5th Grade « Acorn Stories

Do the D-o-g-g-y!

By Freda Kate

Chapter 1: The Weird Beginning

"Just singing in the sun! Bark Bark! Just singing in the sun! Bark Bark! What a glorious feeling! I'm hap-hap-happy again! Bark Bark!" As you might have noticed I am a dog. I am an adventurous dog -- a Labrador to be exact. I think. My name is Rough. I was born in a pound, but when I was about two months old a dog let all the other dogs out while he was being put in his cage. Through all the hustle and bustle, I lost my mom.

Well that's all over now. I now live in a dumpster and actually it's not that bad. There are so many things to smell, including banana peels, apple cores, and especially dirt. Dirt, you see, is the prized possession of dogs. You can smell it, eat it, move it around, and use it for a potty. Right. Now I will tell you how my adventure began.

Chapter 2: The Characters

I looked at Tom through a piece of banana peel I wore on my head as a hat. Tom is a fat, orange, lazy cat. I adopted him the moment he came meowing through my dumpster and fed him the best of my goods. He was a newborn runaway at that time and a greedy one too. I took him in as I said and those were the good old days. I taught him how to get his own food. That's pretty much the only thing he does now . . .

Anyway, he is my best, lazy friend.

I also have another friend, Keillie. She is my secret agent/spy. She tells me everything I need to know.

Well anyway, I was just doing my business when this nosey (I mean nosey and noisy) Brussels Griffon came a-walkin' right by my home. Now this is one nosey Brussels Griffon because now he was sniffin' my business if you can believe it. Then I thought to myself, "He has gotta be one dumb dog." Then (to my surprise) his owner came around the corner and said, "Twister! Come here, boy!" He came! I was so surprised I almost fell right out of reality. He was not a dumb dog after all! I saw something on his neck. It was red and had a silver thing in the middle that was dangling off the red thing. It had on it:

Twister Chapman

2648 Monkey Street

(415) 436-5436

Jacob and Barbie Chapman

I had no clue how to read so I didn't know what it meant. The dog and its owner walked away. I yelled "Keillie! Are you sleeping in the R/T (right top) corner again?"

There was no answer. "La-la-la-la-la-la-la" I hummed to myself.

Then, all of a sudden, Keillie came streaking around the corner of the dumpster and skidded to a halt and whispered in my ear, "2648 Monkey Street." Then went back to what she was doing. I was about to say something when this other dog came around the corner. It was a white poodle. She was off the leash.

"Come Pricilla," her owner said. She and her female owner pranced away.

"Keillie!" I called again. She came to me and said, "123 Barrel Street."

I said to Tom, "I am going on an adventure. I am sick and tired of being bored day after day, and having nothing to do! Do you want to come?" I knew he wouldn't, but I was being polite.

But to my surprise, he said "Sure! Can I bring Beer?" For the second time that day I was so surprised that if I still had that banana peel on my head it would have fallen off.

"Well then what are you waiting for!" I called, "Hurry up!"

He got up, fetched Beer, and started running sloppily towards me. We walked down the street towards Pineapple Way, turned left on Coconut Drive, and came to Monkey Street. "2648, 2648," I murmured under my breath. "2642, 2646, 2648!"

The house was a light shade of bluish-gray and very fancy curtains hung from the windows. It did not look like a very dog-friendly home so I thought Keillie was very much mistaken, but then I looked to the right of the house and saw the most dog-friendly yard I saw in my life! I could tell by the looks of the house that these people were rich and cared for their dog as much as themselves.

I went in through the dog flap (A dog flap!) and found Twister lying on the floor in the midst of piles of toys and chew bones. I went up to him and said, "Do you want to go on an adventure with me and my friends?" He jumped up and said, "Sure! I can't wait to get out of here! Let's go!"

So we were off. We walked down Happy Freda Street and up the Greatest In the World Street until we got to Barrel Street and picked Pricilla up. We got to the dock for the ferry, which was called the Hawver Pachter (haw-ver-pack-ter). Tom asked me to hold his Beer. So I did, and when we heard the bell clanging, we hurried up the ramp.

To be continued . . .