By Judy Holland

Copyright

© 2013 by Judy Holland

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1494721695

1. Dexter in Las Vegas

Dexter sniffed around behind the curtain back stage. There was something delicious around here somewhere. He was sure of it. He could smell it. His hound dog snout pushed along the wooden surface of the backstage as he searched for that meaty substance he knew was near. Movement to his left caught his eye. He looked up.

To his doggie amazement, there was a well-dressed man in a black suit and top hat waving a black cane over a wooden box. A woman inside the box lie still, motionless. Was she dead? All Dexter could see was the woman's head, which protruded from the end of the box nearest him. The man on the stage spun the box around and Dexter got a glimpse of the woman's feet sticking out of the box at the other end. After prancing around the box for a few seconds the man opened the box, the man grabbed a saw and ran it through the center of the box.

Dexter forgot about the meat. His interest full on the man in the top hat now, he watched as the man pulled the woman's feet toward the back of the stage. Dexter saw her feet pointing in one direction and the woman's head pointing in another.

Is that possible? Omigod, he gasped. The man cut the woman in half!

Dexter jumped and yapped. Excited, he barked at the man, that evil man who sawed the woman in half. Someone from behind him reached out to pick Dexter up. A voice attacked Dexter's little doggie ears.

"Okay, mutt. That's enough. You've got to go now."

Dexter sprinted to get away from the hands. I'm not going anywhere, you jack ass. Dexter's thoughts seemed stereophonic inside his mind. He bolted on stage, circling the man in the top hat and the woman in the box sawed in half. Behind him, the roar of the audience's laughter got him all the more excited.

As Dexter began to circle the man in the top hat, the man closed the box, spun it in a circle, and lifted the top of it. The woman climbed out of the box in one piece.

Dexter calmed down. He pushed himself closer to the woman to sniff her shoes. Was she really all in one piece now? What kind of trick is this, he thought? The woman bent down and picked Dexter up, tickling his chin.

"Oh, aren't you a cutie," she said, holding him up to show the audience. The crowd of people in their seats raised the roof with applause. Dexter didn't know what to do. He basked in the glory of the momentary attention and snuggled against the woman's shoulder when she brought him back down to her chest.

"I have an idea," the man in the top hat whispered. He motioned toward his hat, which was now upside down on a barstool. The wooden box was somewhere off stage.

Dexter let the woman put him in the top hat. He wasn't sure what this was about, but he might as well play along. The audience laughed. The man in the top hat made a few hand gestures and the audience laughed again. The woman stood by, looking pretty.

The man placed his hand on Dexter's head and pushed it into the top hat, making sure Dexter could not be seen by the audience. Dexter didn't mind. He didn't like crowds anyway. As the man said a few nonsensical words and waved his hands over the top hat, Dexter thought about that meat again. He really was hungry.

Poof! No more top hat. Dexter suddenly found himself in a huge factory. The factor smelled. Machines everywhere squeaked and hummed. People milled about, seeming not to notice him. He could smell a familiar smell, and lots of it. He went wandering. Down halls and into odd-shaped spaces here and there he could see different assortments of candy, some of it wrapped in cellophane and others just sitting in a bowl or a jar. He hopped up on a table, looked around to see if anyone noticed him there, and stuck his snout in a bowl. Using his tongue, he snapped up a mouthful of dark chocolate covered with candy coating. He was really going to like this place.

2. Dexter and His New Farm Friends

Dexter was a very well behaved dog, perhaps too well behaved to the point where he always shied away from any social contact with other dogs and other animals that approached him. His family had a very well receptive nature of this behavior as well, in which he grew up with little social contact due to the excellent quality of education that his parents and siblings offered him. However, Dexter wanted to open more to other animals, establish friendships and be a more extroverted dog just like his close acquaintances. This all changed to the better when Dexter moved out of his hometown.

Approximately one hundred miles away from Dexter’s house there was a very secluded but quite beautiful farm house, where many animals that lived there always were keen in getting to know new animals that got integrated into the farm. Dexter moved to this new farm house due to a flooding that occurred in his native hometown and everything was pretty much destroyed. Dexter felt quite uneasy due to his comfortable zone being vanished away and being forced to move to another unknown farm, he thought that as a dog he would not fit in and that his overall social anxiety with other animals would get even worsened.

