Cuddles by Ellen Miles

Author:Ellen Miles [Miles, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2018-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

What’s the problem here? I thought we were having fun!

Lizzie frowned. Why was Daphne being such a pain? “I’m walking Cuddles for free. And Poppy and I will keep doing it — you don’t have to worry.”

Daphne tossed her head. “Fine,” she said. “Maybe you can teach her not to bark, too — since you’re both such know-it-alls about dogs.”

Poppy and Lizzie looked at each other and shrugged. “Maybe we can,” said Poppy.

“So, Poppy knew about this method I never even heard of,” Lizzie told her friends the next day. “It’s called the whisper trick, and it’s for teaching dogs not to bark.”

Brianna and Maria looked interested, but Daphne rolled her eyes. The four of them were having their monthly business meeting, at Maria’s house. They were in her room, sprawled on the thick rag rug next to her bed.

“What is your problem, Daphne?” Lizzie asked. “I think it’s pretty impressive how much Poppy knows about dogs. You should see this whole report she did on teddy bear dogs, with pictures she downloaded and everything.” Lizzie had totally given in to the idea that there was someone out there who knew more about dogs than she did. Poppy was amazing! She was like a walking, talking dog encyclopedia.

“I don’t know, it’s just annoying,” said Daphne. “Plus, she’s just dying to take over my route.”

“Oh, come on,” said Lizzie. “She’s just a kid. I mean, maybe someday she could join our business, like as a junior member, but — ”

Daphne looked like she was about to blow up, so Lizzie changed the subject. “Anyway, I think Poppy’s cool. She wants to be an astronaut and go to Mars someday!”

“Yeah, well, there aren’t any dogs in space,” said Daphne.

“But there were!” Lizzie had to laugh, remembering how Poppy had told her all about a Russian program back in the 1950s and ’60s in which dogs — and also mice and rats and rabbits — were rocketed into orbit around the earth. Lizzie told her friends about it. “She even knew the dogs’ names! I’m not kidding, this girl knows more about dogs than anybody I’ve ever met.”

“Really.” Daphne raised an eyebrow.

“Really!” said Lizzie. “Her mom even had to make a rule that Poppy had to stop telling her dog facts. She said Poppy was driving her batty.”

“See?” said Daphne. “She drives me batty, too. That’s why I only let her come with me on my route a couple of times. She does nothing but talk about dogs, dogs, dogs.”

Maria passed around the plate of oatmeal-raisin cookies her mom had made for their meeting. Lizzie could tell she was trying to make peace. “So what is this whisper trick, anyway?” Maria asked. “It’s a new training thing? Maybe we should put it into our book.” The girls always talked about writing the AAA Dynamic Dog Walkers dog-training book. They knew it would be a bestseller, but somehow they’d never really gotten much past talking about it.

“I think I’ve heard of it,” said Brianna.

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