A/N: Been edited with an additional character if you're re-reading
Never AgainA/N: My attempt at examining Dipstick all throughout his appearances from 101 Dalmatians live action to the series to 102. Through such a meshing, Cruella's "discovery" of being at the bottom of the crime is delayed a bit so that she can live next door to a clueless Roger and Anita for a short time before being hauled off to her jail time
PART I "Where it All Started"I heard it happening...again. "One of these days Mooch, I'm gonna...!". I sighed, Lucky was at it again, though he wasn't the trouble maker in this situation I knew. I peered around the side of the barn just to see the dog that was here when we moved here, Mooch, answer back the threat. "You're gonna what, Unlucky?!". Mooch's back up of Whizzer and Dipstick laughed on cue and I rolled my eyes.
I knew personally that both of those two of my adopted brothers were better than tagging along after Mooch just so he'd feel important. I suppose the same went for Two-tone too, but...well she's a very 'strong young lady' as I think mom put it once and she kinda scares me. Intimidates me due to an overly shy nature is how Cadpig put it once and somehow it still came out as sounding like she was insulting me.
Anyway, point being it was Whizzer and Dipstick I was mainly disappointed in right now.
As she usually was, Cadpig was right nearby where Lucky was and gave a small, not really amused, laugh as she walked up. "Oh Mooch, you know, such an overworking of an insult usually stems from an inner lack of...".
"Can it Sunshine!" Mooch yelled. I knew he was still harboring that crush of his, but was just not in the best of moods right now. Either way, Cadpig got of easily even if she couldn't see it. She just frowned then did the 'sensible thing' of leading Lucky and Rolly of to do something else. Mooch grinned at an intimidation well done and since he still got to think himself top dog I think.
I sighed. Mooch then turned to his back up gang. "Hey Dipstick, go fetch me that bone I buried last week" Mooch went on, laying out and too lazy to get it himself. With an obedient salute, Dipstick was off.
"Uh does he even know where it is?" I heard Whizzer ask Mooch, and Mooch just shrugged like he'd get the joy of yelling at him if he didn't so it didn't really matter. I could have jumped him right there and bit him if...well...he wasn't Mooch.
Instead I turned and followed along after where Dipstick was going. "Hey, Dipstick, wait up" I called. I saw him pause unsurely and soon reached him. "What?" he asked, "Uh, Isn't Mooch's bone this way" he pointed, "Or...maybe this way..." he looked back in the other direction.
I smiled, ok so Dipstick, who was named for his tail, was also a bit clueless and it didn't help matters, but if he'd stop hanging around Mooch that slight cluelessness could shine through to add to his friendliness...like I'd see on the trip back from Cruella's...
While were running along, I'd slipped and probably would have tumbled out to either slow us down or let Horace or Jasper catch me if Dipstick hadn't reached out real quick and nabbed me by the scruff. "Whew, you need a collar so you're easier to grab" was all he told me with a small smile as he rushed onDipstick now needed my help though in which way Mooch's bone lay. I sighed, "Oh I don't know" I told Dipstick even as I remembered where all of this following of Mooch probably started and came from, "Why would we be expected to know where Mooch's stupid bone is". I saw the worry flash over Dipstick's face at what would happen if he couldn't find it.
It was after the haystack all over again...
I had just recently received my name, Mr. Pongo as I knew him better as then since he hadn't adopted us 'extra's' yet, laughed and told Miss Perdita that maybe I should be called Pitch since I played around in the hay a lot (the name also kinda fits since my spots are a bit big, kinda like pitch splots maybe). I think they'd already thought of the idea of adopting us though since Mr. Pongo was volunteering a name and all.
It was shortly after though happy thoughts like that were hard to find as we were all hiding from Cruella Devil. Even my liking of hay was hard to find when I knew it had to keep me hidden from her finding me.
Yet, it wasn't my little body and tail that the bad lady with the sharp pitch fork found. It was Dipstick. I could plainly hear him whimpering and feared the worst when Cruella was poking the pitchfork down over and over, thankfully missing him. Then, thankfully, she was distracted by a pig's tail and thought it was one of us and as the pig fell on her Mr. Pongo got us out.
Dipstick didn't talk much on the trip after that but I saw the change, with him silently trying to keep as close to the rest of us as he could.
