The Things I Do For Family

Chapter 1

In a grassy front yard surrounded by a metal fence, a small pink puppy wearing an over sized diaper was playing with his parents. The little puppy was a little awkward playing with the over sized beach ball but he none the less rolled the ball back to his father. The pup's father threw the ball back too hard, striking the poor pup, throwing him through the air, and into the fence. When the puppy tried to pull himself free, he realized that his head was stuck in the fence. Realizing that he was stuck, he began to cry loudly. The puppy's parents came over to help their son but they couldn't budge the pup from the bars.

"What are we going to do?" asked the father.

"I already have an appointment with the vet today." said the mother. "We could bring him along and the vet will know what to do."

Courage awoken from his dream with a cold sweat pouring down his face. He was sleeping on Eustace and Muriel's bed but fortunately, he didn't wake them up by screaming like he usually does when he was having a dream. Courage got out of bed and walked over to the window to see the rising sun in the distance. He stared at that sun and thought about his long lost parents. Even to this day, Courage is haunted by the memory of losing his parents. Even though he was just a baby, he remembered, in great detail, how his parents were dognapped by that evil veterinarian and then launched into space. When they were gone, Courage was left all alone but luckily, Courage was found by Muriel that same day. When Courage was a pup living with Muriel, Courage would often sit at the window everyday, hoping that his parents will return to him. Eventually he stopped that but he still hoped that one day he will see his parents again and that hope has followed him even to his adulthood.

Henry and Lily. Those were the names of Courage's parents and those were names that Courage didn't want to forget. Henry and Lily loved Courage dearly and even though Courage was rather shy and clumsy for a pup, they stuck by him all the way. Courage's father, Henry, was a kind hearted and generous father who was everything a father should be: a teacher and a wonderful gentlemen. Lily was as timid as Courage but she loved her son in every way. She was sweet and gentle and supportive of Courage. Both Lily and Henry were pure bred pink lemdens so they had a strong resemblance to Courage, as do all pure bred pink lemdens do. Although they didn't look like all the other dogs because of their pink fur, they were still a well respected family amongst the community.

Courage never dreamed that he would one day be separated from his parents. When he was a puppy, he always believed that he would be with his parents forever but then, as fate would have it, Courage got his head stuck in that fence causing his parents to take Courage to the only veterinarian, at the time, in Nowhere. The veterinarian's name was doctor Leonard Quincy Stromwell the second. He was a wicked man who had some strange obsession with sending dogs into outer space for his inhuman science experiments. He kidnapped his parents and sent them into outer space. It was because of him that Courage no longer has his parents. A year and a half ago, Courage had met that same veterinarian again and he tried to launch Courage into outer space but instead, Courage launched the veterinarian into outer space. Although it gave Courage justice to have been able to send that veterinarian to the same fate he condemned his parents to, it did little to relieve the pain he felt for his loss. Courage tried to get over the loss of his parents but the accursed dreams and memories still haunt him to no end. But little did Courage know that the opportunity he was looking for in finding his family was within his grasp.

It all started one fine afternoon when the Bagge family was sitting in their living room watching television. Without warning, there was a phone call. Eustace irritably picked up the phone and said into it, "We don't got a phone."

"Eustace." said Muriel and grabbed the phone out of Eustace's hand.

"Hello, who is this?" asked Muriel into the phone. Courage, who was on Muriel's lap, could hear the conversation with his sensitive dog ears.

"Is this Mr. or Mrs. Bagge?" asked the man on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, this is Mrs. Bagge speaking." said Muriel into the phone.

"This is the Nowhere police and I would like for you and your husband to come over to the following address for questioning." said the man on the phone.

"Are we being arrested?" asked Muriel.

"Oh no, you and your husband is not in trouble." said the man on the phone. "We believe that you and your husband may know something that we are going to need. Can you come over so we can question you?"

"Why certainly." said Muriel. The man over the phone gave Muriel an address which Muriel wrote down on a piece of paper. Muriel hung up the phone and said, "Eustace, that was the police. They want us to go over to this address so they can ask us a few questions." Eustace grumbled in anger knowing that it would mean that he would have to leave his chair. As Courage got out of Muriel's lap so she could stand up, Courage began to worry. He wondered what could the police want from them.

In Eustace's truck, Eustace, Muriel, and Courage drove over to the building with the address given to Muriel. Once they finally reached the building, Courage gasped in horror as he realized that he was at the building where Dr. Stromwell used to work. The same brick building where Courage had lost his parents. The building remained unchanged, even after all this time in dissolution but what was new was that outside of the building, it was surrounded by police cars. Muriel and Eustace walked into the building with Courage following nervously behind. Upon entering the building, they were confronted by a short police officer with a broad chest, red mustache, and a night stick.

"Hold it, this building is part of police investigation." said the police officer. "No pedestrians aloud."

"But we were summoned here." said Muriel.

"Really?" said the officer. "Are your names Muriel and Eustace Bagge?"

"Yes, that's us." said Muriel.

"Well then forgive me for the misunderstanding." said the officer. "If you two will please follow me." The officer led the family through the halls of the building giving Courage a rather uneasiness having to set foot in this same building again.

The officer led them through the plain white hallways of the vet and into the same room where Dr. Stromwell kept his test rockets.

