Cathy Gets Grumpy From Feeling Lumpy, Mrs Peel Is A Dog For Real

Cathy Gets Grumpy From Feeling Lumpy, Mrs Peel Is A Dog For Real is the fourth chapter in the Wombles Three.

“Emma!” shouted ESP. “Yes do you need something?” asked Mrs Peel. “Of course I do idiot! Send a womble to put a tail on Cathy.”  “OK” said Mrs Peel and hurried off to the burrow. She sent out Wellington because he was one of the smallest and cleverest. Wellington headed immediately to Steed’s house.

Cathy was heading to the shed to get a machete when Wellington subtly stuck the tail on her trousers. It wasn’t easy because the trousers were leather. He scurried back to the burrow. “Done!” he said breathlessly to Mrs Peel. Mrs Peel heard the whistle. She barked and scampered back to the house. ESP snapped her fingers. “Done!” said Mrs Peel.

Back at Steed’s house Cathy was moaning. “All of our chairs have been uncomfortable since I was pregnant.” She said. “How?” asked Steed. “Like there is lump underneath me! All the chairs are lumpy.”  Steed tried them all. “Must be the pregnancy. I’m fine.” He said. Cathy stopped moaning. Dr King noticed her sitting on a tail but didn’t like to say anything in case Cathy used the machete.

Ronda woke up. “What? Where?” she said. ESP stood over her. “You are in paradise!”  “You mean I’m in heaven? I’m evil!” “No! This is paradise where you go when everybody thinks you are dead.” “Am I not dead?”  “No! Of course not!”  “Oh. Well can I have a brandy then?” ESP gave her a large brandy and poured herself one.

Cathy was about to open her letter but spilt some ink accidentally. The made the name say Emma Peel. Steed saw it. “Oh! We have Mrs Peel’s post! I’ll take it round to her.”  Cathy called out as he headed to the door. “John! Take this! Best to be careful.”  She threw the machete. Steed grabbed it and drove towards Mrs Peel’s house.

Mrs Peel was delighted when Steed arrived at the door. “John! Have you decided to go back to me?”  “I’m Steed to you and no.” replied Steed. “First of all here’s your post.”  He gave her the letter. “Second of all you are under arrest.”  He pointed the machete at her. “What for?” asked Mrs Peel, rather upset and scared. “Lots.” Replied Steed. “Attempted murder of Cathy, faking marriage papers, taking over a group of wombles, ETC, ETC.”  Mrs Peel began to cry. “I’m sorry John I didn’t mean it.” She sobbed. Steed moved the machete nearer and said, “I am STEED to you!”  “Ok Jo… Steed.” Replied Mrs Peel in between tears. Steed was just taking her to the prison, when he bumped into Cathy. “Should you be out in your condition?” he asked. Suddenly she turned into ESP. “Huh?” Steed was confused. “I can disguise as anyone.” Said ESP. “Cathy is at home, and no she shouldn’t really be out in her condition. But you are going to be out cold!”  And she knocked him out with his own bowler.

Steed woke up tied to the giant spoon above the giant jar of gooseberry jam. “You’re awake!” said ESP. “Obviously” replied Steed. “By the way very nice jam!”  He wriggled and fell into the jam jar. As he fell he had grabbed the spoon. It didn’t long to eat all the jam. “Very nice” he said “now a bit of AEIOU.”  He swung the machete and smashed the jar. “How did you get that machete back?” asked ESP. “The gypsy switch! Have a look to see what you took from me earlier.”  She did and found a letter that was now addressed to ESP. Steed shoved her over whilst she read the envelope and ran out to his car. ESP was only just getting back up when Steed was half way home.

“Emma!” she shouted then blew the whistle. “Fetch Steed!”. “Woof” said Mrs Peel before running to the HQ grounds. There she met Freckles.

Steed arrived inside. Cathy looked annoyed. “What’s the matter?” asked Steed. “Dr King keeps sleeping in our house!” replied Cathy. “Oh.” Said Steed. “Why?” “How am I supposed to know? He’s destroyed the spare room!”  “We have a spare room?”  “Of course we do! You’ve lived here longer than me, you should know!”  Steed was confused, then asked, “What do you mean by destroyed?”  “Come and see!” replied Cathy.

They went in to see Dr King crawling about on all fours, growling, with a torn piece of paper in his mouth, that had some writing on it. “What did the writing say?” asked Steed. “Ideas of names.” Replied Cathy. “I know it’s not been long, but I thought I’d plan in advance.” Steed was about to grab the paper out of Dr Kings mouth, but he attempted to bite him. “He’s gone mad!” screamed Steed. “Let’s get out of here!”  And they ran out and locked Dr King inside. “Do you think it’s anything to do with ESP and Mrs Peel?” asked Cathy. “Maybe.” Replied Steed. “I’ll warn Mother!”  “I think I’ll do that. He hates you.”  “But you can’t really go out like this.”  “Well who else is supposed to go?”  “Hmm… Aha! I know!”  He dialled a number on the telephone.

One Ten was wondering where the others had gone. “To get to them, it can’t be long!”  His phone suddenly rang. His ringtone was a bang. He answered it. He wondered who it was a bit. “Hello One Ten” said the other end. “I can see you! You’re just round the bend!”  “Ok Steed” replied One Ten. He knew the voice from when… he had worked with him. And someone called Jim. “I’ll come round to you” said Steed. “Because we’re in need… of someone to give a warning. Is it still the morning?”  “No.” said One Ten. “Then I’d be with my hen. Isn’t Cathy coming too? Instead of just you?”  “No.” replied Steed. “Why ever not?”  “Well… never mind, we’re talking a lot.”

Freckles and Mrs Peel were fighting. Freckles had been on his way to dig up his favourite bone when he met Mrs Peel. Bungo heard the fuss and came out from HQ with Rover to check. “Oh Freckles! You really should try to get on with other dogs!”  He knew just what to do. So did Rover. He was getting excited about playing. Bungo threw Freckles first. Rover rushed back and dropped Freckles at Bungo’s paws. Next he threw Mrs Peel. To her surprise she loved being thrown for Rover just like a real dog. As the game went on Bungo was throwing Mrs Peel and Freckles together.

Cathy came out of the house to see what the noise was about. “Oh! It’s you playing with Rover Bungo!”  Bungo nodded violently. “Tell you what Bungo?” Cathy asked. “No what?” Bungo replied. “I found this tail on my trousers earlier. I thought the chairs were lumpy because of my pregnancy but it turns out somebody had put a tail on me!” Cathy continued. “Oh” said Bungo. “Would you like it for your Mrs Peel dog?”  “Yes please!” replied Bungo.

Bungo stuck the tail on Mrs Peel who immediately wagged it to show how happy she was. He also gave her one of Freckles old collars and gave her a name. Mrs Peel was proud of her new name. Bungo tried it out. “Pickles! Come Pickles!” Pickles came bounding up. Bungo left her in the spare kennel next to Freckle’s own, and went in to see Cathy.

“Hello Bungo” she said. “Hello Cathy” he replied. “Is something worrying you?” she asked. “Well yes actually Cathy. It’s what you said earlier.”  “About the lumpy chairs?” asked Cathy. “No” replied Bungo “somebody had put a tail on me”. Cathy was shocked. “Somebody had put a tail on you!” she said. “No!” replied Bungo “Somebody had put a tail on you!”. “Yes they did! How do you know?”  Bungo was getting frustrated. “You told me! You gave it to me for Pickles! I think they meant to spy on you! You know the other meaning of put a tail on somebody?”. Cathy finally came to her senses. “Of course! ESP!  She is trying to spy on me!”