Didi's Prize

Summary: Whatever happened to that dalmation statue Didi won on the game show, Super Stumpers? A one-shot idea given to me by El Nugget, hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters.

Spike was acting funny. Whenever he went into the Pickles living room, he would stare at this statue of a dalmation, with a dreamy look in his eyes, barking at it, hoping it would respond. Of course, Spike wasn't always doing this, it all started on the day Didi played as a contestant on that game show, Super Stumpers, and won this statue as her prize. Of course, her husband Stu and father-in-law Lou kept trying to get her to pick out other prizes, like a bug zapper, a new dinette set, and a year's supply of stewed proons, but none of those interested Didi as much as this beautiful gold plated dalmation statue. However, after getting it home, she started to have second thoughts when Spike thought it was a real dog, barking at it constantly, hoping it would come out and play.

"You are such a silly dog." Said Stu as he was passing through the living room at one point, noticing Spike barking at that statue again, for what seemed like the millionth time.

Over in the playpen, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil were also noticing Spike's strange behavior.

"What's going on with Spike Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

"I don't know, but he's sure been acting funny ever since my mommy brought home that doggy statue that she got as a prize for finding her place in the sun." Tommy replied.

"Place in the sun?" Chuckie asked, unsure of what Tommy was talking about, as he didn't go with them to the Super Stumpers show, only Betty with Phil and Lil went.

Tommy, Phil and Lil went on to explain to Chuckie what all went down at the TV place, and how while Tommy found the sun, it eventually, disappeared.

Over in the kitchen, Stu was growing frustrated by Spike's constant barking at the statue.

"Deed, I'm sorry, but you've got to get rid of that thing!" Stu shouted in frustration.

"You mean Spike?" Didi asked.

"No, your statue thing." Griped Stu.

"Oh but Stu, it's so beautiful! And I won it, so therefore, we're keeping it, and nothing you say is gonna make me get rid of it." Said Didi with a determined look in her eyes.

Of course, overhearing what Stu had suggested, gave Tommy his brilliant idea.

"Hey guys, I've gots an idea on how to get Spike back to his old self." Said Tommy.

"What?" Phil and Lil asked simultaneously.

"We get rid of that statue and Spike won't care to try to play with it no more, wanting to play with us again. Come on!" Said Tommy, as he opened up the playpen with his screwdriver, and he and the other babies, put, get rid of the statue into action.

The first place they tried to hide it, was in the hall closet. Unfortunately, because Spike saw where they were hiding it, this plan failed, as he proceeded to sit by the closed door of the closet, wining and barking, scratching at the door, hoping the dalmation would come out and play.

"I don't think hiding it in the closet was such a good idea." Said Chuckie.

"You're right Chuckie, we've gotta find another place to hide it." Said Tommy.

"But where else can we hide it?" Chuckie asked.

"I know, let's bury it in the backyard!" Suggested Lil excitedly.

"Yeah! In the mud! Spike will never find it there." Said Phil.

"Good idea guys, let's go." Said Tommy, as the babies made their way to the hall closet, at which time, Spike wasn't present, as he was outside in his doghouse, taking a nap.

Using this opportunity to sneak the statue outside, they did just this, taking it out into the backyard, where Phil and Lil dug a whole in the mud, and once the whole was big enough, Tommy and Chuckie dropped the statue into the muddy whole, where Phil and Lil covered it up.

After the statue was buried, things were pretty quiet around the Pickles household the rest of that day, that is, until Didi noticed when she went to get Tommy ready for bed, that her statue was missing from the living room.

"Stu honey, have you seen my statue?" Didi asked.

"No Deed I haven't seen it." Stu replied from downstairs in the basement, where he was working on a new toy.

Didi put the thought out of her head for the time being, as she put Tommy to bed, and went to bed herself. Eventually, Stu stopped working on his latest and greatest invention, and he too came to bed, and Lou had fallen asleep in front of the TV during The Late Night Show, as he had been doing most nights, or trying to do, only to have Spike's barking at that statue keep him awake.

Spike was outside on this particular night, and for most of the night, everybody slept peacefully, until early the next morning, when Spike proceeded to dig in the dirt where the rugrats had buried the statue the previous day, only to dig up the statue, and start barking at it again. Stu and Didi were the first to awaken to Spike's barking the following morning.

"What do you think Spike's barking at now?" Stu asked sleepily, as he rolled over towards Didi, who was looking at Stu.

"I don't know, I'll go check." Said Didi, as she got up, put on some slippers and her glasses, and went outside to see what all of the commotion was about.

"Oh my goodness! How did this get outside?" Didi asked herself, as she picked up the statue out of the mud, which was covered in dirt and Spike's drool, as he had been licking it, and carried it inside to clean it up.

"Well?" Stu asked, as he was inside feeding Tommy some oatmeal for breakfast, while Didi got started on cleaning up the statue.

"Well, I found what Spike was barking at." Said Didi as she wet some paper towels and started cleaning it up.

"Oh, maybe you're right Stu, maybe we should give this statue away." Said Didi with a sigh.

