Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream by Tom Watson Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t seem to notice Karen’s comment. He was going on about his car-catching expertise.
    â€œI’ve caught dozens of them,” he continued. “I stalk around behind bumpers or tires or guardrails or whatever. Then I pick my target and pounce. I run full speed until I catch up to that car. It usually only takes a few seconds and then—BAM!—I run right into it headfirst. But you know, that doesn’t bother me too much.”
    â€œYou really do that, Poo-Poo?” Mutt asked.

    â€œSure. I really teach those things a lesson. No car gets the better of old Mr. Poo-Poo.”
    â€œWow!” Karen panted. She was no longer chasing her tail. She hadn’t caught it. “I had no idea you were such a good car chaser, Poo-Poo.”
    â€œIt just comes naturally to me.”
    Stick Dog had been listening while also trying to figure out where the truck would stop next. He now joined the conversation.
    â€œPoo-Poo? One question,” he said.
    â€œYes? What is it, Stick Dog?”
    â€œWhen you chase and catch these cars, are they moving or are they parked?”
    â€œParked, of course,” Poo-Poo answered, and laughed a little to himself. “Who would chase a moving car? That’s ridiculous.”
    While Mutt, Stripes, and Karen groaned, Stick Dog looked back and forth between the street and the parked ice cream truck. He tried to calculate how far the truckwould travel once it started to move again—and tried to figure out the kind of place it might stop next. It seemed he was getting closer to a solution.
    This whole thing Stick Dog is going through kind of reminds me of word problems in math. I can’t stand word problems. Can you?
    You know what I mean, right?
    Example: You’re on a train and you are 60 miles away from the train station. The train is going 20 miles per hour. How long will it take for you to get to the train station?

    I had that exact question on a math quiz.
    Do you know what my answer was?
    I wrote: I have no idea because I really dislike word problems, and I jumped off the train.
    Unfortunately, I didn’t find out how long it took me to get to the train station. I did, however, find out exactly how long it takes me to get from math class to the principal’s office.

    Anyway, Stick Dog was working this all out while the others talked about stopping the truck. Stripes, it turned out, also had an idea.
    â€œI know how to do it,” she said. “See that bridge down the street about halfway to the truck?”
    They all looked at the bridge.
    â€œWell, we get to the top of that bridge,” continued Stripes. “When he drives that truck under the bridge, we jump onto the roof of the truck. While he’s driving, we start dancing.”

    â€œDancing?!” Poo-Poo, Karen, and Mutt asked at once.

    â€œDancing,” Stripes confirmed. She turned sideways and shook her hips a little to demonstrate before continuing. “See, the driver will hear our paws banging away above him and wonder what in the world is going on. He’ll park and get out and see this great dance party. Then he’ll think, ‘Hey, I’ve never danced on top of a truck before! That looks like fun!’ So he’ll climb up and start dancing too. He’ll be so busy dancing and screaming and stuff that we’ll be able tojump off the truck and get all the ice cream we want while he’s still on top.”

    As soon as Stripes was done explaining her idea, Mutt, Poo-Poo, and Karen began to dance. Mutt wriggled his body from frontto back, releasing an old chewed-up tennis ball and three crayons from his fur. Poo-Poo got up on his hind legs, balanced on his toes, and put his front legs out to the side dramatically. And Karen began to turn in a circle.
    Karen’s dance practice didn’t last too long, to be honest. That’s because as soon as she started turning in that circle, she spotted her tail and began to chase