Garfield's Lasagne Dilemma

WHAM!

That was the sound of Garfield's jaw hitting the floor as he stared at the TV screen. He couldn't believe the headline that was being displayed! Garfield quickly shut his eyes, hoping the whole thing was a joke or a trick or something. He opened his eyes again. The headline was still there.

"AAAARGH!!" Garfield shouted.

Jon ran into the room. "What's wrong, Garfield?"

Garfield just sat and stared in horror at the TV. Jon followed Garfield's gaze and saw live footage of a reporter standing outside a factory that night. Jon turned up the volume.

"In case you've just joined us," said the reporter. "We're here at the Stuffers Lasagne Factory where we have just learned that the company will be going out of business soon due to financial difficulties including bankruptcy and mail fraud."

"Hey, Garfield," said Jon. "Isn't that the company that makes your favorite lasagne?"

Garfield wished it wasn't true, but it was. It was like some horrible nightmare. Worse than a visit by Nermal or even a diet! He buried his face in his paws.

"Sorry I can't do anything about it, Garfield," said Jon. "But I've got to get ready for my date tonight. She seemed really excited to meet me."

"Then she's in for a real surprise," thought Garfield. Still, it seemed very bizarre that Jon's date hadn't heard anything about Jon's reputation.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"Uh-oh, she's early!" cried Jon. "Garfield, quick! How do I look?"

Garfield turned his teary-eyed head toward Jon's outfit. He wore a black suit over a plaid red shirt, pants, and shoes, as well as some Binky the Clown socks. Garfield was surprised that Jon remembered his pants this time.

"Never mind," said Jon as he ran to the door. "Just try and be happy while I'm gone, okay?"

"That's kind of hard to do when your life is in shambles right now," thought Garfield. He watched as Jon opened the door.

"Hello. You must be Jon," said the woman at the door.

Garfield did a double take. This woman wasn't fat or ugly or weird in any way. She was just a regular, beautiful woman who was ready for her date to begin. For a moment, Garfield wondered how that was possible.

"Well, um, yes, that's me," stuttered Jon. "You must be, uh....."

"Andrea"

"Yes, Andrea, I...okay...um, let's go!"

"Alright!" said the woman.

"Bye, Garfield! Just take a nap or something while I'm gone, okay?" Jon shut the door.

As Jon and Andrea walked towards Jon's car, they woke up Odie, who was sleeping next to the front walk.

"Bye, Odie. Stay here with Garfield, okay?"

"Bark!" answered Odie.

Jon and Andrea got in the car and drove off into the night.

Garfield sat alone in the house, surrounded by depression. He was watching more live coverage of the bankrupt lasagne company. Ten minutes later, Garfield turned the TV off with a look of determination on his face. If Jon thought he was just going to sit here and do nothing, he was wrong. Garfield decided to stop his favorite lasagne company from going out of business. Lucky for him it was only several miles away. Garfield ran to the backyard and squeezed through a large gap in the fence. He then ran off in the direction of the factory.

Meanwhile, Odie was in the front yard trying to fall asleep again. No such luck. He thought about going inside when suddenly, a French poodle walked by the house in front of him. Odie sat straight up as he watched the collared poodle walk down the sidewalk and out of sight.

Odie wasn't exactly sure what had just come over him, but suddenly he felt like following her. Odie got to his feet and ran to the sidewalk. He could see the poodle crossing the street to the left. Odie picked up the pace and followed close behind.

In the car, Jon tried to strike up a conversation with Andrea.

"Looks like it might rain this week," said Jon.

"Yes, it does," answered Andrea.

Try as he could, Jon couldn't come up with anymore subject matter to talk about. He wouldn't have had a chance to anyway, because Andrea began searching around the car for something.

"What's wrong?" asked Jon.

"My purse!" cried Andrea. "I can't find it anywhere!" She gasped. "I must've left it at work!"

"Oh, that's okay, Andrea. I'll pay for dinner."

"No! My all my ID cards are there! People will know who I am."

"Why are you worried about that?"

"Well...uh...they could steal my money and personal information."

"That's not good," replied Jon. "Where do you work?"

"Right up there. Turn left here."

Meanwhile, Odie continued to follow the cute poodle. He was beginning to wonder how far away from home he was, when the poodle suddenly stopped. Odie hid behind a lamppost and peeked out from behind it. The poodle began sniffing the air for a minute. Then she began to run towards a large building in the distance. Odie also took off in hot pursuit.

