Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck
by Michael Arnold
Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck is the story of indelible friendship between very cunning and intelligent pets. They not only roam the shopping center in their neighborhood in quest of food but also in search of people who would love them.Louis is a Fox Terrier. By all accounts he is a good dog. Yet, his owner, Edna was treating him badly to say the least. She would keep him chained outside and serve him bowls of left over food or bones dipped in beer batter. Louis’s only refuge from her frequent abuse was his dog house. And that, until one day a bad-tempered, irascible groundhog, by the name of Woodchuck, decided to free Louis from his bonds. In exchange for giving Louis his freedom, Woodchuck asked him to get him grapes that were stored in Edna’s refrigerator.That day marked the departure on a grand escapade for the two friends. They went on marauds, stealing food – grapes in particular – from delivery trucks near a shopping center and making pacts with foxes and hawks who lived in the area. In the meantime, Edna became obsessed with the loss of her dog. She wanted him back. She wanted him and the groundhog to pay for the mess they had created in her house. But, most of all, Edna wanted a dog, an animal to abuse at leisure. She placed posters all over the neighborhood offering a reward for the return of Louis, her dog.However, Louis and Woodchuck had not only created havoc in the parking of the shopping center but had sparked a lot of resentment toward stray animals on the part of the shoppers. One person was to take advantage of this situation and create a stun gun that people would be able to use against Louis and Woodchuck. In another part of town, Molly, a beautiful, long haired cat – was on her way to the Charlotte Animal shelter. Molly was sick. Her owners didn’t want to keep her until she would have to be put down. During her stay at the shelter, Molly met Kelly, a young woman with a heart of gold who loved animals and who believed animals, especially pets, were to be treated with respect and with gentleness and love. A couple of days later, Edna came to the shelter in hopes of finding Louis. When Kelly told her that there was no dog resembling Louis staying at the shelter at the time, Edna decided to adopt a pet. She wanted to adopt Molly. For some reason, Molly had no intention of being adopted by this woman, who seemed odd to her. That’s when Molly found a way out of the animal shelter and began a journey of her own that would see her join Louis and Woodchuck.Onree John Thomas, the man who had designed the stun gun – called a Stun Duh – had devised a plan by which, his employees would adopt animals from the shelter and these animals would then be injected with a paralyzing potion, which would freeze them in a chosen posture, virtually transforming them into mannequins. Onree recruited Edna and her cousin Randall to adopt pets and bring them to his deadly warehouse. Yet, Edna had other ideas. She wanted to find Louis. Her obsession grew to such an extent that Onree found no other way than capture her and encage her in his warehouse. Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck in the company of their two friends Hawk and Worm – two very capable hawks – had work to do. Would they be able to rescue all the animals from Onree’s warehouse, or would they be capture, too, to be frozen into mannequins and sold to the highest bidder overseas?Let Louis, Molly & the Woodchuck trill you when they recount their story.