A Prickly Problem by Jacqueline Kelly

Author:Jacqueline Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

So. Let us take a step back from this scene of possible tragedy for a moment. Do you remember me telling you that there are smart dogs and dumb dogs in this world? And that it’s usually easy to tell the difference? Here’s how you tell. Smart dogs learn from their mistakes. Dumb dogs don’t. That’s the definition of being smart, you see, learning from your mistakes. So guess what? We owned the dumbest dog of all.

He growled deep in his chest, a scary rumble that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I’d never heard such a frightening sound come from him. In front of my eyes, our playful family dog had become a wild animal.

Ajax charged. I screamed, “Nooooo!” He veered off right before running into the porcupine. It hunkered down to protect its belly. Ajax barked at it in a frenzy. I couldn’t believe it. After what he’d been through, you’d think he’d run the other way as fast as he could.

“Stop it!” I screamed. “You come here right now.”

He ignored me. The porcupine lashed its tail from side to side. I ran up and tried to grab Ajax by his collar, but he jumped away from me. He faked another lunge, and another, barking and growling, leaping back and forth, just out of range. The porcupine chittered in distress and swung its tail around. It puffed up its quills so they stood on end like a cat’s fur. But deadly.

The porcupine slowly backed up to a tree. If I could only distract Ajax, if I could only give the porcupine a moment, it would escape up the tree. We’d all be home free.

But it was not to be.

The dog lunged at the same time the porcupine lashed. Ajax screamed in agony and staggered back. The porcupine hauled itself up the tree and disappeared.

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