Now is probably a good time to mention that, unknown to any of them, Garfield, Odie, and Jon were all going to the same place.....the Stuffers Lasagne Factory!

The building was surrounded by a chain-link fence, but the poodle easily squeezed through a hole in the fence. Odie ran through the hole too, and tried to keep up with the poodle.

Not too far away, Garfield squeezed through a much larger hole in the fence. He spotted a door on the side of the building that was slightly open. He snuck inside and ended up in a large room filled with machinery. The smell of pasta noodles was intoxicating. Garfield knew he'd go crazy if he spent too much time here. He ran across the room and entered a hallway on the other side.

Elsewhere in the room, the French poodle looked around at all the pasta-packaging machines. She had never been in here before and was amazed by the large objects and conveyor belts that blanketed the room. She started exploring the place as Odie stayed in the shadows observing her.

At the front of the building, Andrea and Jon approached the front door.

"I didn't know you worked here," said Jon. "It's a shame the place is closing down."

"I know," answered Andrea. "I've worked here for quite a while."

"My cat, Garfield, would like you a lot, Andrea. He's one of this company's biggest fans...literally." Both of them laughed. Jon felt good about being with Andrea. He hadn't gotten this far along on a date since...well, since ever!

The couple entered the factory. They were in the visitors waiting room.

"Now you wait here, Jon. I'll just get my purse and be right back." She unlocked a door and exited the room. Jon sat down and began reading one of the outdated magazines on the rack.

Garfield ran down a hallway. He couldn't believe that he could get lost in a place he'd always dreamed about going to. He started running, then he started power walking, then he started walking slowly and gasping for air...and he didn't even go twenty feet! Garfield came to a stop as he suddenly realized that he didn't have a single clue as to how he was going to save the lasagne factory from bankruptcy.

He began to think about what he should do next, when suddenly he spotted a woman entering a room at the end of the hallway. Garfield walked in her direction. Maybe she knew something that could save the factory!

As Garfield approached the door, he heard the woman talking to someone inside the room. Garfield peeked around the door and gasped.

The room was the factory's main control center. A wall of TV monitors was set up on one wall behind a large control panel. There were file cabinets and small tables supported against the other walls. In the center of the room, was a large table covered with papers. The woman sat on a chair and was talking on a video-phone. Her purse stood nearby.

The reason Garfield gasped was because he recognized the woman. It was Jon's date, Andrea! What was she doing here? And where was Jon? Garfield snuck into the room and hid under on the of the small tables.

"Everything's been taken care of, Mr. Bronson," said Andrea.

"Excellent," replied the person on the video-phone's tiny screen.

Garfield's eyes widened. He didn't have to see the screen to know who Mr. Bronson was. He'd heard the guy's voice on dozens of commercials. Mr. Bronson was the president of Bronson's Lasagne Inc.; Stuffers Lasagne's only competition! Bronson made those yucky-tasting vegetarian lasagnes that Jon tried to get Garfield to eat one time. Why was Andrea talking to him?

"Did you retrieve your purse, Andrea?" Mr. Bronson continued.

"Yes, Chief," answered Andrea.

"Good. If anyone from Stuffers knew that I hired you to their company just so you could sabotage it, my plans for expansion would be ruined!"

"Of course, Chief. After mailing those fake stock results to the company, it was only a matter of time before the place would go bankrupt."

"And once Stuffers is gone, the entire place will be mine! Ahh, I love it when these plans go together, Andrea."

Garfield was shocked. "I guess Jon didn't pick such a hot date after all," he thought. He tried thinking of a way to stop this plan from happening. That's when Garfield spotted a telephone on the giant control panel. If he could dial 911, the police could come and arrest Andrea! The problem was, the phone was on the other side of the room. Garfield would have to sneak under the table in the center of the room to get to it.

"Now, Andrea. Are you sure you destroyed all the evidence that could lead to our involvement?"

Andrea walked over to one of the TV monitors as Garfield dashed under the center table. One of the monitors was focused on a conveyor belt that led to a large metal container filled with boiling water. The conveyor was covered with soft, uncooked pasta dough.

"Well, as soon as this one last bit of dough is cooked to a blackened crisp, all the edible evidence will be gone."

Andrea was standing right in front of the phone. "Why doesn't she move?" thought Garfield.

