Boomer by Ellen Miles

Author:Ellen Miles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

You’re okay. I can tell. You smell like dog.

“He smells Simba,” Maria said. Maria’s mom was blind, and Simba, a big calm yellow Lab, was her guide dog. “He’s really cute. Kinda scruffy, but cute.”

“I brushed him this morning,” Lizzie said. “I think he would look a whole lot better if he had a bath.”

She looked at Maria.

Maria looked at her.

“Want to?” Lizzie asked. Until that moment, she had not planned to give Boomer a bath that day — but suddenly it seemed like a great idea.

“I don’t know,” said Maria. “What about your mom’s company? The girls?”

Lizzie thought of Risa’s face when she had seen the filthy bed. It sure was hard to picture her swooping down a giant waterslide and landing with a splash. “It’ll be fine,” she said. “Even if things get a little messy, we’ll have plenty of time to clean up before they get home.”

It took a while to round up all the things they would need: the Bean’s baby shampoo, some plastic cups to use for rinsing Boomer off, a stack of old but clean towels from the back of the closet in the hall. Lizzie put the heater on in the bathroom so it would be nice and cozy, and ran a few inches of warm water into the tub. Finally, they were ready. She coaxed Boomer into the bathroom with some Swiss cheese she had found in the fridge. “My secret weapon,” she told Maria as she closed the door to trap him inside. “No dog can resist cheese. They’ll do anything for it.”

Anything but get into a tub of water. Even when Maria and Lizzie tried lifting him in together, Boomer struggled and squirmed and stuck his chunky legs out straight and squirted out of their grip and skidded around the room, rumpling up the bath mat and knocking bottles and jars off the sink as he tried to find an escape route.

“Poor puppy,” said Maria. “He’s so scared. Maybe we should just try another day.”

Lizzie had caught Boomer. She sat on the floor and held him half on her lap, half off, petting him and calming him down. “We’ve gotten this far,” she said, panting a little. “Let’s not quit now.”

Finally, the girls managed to wrestle Boomer into the tub and get him soaked with water. “He looks so much smaller,” said Maria.

“Skinny, too,” said Lizzie. She was surprised by the way his ribs stuck out when his fluffy coat didn’t hide them. Suddenly, it was easier to picture him and his siblings living on their own in the wild. Poor Boomer. He’d been through a lot in his short life.

Once he was wet, Boomer seemed to give up the fight. He let them massage soap into his fur and even stood quietly, shivering a little, while they rinsed it out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.