Broadway Doggie #10

CHAPTER ONE

Sparky, sit.”
 
I don’t know many two-leg words, but I do know that one. So I push my bottom down onto the cold snow.
 
“Good dog,” Josh says.
 
I smile. Those are two of my favorite two-leg words.
 
Josh lowers his paw. “Lie down.”
 
I drop down onto my belly.
 
Josh flips his paw over. “Roll over.”
 
I start to roll . . .
 
Plunk! Something hard lands on my head.
 
“Ow!” I bark.
 
Plink.
 
There’s another.
 
Plunk.
 
And another. Those hard things hurt.
 
I look up.
 
Two squirrels are sitting on a tree branch. They are staring down at me.
 
Hee, hee, hee. And laughing.
 
“What’s so funny?” I bark.
 
Plink. Plunk. Plink. Plunk.
 
The squirrels drop a whole bunch of hard round things on my head.
 
Hee, hee, hee.
 
“Stop throwing the hard round things!” I bark. “Stop laughing!”
 
Plink. Plunk. Plink.
 
“Ow!”
 
Grrr. The squirrels are all the way up in the tree. I could stop them if I could reach them. So I jump high. My paws claw at the tree.
 
“Sparky, DOWN!”
 
Suddenly, I hear Josh. I know what down means.
 
I stop jumping.
 
“Good dog,” Josh says.
 
 
 
Plink. Plunk.
 
“OW!” I bark.
 
I am so mad, I forget what Josh said. I jump up and scratch the tree again.
 
“Sparky. Stay!” Josh says.
 
I know what stay means. I stand very, very still.
 
The squirrels get quiet. I think they are staying, too.
 
Josh twirls his paw around in a circle. “Twirl,” he says.
 
I stand on my hind legs and turn in a circle. The squirrels don’t. They don’t know what twirl means.
 
Dogs are smarter than squirrels.
 
“Good dog.” Josh pets me on the head.
 
“You want to do more tricks, Josh?” I bark. I love doing tricks. They make Josh smile.
 
But Josh doesn’t want to do more tricks. He walks across the yard and opens the gate. I start to follow him.
 
“Sparky, stay!” Josh says.
 
I stay.
 
Now I can hear Josh’s big metal machine with the four round paws.
 At first the sound is loud. Then it gets softer and softer, until it sounds far away.
 
Josh is gone. I’m all alone.
 
Plink. Plunk.
 
“Ouch!”
 
Well, not all alone. Those squirrels are still in the tree.
 
“Come down!” I say. “Play fair!”
 
I think the squirrels might understand, because they slide down the tree!
 
Then they start to run.
 
The squirrels want to play chase!
 
“Ready or not, here I come!” I start to chase them through my snowy yard.
 
The squirrels are fast. They climb onto the top of my fence. Then they leap over to the other side.
 
I can’t get them there. Our game is over.
 
Now I’m really alone in my yard, with nothing to do.
 
Wait! There is something I can do. I can dig. I love digging.
 
I run over to where Josh’s flowers are when there isn’t snow in our yard. And I begin to dig.
 
Diggety, dig, dig. Lots of snow flies everywhere.
 
Diggety, dig, dig. The dirt under the snow flies all around, too. I am digging a really big hole.
 
Diggety, dig . . . WOW! What’s this?
 
I found something buried deep in the dirt. It’s a bone! A bright, sparkly, beautiful bone.
 
“Hello, bone!” I bark.
 
The bone doesn’t answer. Bones can’t bark.
 
Sniffety, sniff, sniff. The bone smells so meaty. I just have to take a bite.
 
Chomp.
 
Wiggle, waggle, whew. I feel dizzy—like my insides are spinning all around—but my outsides are standing still. Stars are twinkling in front of my eyes—even though it’s daytime! All around me I smell food—fried chicken, salmon, roast beef. But there isn’t any food in sight.
 
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!