"What about those summer financial reports?" asked Mr. Bronson.

"Hang on. I'll double-check," she then walked over to a file cabinet on the other side of the room. This was Garfield's chance! He dashed over to the phone and dialed 911. As he waited for the operator to respond, Garfield swore that he saw Odie on one of the monitors.

Garfield heard the file cabinet close just as the operator responded. He dove back under the table. He left the phone hanging so the operator could trace the call.

"Yes, the files have been destroyed," said Andrea, turning back to the video-phone.

"Very well. So, just get rid of the rest of the evidence and get out of there. And don't forget your purse this time." The video-phone shut off.

Sighing, Andrea walked over to the control panel and flicked a switch. She was about to proceed out of the room when she suddenly stopped. Garfield gasped as he realized that Andrea had caught sight of the phone hanging from the receiver!

Fortunately for Garfield, she didn't have a chance to investigate because, at that moment, Jon's voice called out from beyond the room. "Andrea? Where are you?"

Startled, Andrea walked over to the door and leaned into the hall. "Just a minute, Jon! I'll be right there!" Garfield cautiously observed Andrea from under the table.

Neither of them saw the activity taking place on the TV screen.

You see, before Andrea flicked the switch, the French poodle discovered the uncooked pasta dough on the conveyor belt in the machinery room. The poodle began licking up the tasty dough as Odie decided to take the opportunity to introduce himself to her. He gulped as he began to approach her from behind. That was when Andrea flicked the switch that started the conveyor belt. The poodle slowly started traveling up the belt with the dough. She tried to get away, but her paw got stuck in a dough-filled hole on the conveyor belt. She yelped with fright as she tried to free herself. Odie, who figured out that the poodle was in trouble, ran up to the conveyor belt and began climbing it. He left pawprints in the dough as he rushed up to the poodle. Before he reached her, Odie caught sight of where the conveyor belt would dump them...a huge vat of boiling water! Odie didn't have much time, so he barked to get the poodle's attention. She was more than a little surprised to see this dog come out of nowhere to rescue her.

When Odie reached her, he tried to yank her leg out of the hole, but the dough was too sticky. Odie was alarmed to discover they only had about ten feet before the conveyor would dump them into the water.

Just then, Odie had an idea! (hard to believe, isn't it?) He began licking up the dough around the poodle's leg with his oversized tongue. It was very tasty, but Odie didn't have time to savor the taste.

The good news was that the poodle was eventually freed from the dough. The bad news was that she and Odie were just inches away from being dumped into the deadly pot of bubbling water.

Fortunately, Odie looked up just in time to see a cable suspended from a pulley wheel that was lying on a metal track on the ceiling...which was hanging directly over the boiling water. Grabbing the poodle with one arm, Odie leaped from the top of the conveyor belt and grabbed onto the cable with his other paw. The two dogs traveled along the entire length of the metal track. Eventually, Odie let go of the cable and the two dogs landed in a pile of cardboard boxes.

After the two dogs got to their paws, they looked each other over to make sure they were alright. They didn't have time to fully introduce themselves because suddenly, a woman's scream was heard down a hallway, followed by an "AAAARGH!!!"

Odie knew that "AAAARGH!" It came from Garfield! He was sure of it. Odie barked to let the poodle know that she could come with him. Then, the two dogs ran down the hallway toward the source of the screams.

The woman's scream was, of course, Andrea and the "AAAARGH" was indeed Garfield. He had tried to escape from the control room, but had clumsily tripped over Andrea's feet in the process. Now the two of them were racing around the room as Andrea kept yelling, "Stop, you spy!"

Garfield eventually exited the room with Andrea right behind him. Garfield turned a few corners before running into Jon, who was searching for Andrea.

"Garfield?! What are you doing here?" asked Jon with surprise.

Andrea ran up to them and quickly regained her composure. "Your cat, I presume?"

"Uh, yeah. He must've followed me here. I see you found your purse."

Andrea glanced down and discovered her purse hanging from her shoulder. She must've grabbed it before she left the control room. "Why, yes. How about that?" She paused to catch her breath. "I guess we can get on with the rest of our date then." They began walking towards the front door.

"First, I have to get Garfield home," he turned and looked at Garfield in his arms. "Now you know better than to follow me on my dates."

Garfield rolled his eyes. He had no intention leaving. And Andrea was going to get away!