Dexter arrived to the farm house early in the morning; he came solo due to his family moving away from their native hometown many years ago. Many of the animals, who where a mix of a cow, a horse, a chicken and many others looked at him quite weirdly for the fact that he was a dog and not really a farm animal like them. With a few days into the farm house, the cow approached Dexter and asked him why he was there and what had happened to him. Dexter politely explained his whole life story and felt at ease with the cow due to her approachable and friendly nature; the cow was impressed in how Dexter came from a good family, a beautiful town and the difficulties that he had to undergo to get to new farm house after his hometown got destroyed by the floods.

The cow eventually started talking more to him while other animals remained quite indifferent yet intrigued by the fact that Dexter was living there. Surprisingly, Dexter had already become friends with the cow given the conversations that they had and they started to play together quite often, usually incorporating numerous farm activities and special games that they both truly enjoyed. The other animals started to get more intrigued by their relationship and wanted to enjoy such activities and fun games with Dexter too.

Many days came through and eventually the chicken approached Dexter as well as the horse and numerous other animals. These animals welcomed Dexter to the farm house and complimented him on being a very handsome dog, very well educated and with a keen approach to having a good time, judging especially on the numerous activities that Dexter and the cow had been playing and with so much fun that they had on these respective activities.

The chicken eventually taught Dexter a very fun game that they played during the afternoon called the “The Little Circle”, the game consisted in dancing to very special music on a circle surrounded by numerous chairs around the circle, when the music stopped, all players had to sit down and the one that did not sit in time, lost their turn and was out of the game. The chicken was a very keen player as well as Dexter, they had to every day maneuver through the circle in order to sit down and win the game, with extraneous dance moves and very specialized forms of dancing in order to win the game, anybody would burst out of laughing just by looking at them dancing through that little circle.

Dexter learned many other numerous games with the horse and other animals. He eventually started to become more extroverted and established very close friendships with these animals at the farm house. Every single day they played a new game, danced, sang, ate delicious food and had a great time. Dexter within a few months became the life of the party! He could not stop partying every single day with these animals at the farm house, creating new concepts and new approaches into the overall perspective of having fun. All worries for Dexter in being introverted and not having the social life that we wanted turned out to be completely eliminated given the social nature of the farm house and the excellent way that they had fun.

The moral of the story serves a lesson that for every bad experience that happens during our lives, like Dexter’s loss of his native hometown and his forced move-out to another strange land, bring well rewarded awards in the long run and quite numerous benefits in the long term as well, such as the ability to fulfill his desire to have a well-deserved social life, become the life of the party and established numerous friendships altogether.

3. Dexter to the Rescue

It was a sunny yet quite turbulent afternoon when Dexter was roaming around a park with numerous people walking, jogging, and walking their other dogs and having a good time. However, the park had numerous areas where it was very isolated, dark at night and quite enigmatic to the point where most people wouldn’t even want to be there in the first place. Dexter was approaching this area of the park when he suddenly realized that there were screaming sounds coming out of a nearby water well hole in this mysterious area.

Dexter at first felt afraid and thought of fleeing the scene and let those screaming sounds evade. Ignorance is often bliss and even more than bliss whenever one is confronted with such situations. However, Dexter’s keen memory and hearing recognized that those yelling sounds coming from the water well hole were actually very familiar to him. Following this familiarity of the screaming sounds, as if those yells that were heard were from someone whom he currently knew, he started running toward the water well in order to see who was there and who was actually screaming and for what reason.

It was surprising to see that the water well hole was bigger than expected when Dexter arrived to it and with his keen vision he was able to see a little kid named Ryan. Dexter had known Ryan due to his social skills acquired with Ryan’s friends and with their respective friends’ dogs. It came to an instant surprise to Dexter to see one of his closest friends in such a situation, being trapped in a water well hole during the late afternoon and most importantly in an area of the park that proved to be mysterious and quite dangerous as more hours passed into the night.

Ryan was crying in pain due to him falling into the hole by accident and was badly hurt due to some minor injuries and bruises that he suffered during the fall. Dexter immediately thought of Julie who could be able to rescue Ryan from the hole in a timely fashion if Dexter was able to reach home in time and tell Julie, and that is what precisely Dexter eventually did. Dexter told Ryan that he was going to seek help with Julie and that he will come back later, Ryan felt quite relieved that Dexter was going to do that but he remained quite afraid and scared at the same time, thinking the worst possible scenario that Dexter couldn’t find Julie in the end.

