Selby Snaps by Duncan Ball Read Free Book Online Page A

I-Don’t-Know-What-You’re-Talking-About because
you
do!’
    ‘Oh please,’ Selby thought.
    ‘I’ll bet that the Trifles don’t know you can talk,’ Kitty continued. ‘Only you and I know that you can talk. But you’re never going back to them anyway. You have just officially disappeared. Now are you going to talk? You will when you’re hungry.’
    Kitty Littaire got out her mobile phone and dialled.
    ‘Countess? It’s me, Kitty Littaire. Remember me? I have found the perfect pet for you. How would you like a talking dog to add to your collection … Of course, I’m serious! He speaks perfect English. He would make the perfect companion for you there in your castle. But he’s going to cost you a great deal of money. Okay, I’ll hold him but you’d better get here quickly because I know a lot of other people who’d like him.’
    Click.
    ‘How can she do this to me?!’ Selby thought. ‘She’s going to sell me to a total stranger!’
    ‘You’ll like living with the Countess,’ Kitty said. ‘She’s a lovely woman. Lives in a mansion all by herself — well if you don’t count the baboons, camels, birds, bats and armadillos. You’ll meet her as soon as her private jet can get her here.’
    The pet shop owner wandered into the other room.

    ‘This woman’s a nut-case!’ Selby thought. ‘I’ve got to get out of here!’
    Selby pulled at the bars of the cage.
    ‘They’re too strong,’ he gasped. ‘Maybe I can pick the lock on that padlock. I’ve seen it done on TV — I need a wire or something.’
    Selby stretched a paw into the guinea pig cage nearby but all he came away with was a pawful of guinea pig poo.
    ‘Oh, yuck! That’s disgusting!’ he thought as he wiped his paw on the newspapers on the bottom of his cage. ‘Maybe there’s something over this way.’
    Once again Selby reached out, this time to the parrot cage above. He felt around in the bottom of the cage only to pull it back quickly.
    ‘It’s all white,’ he thought. ‘What is it? White paint or something? Oh, no, it’s parrot poo! Just my luck! What am I going to do now? There’s no way out of this place.’
    Selby cleaned his parrot-pooed paw and then sat there wondering what to do. A tear rolled down his face as he thought of how sad the Trifles would be when he didn’t come home.
    More tears came to his eyes when he thought of never seeing them again. Then he looked over at Bubbles, happily wagging his tail.
    ‘You poor guy,’ Selby said, patting his companion on the head. ‘You’re not a young dog. In fact you’re as old as me. Who’s going to buy you? People want puppies these days, not old dogs like you.’
    ‘I heard you talking again,’ Kitty Littaire said, coming back. ‘You can stay quiet all you like but I know your secret. And if you refuse to talk to the Countess, I’m going to tell the whole world. Then we’ll see what your life is like.’
    Selby lay silently on the floor of the cage with Bubbles huddled up next to him. He drifted into the saddest sleep he’d ever had. Then he woke up to the sound of voices.
    ‘This is Selby,’ Kitty Littaire said.
    Next to her stood a kindly-looking old woman wearing the warmest smile that Selby had ever seen.
    ‘Sorry, which one? They both look so alike.’
    ‘Selby has a different collar and he doesn’t have a white spot. The one with the spot is Bubbles — a sweet dog but just an ordinary one, I’m afraid.’
    ‘A talking dog, my my,’ the old woman said, looking at Selby. ‘Would you like to say a few words to me?’
    Selby studied the old woman.
    ‘She seems very nice,’ he thought, ‘but there’s no way I’m going to talk to her.’
    ‘Well I can’t blame you one little bit,’ the woman said. ‘You don’t know me at all. You probably think that I’m a horrible awful woman but I’m not. I love animals and my home is their home. No cages, none of that. They’re all just family.’
    ‘Good,’ Selby thought. ‘If she takes me home