0aeaa1e36e6f2e625b6ba8d48f773062

“It was nice because my friends were there, but it was an awful experience to be locked up in there.”

“Locked up? In a pond?”

“You’ll see what I mean once we get there. So will you help me, Brutus? I’ve got no one else I can ask, and you’re so big and strong…”

Brutus swelled a little.“I guess when you put it that way, maybe I will help you.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! You won’t regret it, Brutus. The joy you feel when you do a good deed will make you forget all about that carrot diet your girlfriend put you on.”

And… Brutus’s good mood went straight out the window again. The thought of eating carrots had that effect on him. He sighed. “Let’s just get your buddies out of that pond, shall we?” And hopefully Vena would be able to talk some sense into Harriet. Though when she found out her boyfriend hadbeen blabbing about her eye thing, there would probably be hell to pay.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_3]

Fifi was sniffing at a tree, wondering when Rufus, her owner’s neighbor’s sheepdog, had last dropped by, when she suddenly saw a man with a lot of frizzy hair grab a bulky suitcase from his car, quickly look left and right, then hurry into Odelia Poole’s house.

She knew exactly who the man was, as Dooley had told her all about him, and she was excited now to catch her first glimpse of Odelia’s celebrity guest. But then she picked up the scent of Marcus, the German Shepherd from down the street, and she forgot all about the incident. And when moments later Kurt Mayfield, her human, gave her leash a little yank, she obediently tripped along.

They were on their way to the local park, where Kurt liked to take his Yorkshire Terrier for her daily walks. Kurt didn’t mind. In fact he loved it. The retired music teacher didn’t get out much, and this gave him an excuse to interact with other dog owners.

“Hey, Jackie,” he said as they met one of his neighbors walking her Chihuahua.

Jackie gave him a smile. A widow, she and Kurt had developed a warm friendship, and never failed to find a topic of conversation: the behavior of their little balls of fur.

Kurt let Fifi off her leash, and the tiny white doggie now sprinted along, happily panting and taking in the sights and sounds and, especially, the smells of the dog park.

Fifi had spotted Rufus, and saw that the big sheepdog’s owner Ted Trapper stood chatting with an old lady who owned a Dalmatian.

“Hey, Rufus,” said Fifi. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Rufus laughed his big, booming laugh.“Very funny, Fifi.”

The joke never got old.

“So did you hear about Brutus going missing?” asked Fifi, who loved gossiping about their neighbors as much as Rufus did.

“Missing? What do you mean, missing?”

“Harriet came over to ask me if I’d seen him, and when I told her I hadn’t, and asked her if she’d mislaid her boyfriend, she gave me a dirty look and took off. So what I think,” she said, continuing her exciting tale, “is that they had a fight, and now he’s gone and left her!”

“Impossible. Brutus would never leave Harriet. Those two are in love, Fifi.”

“If that is so, why did he take off? Tell me that, Rufus.”

“I have no idea,” said Rufus with a good-natured smile, “but I’m sure you’ll find out.”

“And then there’s the celebrity guest staying at Max’s place.”

“What celebrity guest?”

“Randy Hancock!”

“The fitness guy?”

“One and the same! He dropped by this morning, all atwitter, and now it looks like he’s going to be staying with them for a while. At least I saw him carry in a big suitcase just now, and Dooley told me that Odelia made an extra bed upstairs in the guest room.” She lowered her voice. “Dooley also told me that Randy Hancock is dying, Rufus. Dying!”

“Dying of what?”

“He doesn’t know! And neither does Max! So it must be pretty bad, and mysterious, if even Max hasn’t been able to find out what’s going on!” Her tail was wagging excitedly. So much news to share, and so little time! “Oh, and I saw a turtle this morning.”

“A turtle?”

“A turtle! Walking through the backyard. And when I asked what it thought it was doing, walking in MY backyard, eating MY grass, and breathing MY fresh morning air, it said it was just passing through. Passing through! Cheeky little bugger.”

“You lead a pretty exciting life, Fifi,” said Rufus with a smile.

“That, I certainly do, Rufus! So how about you? Any news to share?”

“Nothing much,” said Rufus, glancing over to his human, who still stood chatting with the old lady. “Ted got rehired by the same company where he used to work before.”

“Oh, that’s right. He quit his job, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he thought he’d won the lottery, but then it turned out that he didn’t, and so he had to beg his boss to get his old job back. Very humiliating.”

“Listen, I had this idea,” Fifi began, and paused when Rufus barked a booming laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“Every time you get an idea, I know there’s trouble ahead.”

“What trouble? What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Just tell me. What’s your big idea?”

“Well, you know how the cats always get together for cat choir, right?”