Dexter immediately started running towards back home and he eventually reached Julie’s house in a matter of 40 minutes from the park. Exhausted yet quite energized from the stressful situation, Dexter told Julie to follow him back to the water well hole in order to rescue Ryan and to treat his minor injuries that he had received during the fall. Julie immediately got nervous and started asking Dexter numerous questions, he eventually explained to her all what had happened and eventually tried to cut the conversation in order to reach the park in time to avoid worse things from happening.

Dexter started running back again to the park with Julie following him right behind him, Dexter was able to reach the park in a matter of 40 minutes once again and hoped to arrive to the exact same area where Ryan was in order to find the hole, since at this time almost 7pm it proved to be quite difficult due to the skies getting darker and the insides of the park getting quite dark as well very rapidly.

With a little bit of quick searching for the area, Dexter and Julie arrived precisely to the hole where Dexter was trapped and both Julie and Dexter went after him helping him with a rope and other materials so that Ryan could get out of the hole easily and safely.

In a matter of minutes, Ryan did all the best he could to jump into the rope and with Dexter applying pressure and Julie aiding Ryan with other materials Ryan was able to get out safely from the water well hole. It was such a terrific moment since Ryan was still crying but this time from happiness and relief that he had been rescued from such dangerous area.

Ryan, Dexter and Julie started walking out from this area of the park and within a matter of an hour or so they were arriving at home. Julie helped Ryan to cover his bruises, aided him in his injuries and Ryan was able to quickly recover in a matter of days.

Dexter’s walk on the park turned out to be a great rescue opportunity to save Ryan’s life from a dangerous place and from being trapped in a water well hole for a prolonged period of time, especially in a park area that was almost isolated the entire time. Ryan immensely thanked Dexter and Julie for this amazing and benevolent action and remained friends forever.

4. How Dexter Spoiled our Swimming Escapades

It is one of those days when schools are closed and there and there is not much to do in the house. My parents decided to visit the country side leaving me, my sister and nanny at home. They were to stay out there for three days and this time around, we were not to accompany them. Come Saturday and it was nanny’s day out and we were left alone with my sister. There was nothing to cook and no laundry as well so we had to watch several movies before ushering in the following day and join our friend for the Sunday service at our local worship center.

At around ten, we were done with our first movie and we were deciding on the next that our phone rang and my sister picked up the call. At first I thought it was either mom or dad calling only to notice the smiles on my sister’s face. The conversation took a while and I lost interest. When the call was done, my sister took her place next to me and broke the news that our best friend, Nancy will be coming over with her two friends.

This to me sounded like a good idea and immediately, I dashed to the kitchen to prepare some fruit juice for them. It took almost an hour before the doorbell rang. We hand company and they were all exited especially that we were home alone. It took only a few minutes to catch up and exchange pleasantries and we were all wondering on what activity to try next.

All this time Dexter, our dog, was wagging his tail oblivious of our dilemma. It was agreed we would walk down the stream and have some fun, after all, the sun was getting hotter and the afternoon was closing in. We walked through the garden, crossed the highway, to the forest and got to the stream when each of us was almost sweating and Dexter’s tongue could tell the temperatures were conducive for a swim.

We sat on the clean rocks with our feet in the clear water for a while. I opened my bag and gave each a cup of juice and sat there sipping the liquid until we thought of swimming. Since it is a well fenced private ranch, we did not expect any intruders to be around. This turned into a pool party and since none of us had planned it, we did have our swimming suits, and since no one wanted to catch a cold, we had no choice by to swim naked and stack our clothes in the bag I had used to carry the juice in.

It must have been a boring day for Dexter watching five almost grown up ladies running and diving naked in the water. At some point, I noticed him sleeping on our bag and I did not give it a second thought. We had all sorts of fun any group of young girls can ever dream of. This went on for about three hours until we were all exhausted and we needed to sit on the rocks, dry ourselves up, dress; which I felt Dexter will not stand and wait for us, and commence our walk back to the house across the highway and the garden

It is at this point that we noticed that Dexter and the bag were missing. I could understand that Dexter got bored and left for the house, but the bag could not have followed him. Apart from our friend Alice who mysteriously did not remove her panties and not that it could help us, the rest of us were totally naked in the middle of the afternoon.

Our frantic efforts to look for the bag yielded no results and the only option was one of us to somehow get to the house or we all walk to the house across the highway. The more we stood there the later it was getting and the more dangerous it was getting as well since some wild animals frequent the stream for a drink especially during the hot days.