~~~~
Then...when we came here, to this farm, and Mooch first tried to impress upon all 99 of us how he was in charge and don't we forget it, Whizzer and Dipstick were as scared off as the rest of us at first, until they realized that being around Mooch and on his good side meant he tolerated them; and tolerated lead to protection of a sort.
I think somewhere in his imagination, Dipstick truly thought that if Cruella ever turned from just scheming for the farm and came around with a pitchfork or something aimed straight at him, Mooch could scare her away. I wasn't so sure."Come on" I gave Dipstick a smile, "Forget about Mooch's stupid bone, let's just go down Hiccup Hole for a swim! Lucky and the others aren't there right now so it's not too crowded or anything". I rushed ahead and then turned, tail wagging, to look back at Dipstick, but he wasn't moving.
He just stood there, thinking, then shook his head, "No...I, I gotta find that bone or Mooch will be so mad..." he turned and began sniffing about, searching I was sure. "After all" I heard him mutter, "He's about all I got".
I tried to brush of the insult of that, knowing Dipstick didn't really mean it. He was just...too naive to really see that Mooch was just using him.
"Alright, see ya later then" I said. Dipstick continued sniffing and didn't seem to hear me.
PART II "Eye Opener"Moving to the farm had actually been a blessing in that the only blood family I had that I knew of, my litter mate Clover, who was adopted before Cruella stole the rest of us at the store, lived with a young girl, Samantha, just down the road from the farm the Dearly's bought, so I got to meet back up with her and her owner's other Dalmatian, a puppy named Brownie.
I would always love my adopted 98 brothers and sisters, but Clover was like a special longest known sister I got to meet back up with and Brownie...well she was a cute puppy with two black ears that I later admitted to my crush on when I asked her to be my mate.
This was after some of us had let ourselves get attached to visiting humans and what not and been adopted out. A Miss Chloe stopped by on a last visit to some parole case in the country or something, and Dipstick adopted her after the both of them took to each other.
By this time I'd already let myself get attached to a local youth of the neighborhood, Dennis, and would have adopted that fine human even if he didn't live just near the farm himself. About the same time as I was noticing my crush on Brownie for what it was, Dennis was apparently coming to terms with a similar thing with Samantha, so that I was only living with Dennis in a very under cleaned, passed down farmhouse from him grandfather for a short bit before three Dalmatians and two humans all piled into Samantha's cleaner passed down farmhouse from her aunt (since her farm was bigger).
Though, given the space, piled in isn't exactly correct. Anyway, the space wasn't threatened at all when a short time later Brownie and I welcomed our liter of two puppys into the world, a girl who's spot pattern later revealed four black marked paws and an odd black pattern on the top of her head and a bit down to between her eyes so that Samantah said she looked like she'd gotten into an inkwell, and that's what she was called, Inkwell. The second pup was a little boy who I thought it only right we name Pongo Jr.
To tell the truth, I don't think dad hated the idea either when he later stopped by once the big news was made known. Lucky, whom I don't think the Dearly's will ever let adopt another human, said I cheated with making my son the favorite grandson with a 'stunt like that'. I could only hope I hadn't cursed the poor guy since Pongo Jr. turned out to be the quiet smaller runt if a liter of two can have a runt and though they were born on the same day, Inkwell was soon looking after him like one would a little brother, and might I say she was very good at it.
Anyway, Cruella had been long gone from the House of Devil once the humans discovered it was she who stole us in the first place, and there was no reason the thought of worrying about her should enter any of our heads...yet such a simple thing as a splinter in little Pongo's paw doomed him and his sister to be two of her next 102 kidnapped lot.
She knew she had Disptick's pups, that was on purpose, I later found out, yet never discovered she had mine which was probably just as well. Anyway it was when our local veterinarian noticed something odd about the plant the thorn came from apparently that the extra aid of a city vet was called in and Dennis took little Pongo to the London vet he suggested while I was suppose to stay home with Samantha, Brownie, Inkwell and Clover. My little girl had other ideas though, all but sure her brohter would need her comfort on such a trip and sneaking into Dennis car before any of the rest of us noticed.