No sooner had Didi mentioned this, when the phone rang. She picked it up to find it was her brother Ben calling her, to invite her and Stu to a three months anniversary party. Why anybody would have a party to celebrate being married for only three months was beyond Stu or Didi, but they didn't argue. It had been a while since they had seen Ben and Elane, as they hadn't seen them since their wedding, so they decided to go. However, Ben was slow to get the invitations out, calling up Stu and Didi on the morning of the party. Realizing that they had no time to get them a present, this gave Didi a brilliant idea.

"Stu, I know how we can get rid of that statue." Said Didi upon hanging up the phone.

"How?" Stu asked.

"I just got off the phone with my brother Ben. They're throwing a party tonight to celebrate three months since they got married, and there's no way we'll have time to buy them a real present, so, let's give them the statue to decorate their place." Suggested Didi.

"That's a wonderful idea Didi." Said Stu excitedly.

"Pop, you think you could watch Tommy this evening while Stu and I go to the party?" Didi asked Lou, who had joined everybody at the breakfast table at this point.

"Don't you worry, I'll watch Tommy this evening." Said Lou, as Tommy over in his highchair let out a little giggle.

Later on that day, Stu and Didi were putting the statue into the back of the car, while Lou was standing on the front porch, holding Tommy, and Spike was sitting next to him.

"Have a nice time." Said Lou, as Stu and Didi pulled out of the drive way, Tommy waved goodbye, and poor Spike, started wining, as he saw his statue friend, be carried away.

Spike continued to wine even after Lou and Tommy had headed back into the house.

"Now what's wrong with that con flabbid dog?" Lou asked, as he took a seat in his easy chair, after continuing to put up with Spike's wining for several more minutes, finally turning on the fishing channel to drown out the noise.

Of course, Tommy knew what was bothering Spike, he missed his friend. So the one-year-old toddler took matters into his own hands, to cheer his dog up. He tried to throw a rubber bone to Spike, but Spike didn't seem all that interested in playing. Then, he found the box of doggy biscuits by his dog bowl, so gave him some. To Tommy's pleasant surprise, Spike ate the biscuits with no hesitation, and started to calm down. Then, the two of them rolled around on the living room carpet, Spike licking Tommy and Tommy licking him back, and finally, Tommy gave Spike a belly rub, and Spike happily stuck his tongue out and started wagging his tail.

"It's great to have you back Spike, I missed you, glad you're feeling all better." Said Tommy happily, as he rested his head on Spike's tummy and the two of them on the living room floor, fell asleep together.

Later, Stu and Didi returned home from the party, to find Tommy and Spike passed out on the floor, and Lou in his easy chair, now waking up upon hearing the front door open and shut.

"So how was the party?" Lou asked, as Stu and Didi walked into the living room, and Didi picked up her sleeping child off of the floor.

""It was nice, and Ben and Elane like the statue very much." Whispered Didi, as she carried Tommy up and put the toddler, still sound asleep into bed.

After coming back downstairs, the three adults were sitting around the kitchen table, having a late night cup of some tea.

"So, you disappointed about having to give up your prize?" Stu asked.

"No, come to think of it, Spike's constant barking was getting on my nerves too. Maybe I should have gotten the bug zapper or the stewed proons, but none of those prizes, really sounded interesting to me." Said Didi.

"Didn't you win a bunch of cash at the show?" Lou asked.

"You know what Pop? I did! And that gives me an excellent idea." Said Didi with a smile.

"What?" Stu asked.

"I'm going to use my prize money to take us and all of our friends on a vacation." Said Didi.

"That's a great idea, but where are we going to go?" Stu asked.

"Let's hit Los Vegas, got some of the best casinos around." Suggested Lou.

"I don't know if that's exactly the right place to be taking the kids pop." Said Stu.

While discussing the possibility of going to Los Vegas, Didi looked through some travel flyers that had come in the mail that week.

"Circus Giganticus is coming to Los Vegas in mid July. Oh this is perfect! We can take the kids to see the circus, and look, complimentary passes to stay at the Viking Hotel. I think this trip will be a keeper! And we can borrow Betty's RV to take the trip, turning it into a road trip. Oh how exciting!" Didi said at the top of her lungs, until Stu put a finger to his lips, so as to not wake up Tommy.

"Sounds great Deed." Said Stu, as he took another sip of his tea.

And this, ends the story, of what happened with Didi's dalmation statue.

Author's Note: Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that story. I know you all were looking forward to another chapter in The Washington DC Story, but to tell you all the honest truth, I need a few more days to recover from the events of chapter 7. I've also decided, there will be 3 more chapters in that story, since trying to wrap up the entire story in chapter 8 might make that chapter way too long, and we've already had some pretty long chapters already, and they still, might be too long. No matter, I'll see to getting back to updating and completing The Washington DC Story after July 1, 2015, since I have plans to release something else tomorrow that the bulk of the fans have been waiting for for several weeks now. You'll see tomorrow what it is. And, in case you didn't notice, in this story, you saw what inspired their trip to Los Vegas, better known as one of my all time favorite episodes of Rugrats, the Vacation Special. Well, you all take care, and, be looking for more stories, coming soon!