And then, the soft sounds of raindrops hitting the pavement were interrupted by soft whimpers of the canine variety. His attention piqued, Garfield the Cat turned away from the iron-barred window of the city pound to face the source of the noise: his good friend and dim-witted punching bag, Odie the Dog, was lying down on the cold stone floor, asleep and shivering. Admittedly, it was a cold, windy night outside. Even Garfield had to admit it was rather chilly outside, especially more so since the windows weren’t covered by glass, so he couldn’t blame Odie for that one.
Sighing, Garfield slowly walked away from the window and closed the distance between himself and his friend. Planting himself in a sitting position right next to his furry friend, he lay down on the ground, attempting to warm up the skinny, yellow pup by way of body heat. It was the only thing he could think of doing. Staring at Odie out of the corner of his eyes and with a forlorn, depressed look on his face, Garfield extended an orange paw and stroked the dog’s back a few times. He did this until his friend stopped shivering. It did not take that long for that to happen, so that was a relief. Satisfied with his results, Garfield smiled briefly before closing his eyes, and trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately, any sleep he would get would most likely be very fitful.
He couldn’t help but think back to how the two of them had landed in their current predicament in the first place. It had all begun much earlier that morning. The two of them had just started their usual bout of playfighting shortly after breakfast, and it did not take long for Jon Arbuckle, their owner, to suggest they go outside to fight. And so, they did just that. They proceeded to play inside the flower garden for a good while, and all was going well enough until the puppy next door decided to take a bite out of Garfield’s tail. After doing his best to look threatening, the dog retreated to his owner. Garfield then came up with the idea to catch him and wring his tiny neck. Odie, who he had beckoned, nodded in agreement, and the two set off creeping slowly towards their destination.
Meanwhile, Old Hubert, the dog’s owner, who was seated in a rocking chair on his front porch, was none too pleased about the cat and dog from next door scaring his pet and trespassing on his property. After his multiple warnings to the pair had failed, he decided he needed to take action. He picked up his cane and, as Garfield and Odie made their way onto his porch, proceeded to attack the duo. Both cat and dog were too nimble for him, so he had a tough time landing any blows. And just as it looked like he had Odie cornered, and as he brought his cane over his head, he accidently knocked over a flower pot hanging directly above him. It fell and landed upside-down on his head. Furious over this result, he yelled for his wife, Reba, to get him the phone. Once she got it for him, the old man proceeded to call the city pound to take Garfield and Odie away. A truck arrived astonishingly fast, and Garfield realized he and Odie needed to make tracks. He bolted off quickly and dove into a set of nearby bushes. Odie, however, had gotten caught in a net and was loaded onto the back of the vehicle. He was, according to Garfield, too stupid to realize that he was in deep trouble. Which was when the truck drove off.
Garfield had feigned indifference to this and put the incident behind him. He probably would not miss Odie anyway. His indifference continued until late that evening where, after enjoying a late-night snack, he realized he was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. He would not admit this out loud, but he found he was starting to miss Odie after all. Which was when he decided he would head down to the city pound himself and bust his friend out of there.
Unfortunately for him, his escape plan did not go as well as he had hoped it would. He had tracked down the city pound easily enough and was able to get inside without too much trouble. The big problem arose when he found he needed a key to unlock the cell that Odie was occupying. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful in getting the key from the man on duty. Though originally asleep, he woke up as soon as Garfield tried pulling on his key ring, and from there, the orange cat was thrown into the cell as well. And to top it off, although he had finally reunited with Odie, he was informed by another cat named Fast Eddie about the fate everyone suffered in the city pound: If no one came to claim them, a terrible fate would befall them, which Fast Eddie demonstrated by running a finger around his neck. Garfield was very uncomfortable with this revelation, even more so when he discovered that, unless he was claimed before dawn, Odie was the next in line to go.
These thoughts were weighing on Garfield’s mind when he finally opened his eyes. He wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep, however as he glanced towards the window, he noticed the sky was a little brighter outside. It also wasn’t raining as hard, but that hardly seemed to matter to the orange cat. Odie was still sound asleep next to him. Being mindful not to wake him up, Garfield got to his feet and walked back to the windowsill and stared outside. Morning was indeed on its way. He was certain time was just about up for his little yellow friend.
Garfield wished he was home. He wished Odie was home with him. He imagined the two of them playfighting and playing with each other and having fun. He imagined them running around the house causing mischief and romping around in the flower garden. This got him thinking about earlier that morning, or perhaps the correct term was, earlier yesterday morning, at this point. He had originally blamed Odie for them getting into their predicament, although at this point he was beginning to wonder if he was also to blame for it. And then he started to wonder whether things could have been avoided had their day yesterday gone differently. Should he and Odie not have chased after the next-door neighbor’s dog? Should they have ignored Jon’s suggestion to go outside and just taken things to a different part of the house instead? Heck, maybe Garfield should have kept his temper and not retaliated after getting scared to death by Odie’s barks, or spared the usual kick-the-dog-off-the-table routine, before that? So many what ifs, and he had nothing to show for them. Thinking about them, he started to believe that perhaps he really was the one at fault.
Before he could think about that any further, however, his mind came back to reality as the sound of the cell door creaked open behind him. Turning his head around fast enough to get whiplash, he watched in horror as the man on duty grabbed Odie by the neck (which woke him up) and lead him outside the cell door. Panicking, Garfield rushed after them. Fast Eddie tried to hold him back, saying that Garfield would be taken as well if he tried to stop them, but he broke free and continued running. Unfortunately, he was too late, as the cell door closed once again before he got there.
The man stopped in front of the cell door. Odie did all he could to break free from the man’s grasp, but to no avail; his grip was too strong. Garfield stuck his head through the bars trying to get as close to the two of them as he could. Upon noticing him, Odie stopped resisting and stared at his friend. A look of despair settled on Garfield’s face; he could tell that Odie was beyond saving at this point, and that this would probably the last chance he had to say goodbye. He began to extend his paw towards Odie, but was interrupted as the skinny canine licked him in the face. Ignoring the fact that there was dog slobber in his fur, he continued extending his paw forward. Odie quickly caught onto this and placed his paw onto Garfield’s. The two of them looked each other in the eyes with forlorn, sad looks on their faces.
They stayed like this for a couple of seconds before their paws were separated by distance. Garfield looked on as the man walked down the hallway, the small dog being dragged along behind him. Odie all the while kept his gaze fixed on Garfield, and it remained until the two of them disappeared behind the large wooden door at the end of the hallway. Garfield’s head tilted down toward the floor, as the reality of the moment hit him with full force. This was it. Odie was never coming back. A small tear fell from his eye, trickled down his face and hit the floor, as one final thought surfaced in his mind regarding their situation:
“I never knew I had to say, so long.”
