Lemon sighed, resting his head on his paws. The golden retriever was done with the pound. It was so crowded. What had he done to become a convict at this prison? He would be killed if he wasn't adopted, but being adopted seemed unlikely for him. He wasn't a cute pup anymore. Sure, he was still pretty young, but that only made him a bit clumsy. A human walked over to the cage he shared with another dog, carefully opened the door, and slid a bowl of food in before quickly locking the door again. A small chihuahua rushed over to the bowl of food, greedily starting to munch on the food. Growling, Lemon stood up and nudged the small dog out of the way, their back hitting the cage. He wasn't going to starve. Not today. The golden retriever wolfed down a good portion of the dog food. Ew. He would never get used to it. But it was food.

"Hypocrite!" Cinnamon growled, sticking her small, chihuahua face up to his nose. "You ate all the food!"

"NOT ALL OF IT!" Lemon barked, pushing the small dog back. "You had your fair share of food! And I need it more than you!"

Cinnamon quivered, her ears shaking wildly. "Don't make me bring Jack into this when we're let outside!"

Lemon gasped, stepping back. "You wouldn't!" Jack was a terrifying German Shepard, always threatening to rip others apart. He remembered with a chill to his spine that Jack wasn't joking around. The German Shepherd had killed someone before. That was why he was here. And Cinnamon had befriended him. The meanest dog in the pound was friends with the slyest. They stole whatever they wanted when in the Yard.

The Yard. Once everyone ate it was time for the Yard. Lemon poked his snout through the bars as much as he could and looked out at the sea of cages, each filled with two or three mistreated dogs. No way all of them were done with their food. But another round of humans came around, each one of the five opening a cage and leading the dogs through a door before coming back and repeating themselves. Finally, the lock on their door was undone, and they were let outside. With a happy grin, Lemon started to run around the Yard to entertain himself and stretch out his legs. Sure, the Yard wasn't big, in fact it barely could fit all the dogs in it, but it was outside in the sun. Glorious.

Suddenly, a beagle got in his way, blocking his path. Lemon tried his best to skid to a stop in time, but he tripped and almost planted his snout in the dirt. "What do you want." He growled at the smaller dog, recognizing her. The beagle was one of Jack's 'gang' members. Always going around and causing trouble if Jack so wants it.

"Jack wishes to see you." She said, no emotion in her fake Cockney accent. "Keep in mind you have no choice."

"Ugh, I'll tear your snout out one day so I don't have to hear your insulting voice, Elizabeth." Lemon growled, knowing himself that it was just an untrue threat. But he wasn't dumb enough to defy Jack's will, so he looked for where the terrifying dog was and headed over to him. At Jack's paws sat Cinnamon, looking as sly as ever. "Jack." Lemon said politely, lowering his head to show he wasn't a threat.

"We're arranging a crew of dogs to get out of this Pound. Cinnamon thought to include you because you're fast." Jack said bluntly, a small snarl in his voice. Jack didn't like him, but the fact that the huge dog was inviting him just showed how much he considered Cinnamon to be an equal. Speaking of Cinnamon, the little tan chihuahua looked slightly grumpy.

"I'll be... staying behind to pose as a distraction..." Cinnamon sighed, her expression downcast. "If y'all can make a hole in the fence big enough for me to fit through then maybe I could join you..."

Lemon looked over at the chainlink fence, walking over and trying to pull little bits of metal off. The humans knew they would spot a gap before it was big enough for a big dog to escape through, and too hard for a small dog to chew through, but they didn't even think about them working together. Jack looked approving of his actions and tried to help, his strong teeth speeding up the process. "We leave as soon as we've recruited all the dogs. Ol' Wise Man is coming with us to lead us to a safe space." Jack growled through gritted teeth. Finally, there was a small hole big enough for Cinnamon to run through, so the big dogs stopped chewing.

"Safe space? All Ol' Mackerel talks about is the weird forest. Surely we're not going there! It's the wild! We could get hurt! How would we get food?!" Lemon panicked. He didn't want to escape if they couldn't survive out there.

"If Ol' Wise Man could survive we'll do fine." Jack scoffed, almost insulted Lemon didn't think they could survive. "We're stronger than him, and he's on our team. What, do you think I'm weak?!"

"No, no, no, no, of course not!!" Lemon whimpered, taking a step away from the strong German Shepard. He was planning on keeping his head today. "Y-you're the opposite of weak!" Unlike me... His thoughts scoffed, trying to hide the sadness behind the words.

"You bet I am." Jack growled, nudging Lemon lightly and causing the retriever to fall down. "This pound will rue the day that they locked me up! Elizabeth, why are you just standing there?!? Go get the others!" He demanded angrily, causing the small beagle to scamper away and do what she was told. She started collecting dogs that Lemon had assumed were picked by Jack or Cinnamon. First, Jackal was picked. Then, Nutmeg. Followed by Ol' Mackerel. Once Elizabeth had brought all the dogs back, she looked tired, too tired to move any longer. But Jack demanded that she did. One by one, dogs climbed over each other and hopped the fence, racing away as Cinnamon distracted the humans. Once every dog was out of the fence, Cinnamon ran as fast as her little legs could, slipping under the fence and just avoiding a hand of a shouting human.