His hair stuck to his forehead as he walked for endless hours to rest at the Camden Town park before grueling British Boy Scouts in 2 days. 16 year old Michael Lembrant was the kid who was always alone and sad, thanks to his mom. She shipped him her on a ferry and was possibly living it on Easy Street without him. He had a backpack crammed with clothes, his electric guitar was in it's case and on his back and his phone with his AirPods playing 1970's classic rock. He was an outcast at school and his mom didn't give one shiny lump of crap about it. And she threatend to destroy his record collection and his Xbox One and Series X if he didn't attend Boy Scouts and give him a butt whooping with Dad's leather belt. He sagged across the street onto a street called "Dalmatian Street" and the marker was painted white with spots all over it to indicate that Dalmatians lived on that street. "Hmm." Michael grunted, figuring the only greeting from animals he would get was angry barking and possibly a bite to the leg. (Which happened to him 2 years ago involving a Black Labrador). It was a hot June day, and he wanted to go under a tree to cry himself to sleep and maybe die of heatstroke and never have to see his angry mom again. He passed by the first house belonging to an animated Corgi being served kibble on a golden platter with a animated Pug and long eared other dog there to. "Lucky." He mumbled as he crossed the street to pass by the doorways. He saw the secnd house and noticed the number "101" marked on the overhead window. "Huh. He must really like 101 Damatians."" He said to himself. He then noticed a Dalmatian sitting there on the porch. He was a tall one with a red collar and a star as a name tag and the spots on his ears resembled the Canis Major star allignment. "Whoa! Oh shi-" Michael began. He definatly did NOT want to make this sweet dog angry, so he went onto the street. The dog looked at Michael and Michaael darted to him and hit the door in an effort to knock himself out. He failed. "OH WHAT'S THE USE?!" He cried. He slumped down and cried violently. The dog stammered and ran into the house to grab something. He returned seconds later with a female his same hight with three different collars, all different colors and different ears. "Hey. Hey, don't cry human." The female said. Michael looked at her with tears still in his eyes. She wiped them off with her thumb. "Hey calm down now." She soothed. "You're not alone anymore." Michael let out a quivering breath. He finally felt hope in the 16 years of his verbal abused life.

They led him through the house as some of their puppy siblings stared at him in sympathy, whimpering and asking him numerous questions that he couldn't answer. He felt his backpack being tugged. He saw that three male Dalmatian triplets, all 3 wearing gold chains encrusted 1-3 and their ears resembled which number they were. "H-hey. Please stop doing that. My personal belongings are in there." They stopped. "Sorry. Our bad." The second one apologized. Michael sat on the couch and studied the three dogs. "Wait a sec. Your triplets! Holy hot dogs!" They smiled. "Yeah. We are the Dimitri Trio. I'm Dimitri 1 and those are my bros: 2 and 3." Mike waved at them. "Oi kid! Your a Dimitri now! Take this!" Dimitri 3 threw him a chain and Michael caught it and it had "4" on it. He put it on. "Welcome to the club bro." Dimitri 2 said. "Thanks dawg." Michael replied. "O" "M" D!" Went three female voices. And there were 3 female tripets just like the Dimitris, but they were girls and they had different name tags, a heart, a diamond and a circle. "That's Triple D." Dimitri 1 explained. "Destiny, Dallas and Deja Vu." "Nice" "To" Deja Vu jumped in Michael's lap. "Meet you!" "Nice to meet you to. You look like freindly ladies." They blushed and batted their eyelashes. "Well, thank you for the kindness, but I must go to the park to cry myself to sleep." "OH NO YOU DON'T!" The male said. He sat him back down. "Please, don't torture me!!" Michael cried. THESE DOGS WERE SERIAL KILLERS! AND HE WAS THEIR NEXT VICTIM!! The male laughed. "No! We ain't gonna torture you! Your the sweetest boy we've ever known and we would never do a thing like that. I meant to say, "You're staying with us."" Michael sighed in relief. "Ok. Good." The male smiled. "Aw shoot! Were are my manners? I never fully introduced myself. I'm Dylan, and the girl who wiped your tears away is Dolly." "Ah." Michael said. "Got it. Dylan and Dolly. Y'know. I see you guys on TV a lot. Your show is on Disney XD in America were I live." "YOU'RE FROM THE USA?!" Said Dylan. "Yep." Dylan's jaw dropped. "So, I noticed you got a guitar case." Said a voice. Michael jumped and faced the pup who said that. He was a male pup with headphones covering his ears and his nametag was a metal viynl, indicating he really liked music. "Jesus! You scared me dude." "Oops." He said. "I'm DJ, and I really, really LOVE music! Can't live my life without it!" "Me to." Michael said. "YO! You've become my new favorite!!" DJ said happily, his tail wagging. "Oh, your just sayin' that!" Michael gushed. "No! I mean it! You sir, are my new fav!" He ran over to him and hopped in his lap. "Give me one man!" He held out his paw to give him a fist bump. Mike bumped it back. "Boom." He said. "So," DJ layed his head in his lap. "What music do you like?" "Well, I got a wide veriety, but I dig the 1950's, 40's, Great Deppersion Jazz, ragtime, some rap, a lot of classic rock, punk (mostly Green Day), indie rock, folk and regional Mexican rancheras, mariachi, trios and corridos with polkas." DJ was impressed with this kid. "YO! That's like half the freaking music world! You got some taste sir." Michael thanked the musical pup and patted his head and then began to scratch behind on of his floppy ears. "Oh yeah! Best day ever!" DJ said happily, his tail thumping against Michael's leg happily. "You're welcome DJ. I'm glad I made your day "the best". I never do that." DJ's ears perked up at this. "Huh? Why?" "Because..." All the pups leaned in. "...my mom, she.... despises me. Ever since my Dad moved out with some other lady, she got real deperessed and took it all out on me. She slapped me in the face a lot, whupped my butt with his leather belt till it was siren red and gave me bruises from punches, and slashes from her long fingernails and doing endless chores. And the other reason she hits me so much is she drinks a lot of tequilla and champagne to melt her pain away. When she's not drunk, she's the sweetest lady you could ever meet, but when she's had two or three, she's the devil's wife in disguise." "D-d-d- did she ever lock you in a closet?" DJ asked, on the verge of crying. "Once. For nothing at that matter! She just got this idea to lock me in there. So, she snuck up on me and she dragged me in there and locked me in for 2 whole days without food, water or taking a bath." "Why didn't you call the police on that evil woman?!" "I did. They put her on house arrest. For 3 years, she's been stuck in the house, yelling and beating me. And well, I'm glad I'm here so she can't do it for a while, but I'm sure when I get back, she'll find another lousy excuse to beat me or lock me in a closet again." Sniffling was everywhere. "I had no idea you went through that-" Began a pup covered in paint. She then gasped. "Michael?!" "Da Vinci?!" "OH MY GOD!!!" She cried. She jumped and landed on his stomach, hugging him fircely. "It's been so long!! I never thought I'd see you again!!" She sniffed and weeped. "Oh Da Vinci, Well.... we meet again." "You know Da Vinci?!" Went DJ. "YES!" Da Vinci replied. "He was my bestest friend EVER!!! We met at his school when he was coming out. I accidently splattered paint all over him. This was when he was 11..."