Finally, we decided on team work and everyone walked home across the highway. It was the most traumatizing moment not only for me but all of us. We had no choice but swallow our pride, get home and dress up. When we got home, we found a couple of guys from the vet department and Dexter who apparently was spotted crossing the highway with a black bag with straps caught up in his color tie buckle. We were almost taken in for pet abuse and negligence if only it was not our birthday suits!

5. Dexter Steals the Girls Clothes

It was a hot day and everybody including Dexter, the huge family pet wanted to be outside. Kimberly was home for the holidays and today she had invited over a few of her friends. The girls had been at the house all morning and they were intent on enjoying themselves. They had spent most of the day in and out of the pool and were never dressed in anything more than brightly colored bikinis. Now however, they had not only deserted the indoors but they had also deserted their clothes. Nowhere in the house had been quite since the girls had come over and now they were taking their fun outside.

The sound of their high pitched squeals and giggles was too much to ignore and abandoning the idea of sleep the dog finally raises his head to observe the laughing girls. The pool held six lithe beautiful girls happily frolicking in the water. The young beauties looked like water nymphs with their youthful skins glistening from the sun.

The chorus of giddy feminine laughter was not to Dexter’s liking and with a long whine, he shuffles from under the lounge chair and headed in the direction of the sliding door leading inside the house. As he gets to the door he sees a bundle of colorful bits of fabric that was undoubtedly the girls’ swimwear lying on a towel. Curiously Dexter circles the garments. Stepping closer to further inspect the bundle, the dog is startled by a loud shout that caused him to jump away.

“Dexter! No!”

It was Kimberly calling to her curious pet before he attempted to lie on the small bundle, or worse pick bury them as was his favorite activity. Seeing the startled animal scramble away from the pile and through the door reassured Kim, and she went back to her games.

After a few moments Dexter ambles quietly through the patio door and returns to the bundle. Turning his head to look at the girls, the mischievous dog grabs a huge bunch of the bikinis between his teeth and goes through the patio door once again. A few minutes later he returns, repeating his previous behavior, grabs a pile in his mouth, disappears through the patio door and returns shortly thereafter. After three trips through the door Dexter finally takes the end of the fluffy cloth in his mouth and that too disappears through the door with the animal.

Returning after a few minutes Dexter steps through the patio door and makes his way towards the lounge. Before he gets to the pool side Ashley cups her hands full of water and throws it at the poor creature. Frightened by this, Dexter yelps and quickly retreats. When he reaches the patio door he turns and gives the girls a last menacing growl and heads inside.

The girls laugh at the dog’s antics and returns to their games. Soon after, Kimberly hears her phone ringing. That’s was Mom’s ring tone. She was probably calling to let her know they were leaving work and would be home soon. This was her cue to end their party.

“Ok guys, Mom and Dad are on their way home.” Her announcement was met with a chorus of boos but her friends knew they had to clean up before her parents were home. Getting out of the pool, the naked dripping girls headed towards the patio.

Melany was the first to reach and turning to the others she said “Where’s our clothes?” Her question however was met with blank stares until they realized that their clothes were indeed missing. “Maybe we left them inside.” Kristen said. Turning towards the door, Kim realized that the sliding door was closed but she couldn’t remember closing it. Her bewilderment quickly turns to fear when she realize the door wouldn’t budge. “Did one of you pull up the door?” she asked. All the girls shook their heads and just as they were about to panic, Dexter walks up to the glass door and stared out at them. “Is that dirt?” Heather asked? Looking more closely Kim realized Heather was right, there were dirt prints tracking behind Dexter.

Straightening up Kim said “Dexter took our clothes and locked the door.” Her comment was met with silence and then her fiends burst into laughter. She knew how it sounded and couldn’t help smiling too. When the girls finally composed themselves, she explained that Dexter loved burying things and the dirty paw prints suggests that’s exactly what happened. Additionally, she told them that the door was defective and would latch as soon as it was closed. It was probably Dexter who nudged it closed after they had splashed him. An explanation for their missing clothes though didn’t solve the dilemma of getting into the house before Kim’s parents returned and found them in their current state.

