Dog Park by Kathryn Kazoleas

Author:Kathryn Kazoleas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, animals, children, dog, reader, chapter book
Publisher: Kathryn Kazoleas

Chapter 7

As the three dogs continued walking, the sweet smell of sticks erased any fear that Gibson had felt when they first entered the forest. The smells were delicious. How could anything so delicious be scary? Everywhere she looked there were sticks. They were all shapes, sizes, and textures. She’d playfully run up to one and pick it up before dropping it and picking up another. At one point, she tried picking up two but much to her disappointment, they both fell out of her mouth.

Stretch was enjoying himself too. His small body could be heard rustling through the leaves on the forest floor. Clover was off in the distance barking at squirrels, insects and everything else that moved. Gibson practiced her ambassador skills by watching the other dogs closely to make sure neither of them got into harm’s way.

As the hours and minutes ticked forward, the dogs all began to grow tired. Stretch reemerged from running through the leaves, and Clover stopped barking and instead followed close behind the others with the occasional puppy sigh. Nobody said anything but Gibson knew that they were all wondering why they hadn’t found their way back to the park yet.

“I think something’s following us Gibs,” Stretch said nervously as his voice gently quivered. He spun around apprehensively, with the back end of his long body struggling to keep up to his front end. His long, skinny tail trailed behind. His eyes darted back and forth and from side to side. Clover playfully chased after him, swatting his long tail and clumsily knocking herself over into a deep pile of leaves.

“Don’t be silly.” Gibson picked up Clover and brushed her off. “Who would be following us?” She stopped and scanned the forest. All the birds had stopped singing, all the squirrels had stopped chirping. Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing.

“We’re all alone, Stretch.” As the words sent a shiver through her body, she felt a fear that she hadn’t let herself feel up until now. They were alone. What if they never made it back to the dog park?

The sound of a twig snapping echoed off in the distance, sending a small flock of sparrows off the branch they were sitting on and up into flight. They flew up high into the forest canopy until disappearing completely into the darkened sky.

“Did you see that Gibs? Something’s out there! The birds were scared too!”

“There are lots of animals in the forest.” Gibson replied. “You know those little brown things that are fun to chase?”

“Yeah!” Both Stretch and Clover stood tall, their ears perched forward and their tails wagged back and forth. Even Gibson felt her tail begin to wag.

“It’s probably just one of those.” Gibson lowered her tail. “I think they live in the bush.”

“They live in my human’s BIIIIIRD feeder!” Clover said excitedly as she spun around. “I never caught one before but I want to!!” She ran a few steps ahead, pouncing playfully on the dried leaves.

Though Gibson wasn’t entirely convinced it was only a squirrel following them, she insisted that the three of them keep walking.

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.