SPLAT! Went the paint. He wiped it off his face. "BLEH! WHY YOU STUPID IDIOT!!" 11 year old Michael yelled at the busch that splattered paint all over him. "Now my mom's gonna beat me for getting paint all over my new duds! Argh!" "Well, SoRRy!" The voice said. It was a dog! A dog covered with paint. "Maybe you should walk around were I paint, you stupid human!" "GRRRRR!!" Michael growled. He really did NOT like this pup AT ALL! "Your really rude for a puppy! I'm outta here!" And he stomped off. "GOOD RIDDANCE! HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!! You stupid human!" And she went back to painting.

"Yeah. That's how it went. DV really was pissed at me. I just didn't know she really liked painting, and.. I still got paint all over the clothes I wore that day. I put them in my pack for good luck, maybe that I would run into you again." "And here you are, talking to me." "Yeah, anyway.... Two days after the indicdent, I was walking to the store for my sober mom to grab some food for din din, when I saw DV painting the wall..."

"OH NO! It's that angry painter pup! What will I do?!" Michael thought. He snuck around her, but she saw him and tried to bite him. "AHHHH!" He yelled. He fell on his back and braced for a bite to his arm or leg. Maybe even his face! But he felt nothing. He looked up and saw her nuzzling his tummy. "HUH?!" He said. He sat up, but she continued smiling and nuzzling. "I don't get it. Shouldn't you be biting me right now?" He asked. "Look Mr Human, I thought about my little outburst and I just wanna say I'm really sorry for the way I acted." "Well, apology accepted. I guess we can't be friends though." Da Vinci smiled. "Oh yes we can! You wanna be friends? Oh wait... BEST FRIENDS?!?!?" Michael looked at space for a second then said, "Yeah. I can't see why not." DV whooped and licked him continuously. Michael laughed. "Oh you sweet little puppy! Your coming home with me..." His voice faded out.

Michael sniffed. "Yeah, but just as soon as I came back, my mother was on me. She called the pound and took her and I got a vicious beating and was grounded for a month." The pups sighed. "Gee, your life was really bad." Dylan said. "Yeah, but I still have to face her for 2 more years, than I can finally kiss her evil bottom goodbye and never take my children to her. EVER!" He sighed. "After my punishment, I busted her out and got her on a ferry to London and I never saw her again. My mom was sober, and she happily took me to LA Harbor and she was gone. Never saw her for 6 years until now." Da Vinci licked his face and his tears away. "Thanks Da Vinci. I'm glad to be here so I can take a break from her. But I'll be going back in a month. Got to go to Boy Scouts training in 2 days. Might as well ahng here with my pal Da Vinci and the rest of youse." "Good plan." Dylan said. And with that, Mike began to unpack.