Remember the front door was unlocked; Kim would enter from the front and let everyone else in. Standing in a loose semi-circle the six naked girls discussed getting to the front without being seen, considering that the yard was open to the street. A few minutes later Alison suggested using one of the umbrellas shading the lounge chair to hide her nudity. With that they detached one of the umbrellas and Kim proceeded to slide along the wall to the front of the house with the umbrella open in front of her. As Kim reaches the front wall she sees Dexter happily digging away surrounded by a small pile of swim suits. She was just about to reprimand the dog when she heard a car approaching. Looking up, Kim realized it was her parents. In a wave of panic Kim dropped the umbrella, sprinted up the steps, swung the front door open and ran into the house just as she heard the automatic gates opening.

Kim quickly ran to the patio door and hurriedly ushered her friends in. They heard the car door slamming shut and the laughing girls all ran to Kimberly’s room just as they heard the front door open. That was close. Kimberly was sure they would be in trouble for leaving the house in a mess, but at least they wouldn’t have to explain how in the world they had all gotten locked out of the house, naked on the patio.

6. Dexter and His Success

Dexter and his owner John were lovers of the sea, the beach, sunny days and most particularly the enjoyment of surfing at the beach for countless hours several days per month. John had been a professional surfer for quite a long time and made several competitions around the world in the most challenging and exotic places surfing spots, thereby his interest was passed on to his dog, Dexter, who grew up seeing John having a great deal of enjoyment from surfing and subsequently taught him how to surf in his spare time.

At first, Dexter was almost completely unable to do any kind of surfing move and was almost virtually impossible for him to maintain an adequate level of equilibrium in order to stay afloat in those amazing yet scary waves that John introduced him to. With time and practice, Dexter mastered a couple of movements and subsequently was able to manipulate higher and more challenging waves, forcing himself to do his best at every lesson and learning other techniques from which to surf to make the entire experience more enjoyable and more professional.

It took approximately 3 years until Dexter was finally able to surf by his own, surfing at very high speeds and being the first dog that was able to completely advance to subsequent stages overtime. Apart from this characteristic, John helped Dexter to find ways to continue learning and perfecting his learned techniques so that he could be able to finally approach new competitions and new contests from where the prizes, benefits and awards were very attention calling both for Dexter and his future ideas as well as goals.

Dexter became a professional surfer precisely when John had quit from surfing due to his age and lowering stamina. It was not unusual to see Dexter now surfing with top surfers around the world and getting a widespread level of hype all over the world due to his impressive skills and keen ability to break into challenging waves that would turn down most surfers on the first try.

A media and advertising company was once on site of one of Dexter’s main competitions and they were so impressed with his abilities that talked to him in order to offer him a contract in order to make dog food commercials and sponsor the dog food brand that they were trying to launch into the market. Dexter was pleased with the offer and saw a very huge potential to make himself promoted not only just in surfing but in the derivatives of works that he could promote and sponsor through the advertising industry.

It became a sensational commercial just right after Dexter started to promote the first television commercial for this particular dog food brand. Competitors to the brand started to allure Dexter in order to work for them due to the incredible attention and feedback that they were receiving, as well as the excellent revenue in terms of sales through the advertising promotion. After a couple of weeks, Dexter was overwhelmed in receiving several contracts at a time to make countless of commercials in any given week. Dexter became a popular television commercial personality, sponsoring several brands at a time and getting to know the top executives of these companies who later offered him several positions on numerous magazines, newspapers, television ads and incredible offers to other types of talent everywhere where there was surfing interest and marketing promotion.

One of the most impressive characteristics about Dexter and his professional surfing was the fact that he was able to make an astounding amount of prize money from the surfing competitions that he participated in, as well as the amount of opportunities in terms of economic revenue that he acquired from being an excellent professional surfer.

These commercials were earning Dexter over a six figure income in no time in less than one month, and subsequently he was earning millions of dollars per year due to an incredible influx of competitors and the fight to get Dexter to do a sponsor of their brand in rapid time.

The level of professional as well as incredible monetary success that Dexter had acquired brought him to have a very high quality of good life to the point where he was already keen to buy his dream home, buy his luxury car, establish himself in the press for more popularity, party all the night long with incredible and successful people and really enjoy the riches that he was having at this point in his life.

Apart from this, the rest was history. Dexter had been able to completely surpass the level of success in terms of surfing and economic gain than his owner, John, and he was subsequently able to completely fascinate the entire world with his keen ability to become the best dog surfer in the world. His new private yacht, the good life inherent in his talent and passion were all products of the amazing relationship that John and him had at all times. John is now so proud of his dog that he does not have to worry about retirement anymore!

