s shaft into his mouth with disturbing ease.

  The rough sandpaper tongue felt delightful, and Mark’s deep purring made his throat vibrate incessantly. Tod was in heaven, and didn’t want to leave. Mark started stroking Tod’s cock just his thumb and forefinger while simultaneously taking all of the puppies flesh into his mouth. Tod let out a loud gasp and a high-pitched whine, sounds filled with excitement and tinged with the desperation felt before orgasm. Tod, now unable to see the others, merely lay there, writhing gently as Mark stroked and sucked him ever closer to his finish.

  The puppy grit his teeth, dug his fingers into the blankets, and tried his best not to kick with his little legs. His eyes cinched shut, he felt the building sensation of internal pressure that he had come to know through Amy and Eric, the sensation that heralds his orgasm. He started gasping for breath, letting out plaintive whispers.

  “Mark...God Mark! I’m…I’m cumming! Oh god I….Ooooohhhh!”

  Tod’s hips bucked upward, forcing all of his shaft into Mark’s mouth as the puppy started to scream through his orgasm. Mark obediently began swallowing the pup’s hot spurts of bodily fluid but he never stopped sucking and stroking Tod’s member. Tod could barely stand it as the cat stroked another spurt or so out of him before he pulled away and let Tod fall back against the bed, panting and winded as if he had run a triathlon.

  Mark turned away from Tod and looked at the others. Eric lay with a hot splatter of his fluids across his stomach and Sheila was kneeling in a puddle. Amy ad a smear of white wolf cum on her muzzle and Mark’s paw looked damp and sticky. Mark cleared his throat, swallowed, then cleared his throat again. As Tod sat up, everyone looked there way.

  “Okay, I believe you guys now…He does taste like cookies…”

  Everyone laughed and Tod cast a quizzical look at Mark. The cat shrugged.

  “Dante whispered that you taste like sugar cookies when he grabbed me as I ran off…I didn’t believe him at first…I suppose I have to now.”

  Tod struggled up and inadvertently tipped over onto his side with a soft groan. He felt drained, and now that all the excitement was over Tod realized once more that he was really hungry. A mouthful of wolf cum wasn’t sufficient a meal for the growing puppy, Tod knew. He sat up and was just about to ask when dinner would arrive when the doorbell rang, its lilting chime drifting through the house.

  Tod was surprised at the mad scramble that followed. Clothes veritably flew through the air as people began searching for their garments, trading socks for under-things and shirts for pants. Before Tod could blink or draw breath, the others were dressed and looked as if nothing sexual had ever occurred. The only thing that betrayed them was the reek of bodily fluids that permeated the room.

  Dante walked over to the window and opened it, letting the room air out while Sheila left to fetch her purse. Amy scooped up Tod and wrapped him in a towel, and carried him downstairs as she followed Sheila downstairs. Upstairs Tod could here the sound of Dante, Mark, and Eric working together to air out the bedroom.

  Amy walked into the living room and set Tod on the couch near the television. Sheila stepped past, a bright pink purse held in the crook of her elbow. Her tail flicked behind her as she stopped to pull out the amount necessary to pay the deliverer. Tod watched in surprise as she pulled out a large roll of ten dollar bills and started flicking through them. She noticed his interest and smiled at him.

 “My folks are a little bit on the rich side Tod. This is my allowance for the month.”

  She winked at him and went to the front door, opening it with practiced ease. At the door stood a bunny with white fur that looked a bright yellow in the glare of the porch light. He was wearing a red and black shirt with a black cap, his large ears sticking out at jaunty angels from underneath it. He smiled at Sheila, sniffed, and pretended to gag.

  “Oh my God Sheila! You smell like an orgy!”

  Amy whistled to Sheila, who turned to look at her friend. Amy made a shooing gesture with her hand, then indicated her stomach. Sheila giggled and turned to poke the delivery bunny in the chest with her finger.

  “Don’t worry about it Shade. The guys and I were just teaching the newest member of Amy’s family a thing or two.”

  “New family member?”

  Tod could see the rabbit, apparently named Shade, trying to look around Sheila into the house but the young feline pushed the roll of ten dollar bills into his face and snatched up the pizzas from his grasp. She clicked her tongue at him, using her free hand to wag a finger at him.

  “Bad! Bad Shade! You know this isn’t my house, and you’re working right now, so you’ll just have to meet him on one of your days off.”

  “It’s a him?”

  Shade smiled and tried looking around Sheila once more, but she was enjoying her control of the doorway and prevented him from looking inside. Tod could see her tail flicking about in excitement.

  “Maybe tomorrow Shade, but we’re all tired and hungry. Thanks for hurrying by the way, I put in a nice tip for you.”

