Forever friends

Tika and Mojo were sleeping peacefully when they were woken by something shaking the world. Tika raised her head and looked accusingly at her little brother.

"I told you not to eat before bed, Mojo!"

"Hey, that wasn't me," he objected. Then with a laugh, "I thought it was you."

And with the blame shared equally between them, they stood up, stretched, walked round and round and round until they finally settled down to go back to sleep.

After a few minutes, however, Tika had an eerie feeling that she and Mojo were under some kind of surveillance. Given their previous life in Winnipeg and their work at the canine detective agency, she had never been able to completely shake off her need to sniff out potential evil deeds and individuals - even up here in Doggie Heaven.

She stood up again and looked around until she saw someone looking directly at them.

"Hey, you," she said. "Get off of our cloud!"

With those words, Mojo jumped up to protect his sister, but as he rushed toward the object of her alarm, he realised the lost and forlorn 'intruder' with the distinctive grey, tan, white and black colouring had a familiar face.

"Wait, I know you. You're Huck. What are you doing up here?"

Ever since they arrived in Doggie Heaven, Tika and Mojo had been keeping a close eye on their humans, as well as Huck and Teddy, but they had totally missed this sudden turn of events.

Huck took a cautious step forward, and spoke just a few words. "I got sick."

Tika and Mojo figured out the rest of that story, and they knew that Huck would be feeling lost and alone. So they immediately moved as one to embrace and welcome him to their cloud - which was one over from Sydney and Annie, to whom they would introduce Huck the next time they were all playing together.

The heavenly members of the Brown family talked long into the night. Huck told them about Dad and all his bike trips, Mom and her favourite shows on Netflix, their family and friends, and Teddy.

"Oh, yes, the excessively hyper one," scoffed Mojo.

Tika gave Mojo the 'pot meet kettle' look.

Huck smiled for the first time since he arrived. "Hyper indeed, but I gave as good as I got." Then he admitted, a little more sadly, "But we really were great friends. I know he will miss me as much as I miss him."

To help put Huck at ease, Tika explained that it's tough in the first few days, and maybe even longer than that, but at some point down the line, he and everyone who knew him will remember the good times they all shared together.

"You will never be forgotten, and everyone knows that up here we're spending our time playing and eating and sleeping and having as much fun as we want."

The miniature Australian shepherd still seemed a little sad, so Mojo said, "We'll show around tomorrow and introduce you to all our friends, but you really should get some sleep now."

"It'll be okay, Huck," added Tika. "You'll be okay."

When Huck was finally asleep, Tika and Mojo sat together and thought about everything their new cloud mate had said.

"I still miss them, you know."

"Me, too," said Tika.

Then they turned round and round and round before settling down themselves. And before long, all three were fast asleep on their cloud up in Doggie Heaven, dreaming of the life they had, the people they loved and who loved them along the way, and the fun they would all be having together tomorrow.