Once I did find out, and knew Dennis knew thanks to overhearing a call back home, I figured she'd ben fine. Then a few nights later and a Twilight Bark alert that Cruella has been released, gossip more than an alert, was enough still to spur me on to my own trip to London to investigate, though it still didn't occur to me to worry about my kids. That's where I bumped into two of my old farm-mates again...
I had just made it with only a short time of gathering my wits when another alert, from puppies it seemed, spread all across London. Something about bad men and "widdle wons". I hardly had time to make sense of it before a low growl interrupted me and turning sharply I noticed Mooch again, a lot bigger.
"Hey pal, this is my alley way!" he snarled at me, "So why don't you just...", then he recognized me, and it wasn't a good thing. "Well, well, well" he smirked, walking up. I had just frowned with my decision to tell him to not dare start being annoying, when another dog about my size barreling into me distracted both Mooch and myself.
"Oh, I'm so sor-Pitch?!" I heard a startled Dalmatian say, and turned just in time to see... "Dipstick!" I exclaimed, smiling and laughing, "Well imagine meeting you here, but then that's right, your pet's in London isn't she?".
I could tell that despite his pleasant shock, Dipstick was in no chatting mood and he seemed about to get on with telling me why when Mooch interrupted us, "Look I don't care if it is you two, rules are rules and ya can't pass by my alley without...".
"Oh Mooch please, this is an emergency".
I'd never heard Dipstick so bold as he said it more hurriedly then annoyed, but it still shocked both Mooch and myself.
Mooch recovered though. "Sorry Dipstick old pal but..." he began.
"But Cruella has my kids!" Dipstick interrupted again, trying to get past the blackish dog now bigger than he had been as a teen pup. My ears went back at just the name, not to mention the rest of the sentence!
"Cruella...Devil?!" I asked. "Do we know another?" Dipstick asked humorlessly.
Even Mooch seemed detoured by this name. "Woah, ya mean the crazy lady from that house on the hill?".
"Come on" Dipstick leapt forward once more before turning to us, "I bet the three of us showing up there's bound to take care of whatever dog nappers she's found this time".
I could have kicked myself for not reacting sooner to the important part. Dipstick's pups were surely in need of help if Cruella was out and after them (little Pongo didn't even cross my mind as a possible target).
"We sure could" I said, bounding up right next to my adopted brother. Mooch just shook his head, "You two are crazy, they don't call that lady a devil for nothing".
"But Mooch!" Dipstick began, "We could possibly need all three of us to...".
"What do I look like, crazy?!" Mooch asked.
"But my pups..." Dipstick was beginning to tense.
"Mores the worst for them" Mooch waved a paw, "my mottos been survival my whole life and I aint getting careless now" he turned his back to us and began to trod off. Dipstick stepped back a bit in utter shock at this betrayal, at realizing after all this time how Mooch wasn't any great hero at all, then the betrayed disappointment morphed to the next stage in what Cadpig would call "dealing emotionally"; anger.
I could see it in the way he tensed, letting him down was one thing, but for his pups to suffer for it...
A low growl came from Dipstick's throat and just as Mooch turned in slight surprise, I realized my brother might actually charge him. He'd taken one bound forward, in fact, and Mooch once shocked step back, before I leapt in between them.
"Dipstick, forget him!" I said, "we've got to get to your pups!". This seemed to snap Dipstick back to the moment and with one more look of disgust sent Mooch's way he turned and continued on his bound towards the apartment. I took off at his heels...
~~~~
It was chaos for most of the rest of it, what with Dipstick getting lucky and making the truck just as it was pulling off, but me not so lucky and having to attempt a run behind...then the hours of street wandering without knowing anything until Dipstick, the rescue shelter dogs and their pets got back and I was so relieved at Little Pongo and Inkwell's safety I didn't have time to worry over the fact that they'd been with Cruella as well! (to mention Cadpig again, she’d have had a field day with my emotional state then!)
Yet the important part of the whole fiasco was that, once again, Cruella was defeated. That little girl of Dipstick's is apparently a very brave and smart little leader for her age and as I heard it Inkwell didn't do much to help in the end, but was willing and always offering anyway.
Ever Oddball's issue of lack of S-P-O-T-S, as Dottie said we had to refer to it, and I think her pet had warned Kevin of a similar thing, was cleared up and she looked to be growing normally if not perhaps a bit slowly in that respect.