"First off, I would like to explain to you about what we are doing here." said the officer. "For the past decade, we have always suspected that Dr. Leonard Stromwell was using illegal experiments to send dogs into outer space. There had been a number of cases where dogs had mysteriously disappeared around Stromwell but we didn't have enough evidence to enable us to get a warrant to search the building. But after Dr. Stromwell's mysterious disappearance, we finally got the evidence we needed when a news helicopter discovered a trap door on the roof of this building. An indication that a rocket might be held there. With this new information, we managed to obtain a warrant and we searched the building and found all the proof we need to lock up Dr. Stromwell. But what we don't know for sure is what was he up to. We checked all of his records and discovered that you two were his last customers and thus we called you over because we suspected that you may have some information for us."

"Indeed we do." said Muriel. "About a year in a half ago, we brought our dog over to Dr. Stromwell for a check up and we saw him try and send Courage to outer space."

"Well that's interesting." said the officer. "Why don't you and your husband follow me into the next room and we can talk about it."

The officer led Muriel and Eustace into a nearby room. Courage was about to follow when he noticed a blond haired police officer working on a nearby computer. Courage was curious as to what the officer was doing so Courage walked over to him in order to find out. Courage looked over the officer's shoulder and noticed a long list of files and open windows on the computer screen.

"This will take me all day to read." said the officer in frustration. "I'm going to have to download all this on a disk or something." The officer stood up, easily dwarfing Courage like a giant. The tall man walked out of the room, probably out to find someone to help him with the computer. As the man left, Courage examined the notes and files throughout the computer. It was then that Courage noticed what appeared to be an AppleWorks file entitled "Rocket Travel Map." Courage knew that what he was doing was wrong but his curiosity got the better of him and he had to read the file. He sat into the chair and opened the file. What opened was a map of outer space. A note written on the side of the map said that the map shows the rocket's path from Earth all the way to an alien planet and like a treasure map, it had a single path and some easy to follow intrusions on how to get to the planet.

"Could this planet be the one where my parents and the other dogs were sent?" thought Courage. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity like this, Courage turned on the printer and then instructed the computer to print a copy of the map. There was a buzzing sound from the printer as a print out of the map came out. Suddenly, Courage's sensitive ears picked up the sound of foot steps heading his way. Courage quickly closed AppleWorks and then grabbed the map out of the printer before the two police officers came in. While the officers were not looking, Courage folded the map and hid it behind his back. A few minutes afterwards, Muriel and Eustace came out of the next room with the officer they spoke to earlier.

"Thank you for your cooperation." said the officer.

"It's no problem." said Muriel. "Come on, Courage, we're going home."

"And hurry up, you stupid dog, I'm missing my favorite show." said Eustace to Courage. Courage follow his owners out of the building, holding the folded up map in his paws.

Through out the day, Courage's mind was on the map he had printed out. He put the map next to his computer and even though Courage didn't look at it again, he still thought about it like a constant nagging sensation. That night, he tried to fall asleep in the cot in the basement but his thoughts still dwindled on the map. Figuring that he wont fall asleep, he got out of bed, turned on a light and unfolded the map. As Courage studied the map, the possibility that he could find his parents grew within him. The map was fairly easy to understand and Courage had a way of going to the planet. Some time ago, Courage encountered these walking talking teddy bears who were after a large space worm. The worm in question had eaten the teddy bears and Muriel so Courage had to fly the teddy bears' space ship (with the worm) back to a strange space girl named Tulip in order to save Muriel. Then Courage flew back to Earth on the same space ship he had used. (See the episode entitled "Tulip's Worm" for full details) Courage still had the space ship and he hid the ship in a small ravine, hidden from the view of on-lookers. Was it possible for Courage to use the ship again to save his parents? But what about Muriel? Would she still be safe while Courage was gone? And what if Courage some how can't get back home? So many questions, thoughts, and doubts plagued Courage's mind as the possibilities were rolling through his mind. Finally growing tired from all the thinking, he placed the map back on the desk and curled up into bed.

As he slept soundly, he had another nightmare about the fateful day of his parents' disappearance. But unlike the ones before that, this dream seemed real, as if he was watching through a television set. In his dream, Courage saw himself as a puppy as he was being cut free from the bars of the fence while inside Dr. Stromwell's examining room. Once Dr. Stromwell him was free, the veterinarian gave Courage a lolly pop which he licked with joy. As Courage was licking the over sized lolly pop, Dr. Stromwell led Lily and Henry into the next room but why, he did not say. The dream continued to show what happened next. Courage was forced to relive that day as Courage saw Dr. Stromwell carry Lily and Henry towards the rocket ship. In the dream, just like in real life, Courage tried to save his family but he ended up shoved down a garbage shoot and had failed his family.

Courage woke up from his dream with a horrible scream but luckily, he was in the attic so it didn't wake up Muriel. Courage began to cry as the memory of how he failed his parents came to him. As tears still ran down his muzzle, he walked over to the only window in the attic and opened it up so he could see the stars in the sky. Because of the lack of lights in Nowhere, there was always a sky full of stars at night. The sight was beautiful to behold but it made Courage think about his family more.

"Why couldn't I have saved them?" thought Courage. "I've saved Muriel dozens of times, why couldn't I have saved my own parents?" Courage turned his head towards the clock on the wall and realized that it was five in the morning. As Courage scanned the area, he noticed the map lying on the desk. As Courage looked at the map, a determination like nothing he had ever felt before ran through his body. It was then that he vowed that he would not fail his parents again.

"Don't worry, mom and dad." said Courage to the heavens above. "I'm coming to rescue you."

Author's Note: For more information on "Pink Lemdons," see my fanfic entitled "Million Dollar Courage." And incase you are wondering, the name "Stromwell" did come from the "Courage and the Hendersons" series.