7. City of Magic

A dog named Dexter goes to Atlantic City and gets lost and ends up at a magic show, where he is put into a box and made to disappear, and the dog ends up on the other side of the world in a candy land place just like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Candy everywhere!

“We’ll find him,” the boy’s father whispered, gently rubbing his head. “He’s got to be around here somewhere.” He had to say so despite the fear setting in that Dexter might not be returning to them. With all the tourists gathering around for the magic show, finding a lost dog amidst the shuffling feet would be near impossible. Add to that Dexter’s reluctance to wear a collar, and the chances of him being reported as a missing pet drastically decreased. The boy’s father frowned, upset at himself for not having the foresight to make that precaution. But now that the tragedy had arrived, he could do nothing for his weeping son but console him through the loss of family.

Dexter clawed himself roughly two and a half feet up a wall, climbing into a small opening in the side of the building. Smoke billowed from the outlet, and that was likely its intended purpose, though the dog couldn’t comprehend any of this. Curiosity took the best of Dexter. Inside, he was quick to find the source of the smoke. An extravagantly dressed man waved a glossy, black stick while addressing a large audience. The dog has been panting heavily at the sight of them all – that and the mystery of the scene unfolding around him. He needed to know why the extravagant man was and how the stick he waved functioned. Until he found answers to those questions, he wouldn’t be hasty in leaving. And he certainly wouldn’t be subtle in his approach. Without giving it much thought, Dexter leapt over the props and boxes scattered in the area, finding his way up to the stage. He barked loudly, taking the attention of the extravagant man. The crowd, which had been clamorous up until then, fell silent as Dexter ran up to the man, eyes bulging in excitement.

“Ah!” the man proclaimed. He’d too much experience in show business to be so easily taken off guard. If the dog was adamant on being there, he’d be incorporated into the act, a special surprise for the audience. “My comrade has at long last arrived. And now…” he motioned to the side of the stage, and two assistants heaved a heavy box onto the performance area. “We shall make this creature leave us.” Murmurs of disagreement were exchanged among the audience members, but the magician quickly dispelled them. “Do you think so lowly of me,” he chuckled, “that you’d take me for a murderer of animals? I assure you, my assistant here shall see no harm.” With that, he smiled kindly at Dexter and waved the wand. The dog’s eyes followed with unreserved excitement.

The excitement in the crowd slowly died down. The performer waited for them to simmer down to scarcely truncated silence. Then his wand waved again; Dexter slowly levitated from his place, hovering for several seconds before descending gracefully into the confines of the box. “Now watch as The Great Vestro removes this dog not only from this box, but from this very room. Felicia!” One of the assistants returned with a wooden lid, fastened it on the box, and nailed it shut. She bowed to the audience, then bowed off the stage. “How much oxygen do you think can fit in a box like this? How long do you think it’ll take before it’s all replaced by carbon and our poor friend meets his grisly end? How long do you…” Vestro trailed off, looking across the theater at the disgusted faces of the audience. “Again,” he laughed, “you have taken me for a monster. But a monster, I am not. Behold!”

Dexter remembered the box, dark and cramped. There had been a number of tools inside – one particularly sharp – that he struggled to avoid. He’d listened to the voice of the extravagant man and the great cries of the crowd. They’d been so loud, just as he felt himself shift peculiarly. He couldn’t relate the sensation to anything in memory, but once it concluded, Dexter had enough of the cramped, nauseating confines. As soon as he got himself balanced, he charged forward.

Light burst through. Unfathomable, blinding light. The dog fell to the floor, fumbling around on weak legs. Within the minute, though, the light subsided and Dexter’s legs returned to life. He paced around briefly, paws wet and sticky. Something about the ground struck Dexter. The more he licked away at the adhesive, the stickier it become; but not only that – the more delectable it became. There had been a forbidden plastic case in his home, always filled to the neck with multicolored confections. He’d once managed to reach the jar and dig his snout in. The flavor of his paws now was eerily similar, as though the extravagant man had transported him to the world inside that jar. Dexter began panting uncontrollably, leaping and bounding in search of new flavors. Warm chocolate rolled thick down high hills, tumbling into lakes of confections. Gumballs set in the milky soil sprouted into magnificent trees, dropping colorful sweets onto the green licorice grass. If such a place as heaven existed, Dexter had found it, and there he would wander in bliss until the end of his days.