We'd all made the fuss due such a development and Dennis had found both Chole and Kevin in tracking down my own pups and then been shocked but not too much he said, to find I'd taken off to London after my kids as well.
The humans were inside talking and I sat lazily by Dipstick in the dog shelter yard as I watched Oddball dart across the yard, "Come on Inkwell!" she called. All three of Dipstick's kids seeming to have taken to both of their cousin rather quickly it seemed, Domino was even the one to come up with calling Pongo Jr. "PJ" so I heard, "wait till you see what Drooler just showed me is back around back!".
"Ok" Inkwell sounded intrigued and followed. Little Dipper and Domino sighed, "Oddball wait up..." they called, taking after the other two. Yet not before Domino turned to make sure "PJ" was keeping up. "Come on" I heard him tell him, walking over to spur him on, "we don't want to let the girls have all the fun!".
I smiled, "You know it kinda reminds me of when Lucky and Rolly use to charge after Cadpig" I commented idly, on only Dipstick's pups. "Hmm" Dipstick didn't give much of an answer and looked rather thoughtful, in fact as we'd been lazily sitting there his head hadn't moved from his paws and he seemed rather...melancholy.
"Well, at least they had sense" Dipstick went on softly. I tried to make sense of what he just said.
"More so than Whizzer and myself anyway" Dipstick went on, and it began to make more sense. I smiled, "Dipstick..." I began.
"I probably either sat idly by or laughed inappropriately while Mooch did a hundred things to you personally, nevermind the others!" Dipstick continued as if not hearing me, his head finally raising in his self berating agitation.
"and then...you didn't even know your kids were with them, it was just for me and my pups that you ran after that truck for as far as you could, I saw you" Dipstick went on, his voice sounding melancholy again, "and I couldn't have felt worse...since I didn't deserve that kind of loyalty".
"You're my brother" I told Dipstick, "and I along with everyone else always understood, it was just survival for you and Whizzer; we all did the same thing, coped with Mooch however we could. You and Whizzer kept on his good side, Lucky called him out to all out dog fights, Cadpig tried to get into his psyche, and I hid in the hay, to each his or her own".
I thought I caught a smile from Dipstick, but I also caught a look that said I was just making excuses. "Didn't you notice how on rare times away from the farm and Mooch, like that trek across country when Cruella invited herself, we never treated you or Whizzer differently?" I pointed out before Dipstick could argue.
I smiled, "and some of us liked it ourselves, since you two opened up a bit into being actually fun".
Dipstick looked over at me again with a soft smile, finally accepting what I was saying I think, and then sighed, "How could I have been so dumb".
"Ah, If pups knew everything there wouldn't be anything for us parents to do" I replied dismissively, "and..." I went on with a smile, "from what Inkwell tells me, you got pretty defensive of both her and Pongo Jr. once you figured out who they were".
"Least I could do" was all Dipstick said, before smiling himself, "and it wasn't hard to figure out given what you named the boy". I grinned, guilty as charged.
Almost as if on cue of my earlier words, we next heard Oddballs' voice, "Da-d, Dipper's stuck!". Followed by the culprit's, "Am not!".
Dipstick rolled his eyes to the sky with a smile and I stood with a laugh, "Something tells me Pongo's right in the thick of the trouble too so I'll come see what we can't do for the pups" I told Dipstick.
With a grateful smile he nodded and we both trotted around to the other side of the building to find Little Dipper stuck, halfway through crawling under a curved root of a tree it looked like.
Oddball and Domino were pulling on his back feet while Inkwell pushed on his head from the front side and Pongo Jr. just watched in curiosity. The whole scene was too much and I sat down on the grass, letting out a small laugh. The look all four puppy's sent me showed they were not amused.
"Da-d" Inkwell complained, "he's really stuck", and Dipper frowned for emphasis. "Ok, sorry" I said, glancing over at Dipstick who was hiding his own smile. We trotted over to pull up the root and allow Dipper to crawl out.
"Thanks dad, Uncle Pitch" Dipper said and the others nodded before all five of them took of towards some other adventure.
"You know...if Chole and Dottie agreed" I began to Dipstick as we watched them take off, "Dennis and Samantha still live right near the farm, and I know mom and dad have got to miss you, maybe we should talk our pets into a visit to let your pups terrorize the cows" I grinned.