  Tod could hear a resigned sigh from the doorway followed by a dejected farewell, and Sheila shut the door. She brought the pizzas in and set them on the coffee table in the middle of the living room. Eric jogged in, followed by Mark and then Dante, all commenting that they could smell pizza. Indeed the pizza smelled delicious, causing Tod’s stomach to go into fits of grumbling, but he remained silent. Amy rolled her eyes, commenting on the single-mindedness of males, especially her brother, before opening the pizza boxes.

  Tod stared at the pizza. It looked exactly as he had seen it on the television. Golden orange and yellow cheese set atop lightly browned crust, with pepperoni placed delicately upon its surface of one. Another pizza had nothing on it but large amounts of cheese. The last pizza had everything Tod could imagine. Tod began salivating just watching it. Amy nudged him with her paw, and he turned around. Sheila had apparently snuck off and grabbed paper plates, one of which was now in Amy’s paw and being offered to him.

  “You’ve never had pizza before Tod, so you get first choice, okay?”

  Tod took the plate into his trembling hands, the shaking half caused by excitement, the other being from simple hunger. He picked a slice from each pizza, long strings of mozzarella cheese dripping from the greasy food. Tod started with the cheese, biting into it with a small, tentative nibbles. The pizza smelled good, but Tod was worried that he would dislike it. He never had much luck with food, not now nor in the past with his old family. And yet, as he began tasting the pizza, his bites began growing larger and more enthusiastic.

  The others watched Tod discover the joys of pizza while they selected pieces of their own, occasionally commenting that the puppy was going to explode if he kept eating that fast. Tod didn’t care though, he was already breezing through his last piece of pizza and, much to his surprise, enjoying the peppers and mushrooms atop the slice. He gave a small burp and leaned back against the couch.

  Eric laughed and followed suit, burping loudly. Dante and Mark seemed to take this as a challenge and so began a large, impromptu belching contest. Tod added his own occasional burps to the contest every now and then, though they were nothing like the monstrous rumblings of the larger boys. Nonetheless, they cheered him on and continued the game.

  Amy and Sheila merely sat on either side of Tod, trying to ignore the belching contest going on around them, but always giggling and telling Tod how cute he was whenever he let a small burp through. The feeling in the room was growing more and more relaxed, and soon it degenerated to everyone cuddling up to one another while Eric put on a movie of some sort, one that involved more explosions than an actual story-line. As he sat down, he turned to Sheila, Amy nestling under his arm with Tod in her lap.

  “So who delivered this time? Was it Andrew, Jessica, or Shade?”

  “It was Shade this time, and I told him you had a new member to your family. He seemed really interested, but I wouldn’t give him so much as a peek at Tod.”

  Tod rolled over in Amy’s lap to look at Sheila.

  “Who is Shade? Is that his real name? How do you guys know each other? Why is he interested in me?”

  Tod spouted off the questions rapid-fire until Sheila had to stop him so that she could answer them, snickering between explanations.

  “Shade isn’t his real name, we just call him that. His parents named him Snow, because of his fur. We call him Shade as a joke, but it kind of stuck as a nickname. He’s another one of our friends at school, and he’s probably interested in you because he has more of a sex drive than any of us.”

  Eric started laughing.

  “But the poor guy can’t find a girl…Must be hell on him with his hormones raging like that.”

  The group fell silent as they focused on the movie, but Tod’s mind started rolling through ideas. He decided to express one of them to Amy.

  “Amy? Do you think that Shade would be my friend too if he meets me?”

  The young vixen ruffled his hair with her paws, and smiled.

  “We’ll see Tod, we’ll see. He’s not overly fond of kids, you see, but he might take a liking to you once he gets to know you. One way or another, he’s going to have to get used to you.”

  Dante scratched Tod’s ears, ears that had started drooping with worry. Tod did not want Shade to hate him for being a runt. He gave a small, worried sigh, and immediately was hugged from all sides. He let out a startled ‘meep!’ as everyone started telling Tod, all at once, that everything was going to be okay, and that Shade would probably love him. Mark tossed in his two cents as well.

  “Don’t worry Tod, you two will have plenty of chances to get to know each other. We always order pizza, so either he’s hanging with us on our days off or he’s delivering our food when he’s working. Besides, what part of you isn’t likeable?”

  Tod thought for a moment and reached a number of answers to Mark’s question, but he didn’t speak his thoughts aloud. As he was fussing over what he might say, his eyelids grew heavy, the sounds of the movie explosions growing quieter and quieter. Tod rolled over on Amy’s stomach, nuzzling his chin against her breasts as sleep began to take him away. Tod relaxed as one another thought crossed his mind. Who knew…Maybe Shade would be like him after all.