Bella by Ellen Miles Read Free Book Online

said. “The newest members of our neighborhood.” And then she began.

Dear Reader,
    My friends Chris and Kerry adopted a puppy, a tiny border collie mix, when she was only two weeks old and all alone in the world. They kept her warm and fed her from a bottle. Even though they weren’t sure at first that she would make it, she did. Today Tassie is a strong, healthy dog who loves to run and play.
    Yours from the Puppy Place,
    Ellen Miles
    P.S. If you want to read about another gentle puppy, check out SCOUT.

THE PUPPY PLACE
    Baxter
    Bear
    Bella
    Buddy
    Chewy and Chica
    Cody
    Flash
    Goldie
    Honey
    Jack
    Lucky
    Maggie and Max
    Muttley
    Noodle
    Patches
    Princess
    Pugsley
    Rascal
    Scout
    Shadow
    Snowball
    Sweetie
    Ziggy

Preview
    DON’T MISS THE
NEXT PUPPY PLACE
ADVENTURE!
    Here’s a peek at MOOSE!
    Packing for his weekend away was easy. Getting up early? A breeze. The only hard part about going to Camp Bowser, thought Charles, was saying good-bye to Buddy. Now, sitting in the backseat of Aunt Amanda’s van, Charles remembered how Buddy had looked up at him so hopefully when he put his duffel bag by the door. “Sorry, Buddy,” Charles had told him, as he sat down to give hima hug. “You’re not coming with me this time. I wish you could, but I think you might scare Moose. You stay home and keep Mom and Dad and the Bean company, okay?” Charles was not sure that Buddy understood, but he had given him lots of extra-special hugs and pats while he waited for Aunt Amanda to pick him up.
    “Buddy’s going to miss you and Lizzie this weekend,” said Aunt Amanda now, catching Charles’s eye in the rearview mirror. It was as if she had read his mind. “Your parents will, too. The house will be awfully quiet with both of you away.”
    Charles nodded. At the moment, he had a lump in his throat that made it hard to answer. He hoped he would not feel too homesick up at Camp Bowser. He looked over at Moose, who was snoozing in an enormous crate next to Charles’s seat. A few other crates were crammed into the back of the Bowser Mobile, Aunt Amanda’s van, holding more dogs that were on their way north for aweekend of fun in the country. Aunt Amanda had brought her golden retriever, Bowser, but she had left her three pugs home with Uncle James so the little dogs wouldn’t scare Moose.
    “We’re going to have a good time, Moose,” Charles said softly. “I bet you’ll love it at Camp Bowser.”
    Moose opened his eyes and looked up at Charles, worried wrinkles furrowing his big forehead.
    Really? Are you sure? Because I think it might be kind of scary
.
    Charles poked a finger through the crate to scratch Moose’s ear. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see.” Moose sighed and went back to sleep, head on crossed paws.
    “I’m counting on you to keep a close eye on Moose this whole weekend and be his pal,” said Aunt Amanda. “If there’s another thunderstorm, or something else frightens him, the best thing todo is distract him so he doesn’t focus on the scary thing. Talk gently to him, but don’t baby him. Give him some treats so he has a happy experience instead of a frightening one. Can you do that?”
    “Sure,” said Charles. He patted his pocket, where there were four or five small dog biscuits. He always carried treats, just in case he met a stray dog or one he wanted to make friends with.
    Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out the deck of cards he’d brought along. He had also packed
1-2-3 Magic
, the book he hoped to learn some tricks from. He planned to start with card tricks, since those seemed the simplest. There was only one problem. Even though
1-2-3 Magic
was supposedly for beginners, the author started the directions for every card trick with “Shuffle the cards . . .”
    Charles did not know how to shuffle. When he and Sammy played War, which they sometimes did for hours at a time on rainy days, Sammyalways shuffled. Charles suspected that Sammy sometimes shuffled some of the better cards