Lucy on the Loose by Ilene Cooper

Author:Ilene Cooper [Cooper, Ilene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-53796-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2007-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Joe was chopping meat with a huge meat cleaver. Whack!

Bobby cleared his throat. “Excuse me.”

Joe peered over the counter. “Sorry, I didn’t see you. What do you need?”

“I’m looking for my dog,” Bobby mumbled.

“Hot dogs, you say?” Whack! “I have hot dogs in packages.” Joe jerked his thumb toward a cooler. “Over there.”

Nervously, Bobby tried again. “Not hot dogs. A regular dog. With four legs.”

Now Joe stared down at Bobby. “A dog! I couldn’t have a dog in here! The health department would shut me down.”

Shawn pulled on Bobby’s arm. “Let’s just go,” he whispered.

“Can’t,” Bobby whispered back. “My dog is lost,” he continued in a louder voice. “Did you see her?”

Joe stopped whacking. “What does she look like?”

Quickly, Bobby told Joe that Lucy was a white and brown and black beagle with chocolate brown eyes and soft floppy ears.

“She sounds pretty,” Joe said.

“She is,” Bobby answered. Just thinking about how pretty Lucy was made Bobby feel like crying again.

“Well, I haven’t seen her,” Joe said. “But sometimes dogs come sniffing around back.” Then he put his meat cleaver down. “Wait a minute.”

He wiped his hands on his apron. He went to the refrigerator and pulled out some cooked ribs. He dropped them in a paper sack.

“All the dogs like my rib bones,” Joe said. “Take them with you. Maybe Lucy will smell them and find you.”

Just then, a customer walked into Joe’s butcher shop. She was a big woman. She was wearing an orange dress and a little hat. Her hair was a funny color. It was almost as orange as her dress.

“I’ll be with you in a moment,” Joe said to her. He handed Bobby the rib bones. “Good luck finding your dog.”

The woman with the orange hair looked at Bobby. “Is your dog lost?”

Bobby nodded.

“You poor boy. The same thing happened to me. My cat ran away. She’s been gone three days. I feel terrible about it. Terrible. Terrible.” The lady with the orange hair shook her head.

Bobby had a thought. “What does your cat look like?” he asked.

“My cat is beautiful,” the woman said with a sniff. “He’s quite large. He has a long fluffy tail. He’s a special color, too.”

“What color?” Bobby asked.

The woman patted her hair. “Very much like the color of my hair.”

“Orange!” Bobby said with excitement.

The woman frowned. “I would not call my hair orange. It is ginger. And that’s my cat’s name. Ginger.”

Bobby and Shawn looked at each other.

“The last time anyone saw my dog she was chasing a cat,” Bobby said. “It was big and—” Bobby almost said orange.

“It was big and ginger.”

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