Pet Disasters by Claudia Mills Read Free Book Online Page A

“It’s your decision, son.”
    But Mason knew the decision had already been made.
    He didn’t want a dog, but now he had a dog. Or Brody did.
    A dog named Dog that would live in Mason’s house and poop in Mason’s yard and probably want to lick Mason’s hand and sniff at the front of Mason’s pants and sleep on Mason’s bed, drooling and breathing on him all night long.
    “You won’t be sorry!” Brody said. “I promise! You won’t be sorry!”
    False, again. Because Mason was sorry already.

7
    “Down, Dog!” Mason snapped as Dog crowded into the backseat of the car next to him and tried to stick his big snout in Mason’s face. Why didn’t they have nice cardboard carriers for dogs the way they had for cats? “Go away! Dog! Go away!”
    “I don’t want to call him Dog,” Brody said, reaching over to give Dog an enormous, rapturous hug. Dog licked Brody’s hand and then turned back toward Mason and licked Mason’s hand. Mason wiped it off on his shorts, wishing he could wipe it off on Brody’s shirt instead, since Brody was the one who loved dog slobber so much.
    “We can call him the name he had at the shelter,” Brody went on. “Duke. Do you like the name ‘Duke’? Or we can give him a new name of our own.”

    “You can call him what you want, but I’m calling him Dog,” Mason retorted.
    Once you had a good system in place for naming pets, there was no point in changing it.
    “He’ll get confused,” Brody said. “He won’t know what his true name is.”
    “Lots of dogs get called by two names.” Mason felt himself sounding like a crosser version of Nora. “Like being called ‘Duke.’ But also ‘boy.’
Down, Duke! Down, boy!
I think ‘Duke’ is a dumb name, for people who think their dog is royalty or something. Duke,Prince, King. When it’s really just Dog, Dog, Dog. Plus, ‘Duke’ sounds too much like ‘Dunk.’ ”
    If that wasn’t a good point, Mason didn’t know what was.
    Brody thought for a minute. “Okay, not Duke. We can wait and see. I want the right name to go with his personality.”
    So far that meant that Dog’s name could be Drool. Or: Big Wet Tongue Now Trying to Lick Mason’s Face.
    Mason shoved Dog away.
    As soon as they got to Mason’s house, Dog bounded out of the car and followed Brody and Mason inside, as if he had lived with them forever.
    “Where should we put his food and water bowls? Where should we put his bed?” Brody asked Mason’s parents. Mason’s parents had bought all the things Dog would need at the store inside the animal shelter.
    “I’ll pay you back for everything,” Brody promised as Mason’s dad set Dog’s bowls on the floor in the kitchen, where Cat’s bowls had been. Dog’s bowls were bigger than Cat’s bowls. Everything about Dog was bigger.
    “You don’t need to do that,” Mason’s dad said.“We’re happy to take care of those costs. After all, he’s Mason’s dog, too.”
    No, he isn’t
. Come to think of it, Cat hadn’t really been Mason’s cat, either. Brody was the one who had loved holding her. Even Hamster and Goldfish had really belonged more to Brody. Brody was the one who had made Hamster’s Halloween costume. Brody was the one who had sung the song and made the speech at Goldfish’s funeral.
    “Look, Dog, here’s where your water is!” Brody told Dog, pointing to the bowl he had just filled. Dog lapped at it thirstily. A dog that slobbered that much probably needed to refill his water supply constantly.
    “And here’s your food!” Brody poured some dry dog food into the matching bowl. Dog pounced on it. Mason couldn’t help noticing that Dog had very sharp teeth. In less than a minute, all the food was devoured.
    “Can we take him for a walk?” Brody asked Mason. Then, as if remembering that Dog was supposed to be
his
pet, he corrected himself. “It’s time to take him for a walk! Here, boy, come get your leash!”
    Dog ran up to Brody when he saw the leash in Brody’s hand. In