He didn't have to worry for long. As Garfield, Jon, and Andrea entered the lobby, they heard a bark off to the side. Garfield was definitely surprised to see Odie and a poodle emerge from a hallway.

"Odie?!" Jon exclaimed. "How did you get here?"

Andrea was amazed too...but for an entirely different reason.

"Vivian!" she shouted. She ran over to the French poodle and gave her a hug. "How did you get out of your cage?"

Odie caught sight of the poodle's collar. The name 'Vivian' was printed on it. Odie quirked an eyebrow. He always wondered what that poodle's name was.

Vivian did not appear pleased by her master hugging her. Every time Andrea went out, she left Vivian alone in the house. Sometimes for days at a time. Vivian hated Andrea for that. Good thing she recently figured out how to get out of her cage.

Just then, the lights of police cars appeared outside. Sirens could be heard blaring out there, and men were emerging from their police cars.

Andrea became frightened and tried to run towards the back door. Fortunately, quick-thinking Garfield came up with a way to stop her. He leapt out of Jon's arms and landed on Andrea's ankle. Andrea dropped her purse as she tried to struggle free, but it was impossible. Garfield was too heavy.

Jon was about to get Garfield off of Andrea's foot, when the front doors burst open. Cops, a detective, and a large man in a business suit entered the lobby. "Freeze!" shouted the detective.

Everyone froze, except Garfield who tumbled off Andrea's foot in disbelief. He recognized the man in the suit. It was none other than Richard Stuffers, founder of Stuffers Lasagne! Garfield had always dreamed of meeting the man in person.

"What's going on here?" asked the detective as some cops came over and grabbed Jon and Andrea by the arm.

Jon tried to stammer out an explanation as Garfield, Odie, and Vivian looked on with worry. They noticed a cop retrieving Andrea's purse and handing it to the detective. "Take a look at this, Larry."

Larry the detective looked through the purse. "Financial documents, fake ID cards, keys. Looks like we're going to have a very interesting discussion down at the station, ma'am. Cuff her, boys."

"Andrea?" asked Jon.

"I'm sorry, Jon. I thought if I could act normal and go out on a date, I'd be less conspicuous. I didn't mean for this to happen to you."

"What about this guy?" asked one of the cops, who pointed at Jon.

"Oh, I don't think he's been involved in this," said Mr. Stuffers.

"How do you know?" asked Larry.

Mr. Stuffers looked down at Jon's feet. "Anyone who wears Binky the Clown socks probably doesn't have the brains to carry out an operation such as this."

"Uh...yeah," agreed Jon. "None whatsoever."

So Andrea ended up being hauled away into a police car. She called out to Vivian to come with her, but the poodle just frowned at her master. After putting up with cold nights outside, minimal amounts of food, and unnecessary disciplinary actions for three years, she was fed up with it all. Vivian smiled for the first time in months as the police car drove away.

"Are these your pets?" Larry asked Jon.

"All except her," Jon answered as he pointed to Vivian.

Larry pulled an officer aside. "I want you to take that poodle to the animal shelter. Since her master will no doubt be facing some serious charges, she's needs to stay there until a new family adopts her."

Vivian beamed with excitement. Before she was carried away, she leaned over and thanked Odie for saving her life by licking him on the nose. Odie dizzily fell back on his haunches and sighed as Vivian left in the police car.

"Well boys, looks like we'd better go home," said Jon. Before he left, Garfield walked over to Mr. Stuffers and hugged his leg.

"Very friendly cat you have there, sir," said Mr. Stuffers, slightly bewildered.

"Oh, he's one of a kind," answered Jon. "He's also one of your biggest fans...literally."

Garfield glared at Jon on the ride home.

Two weeks later, things were pretty much back to normal. Jon was hopelessly trying to find another date on the phone, while Odie was on the computer chatting with Vivian. She had been adopted by a nice family with an Internet connection and the two dogs had kept in touch ever since.

Garfield, who was watching TV, suddenly turned up the volume. Jon and Odie came over to watch. The reporter was standing in front of a courthouse.

"Robert Bronson, president of Bronson's Lasagne, has been accused of causing the bankruptcy of his competition, Stuffers Lasagne. If found guilty on all charges, it's gonna be good-bye Bronson and welcome back Stuffers!"

"Looks like we saved the lasagne factory, Garfield," said Jon. "What do you want to do now?"

"Feed me," thought Garfield.

End