The Wild Blue, Black, and Tan Yonder (not necessarily in that order)

Chapter 3

As the Badyear Blimp lifted into the air, Sarge was driving up to the Weinermobile in his pawlice cruiser.

Skidding to a stop, he hopped out, and said, “All right in there, I got you cornered. Throw out the Cheetos, and come out with your paws up!”

Nothing happened. Sarge jumped out of the cruiser, approached the wiener-shaped vehicle, and said, “You three are in a heap of trouble. Grand theft auto, shoplifting, speeding, disturbing the peace, littering, and unauthorized use of a trademark! Now, out!”

Tasha watched the blimp fly overhead, and said, “What time is your train?”

Shasta checked her paw watch. “'Bout three more hours.”

“How long is the game?”

“'Bout two hours, but the blimp is due back before the last quarter. So we should get an hour to ride. Don't take it so hard. Shiloh will be back late tonight. We can all go to the Pugs' Ahoy when we get back.”

Tearfully, Tasha looked skyward, and said, “I know.”

High above Squeaky Toy Stadium, Snoopy looked out the front window of the blimp, and shielded his eyes as they momentarily headed into the sun. A few seconds later, Easy heard something in his headset, tapped Snoopy on the shoulder, and said, “They're doing the coin toss now, we'll need to descend so I can get the shot with the blimp cam.”

“Copy that”, Snoopy said. “Hang on, we're going in.”

Snoopy pushed the wheel forward, and watched his altimeter fall. Easy looked through the viewfinder, and said, “About twenty more feet, and I'll have the shot............fifteen...........ten.........got it. Hover here for the next few minutes.”

“Copy that.”

Snoopy throttled down on the engines, then reversed them to hold his position. Easy kept his eye in the viewfinder, and said, “How's the wind speed?”

“Nearly calm.”

“Hold her right here, I'm going for the shot.”

Sarge crept up to the driver side door of the Wienermobile, and yanked it open. He then jumped inside, and said, “End of the line, ladies!”

Silence. He looked around the Cheetos bag-littered cab, but saw no signs of fur. Disgusted, he stepped back out into the sunlight, threw his hat to the ground, and said, “Son of a-”

Abruptly, he stopped, and noticed something on the ground. Paw prints. Three sets of paw prints. And they led in the direction of the airfiled.

Running back to the cruiser, he grabbed the radio mic, and said, “Sierra Tango three five to dispatch, I want an all paws bulletin out on three suspects, all female dachsies. First one is red smooth-furred female, answers to Puddles. Second is black and tan long fur, answers to name of Francine. Third is red long fur, and answers to Ernestine. All three were last seen heading west on airport service road in stolen Wienermobile. Stolen vehicle has been located at end of service road, all suspects have fled scene. May be planning to skip town. Be advised we may need to notify the FBI, the TSA, the State Police, and Oscar Meyer!”

At the other side of the airfield, Ernestine peeked out through a slit in the door of the old blimp hangar, and said, “It looks like the coast is clear.”

“That won't last”, Francine said. “With that pawball game going on, everybody is going to be looking for the Wienermobile. We might as well steal Santa Paws' sleigh on Christmas Eve.”

“Hey it wasn't my idea to steal the Weinermobile”, Ernestine said. “We know who to thank for that, don't we.”

Angrily, they glared at Puddles. Undaunted, she said, “That's why I did it. Nobody expects us to do something that stupid.........uh, let me rephrase that. Nobody thinks we'd steal the Weinermobile with everybody looking.”

“You also didn't make sure we had enough gas”, Ernestine said. “And now that we're at the airport, we're really in trouble. There's a fence around the whole perimeter, and every way out is guarded. How are we going to get out?”

“There's only one way”, Puddles said.

“What's that?”, Francine asked.

“Oh my dog!” Ernestine said. “She's looking straight up.”

“Oh no”, Francine said. “We are not stealing a plane.”

“Not a plane”, Puddles said. “But you're getting warmer.”