Waggit's Tale by Peter Howe Read Free Book Online Page B

squirrel scamper up its trunk and through the branches, leaping from the higher ones to the next tree until it was out of sight. By this time Tazar had caught up with him, slightly out of breath.
    â€œCurlytails!” he said. “They’re so hard to get before they reach a tree, and once they’re up there, they’re gone.”
    Magica had rejoined Raz on the other path, and all four moved on. Because of the commotion caused by the short chase it was several hundred yards before they heard any more movement. Three times in the next hour the dogs pursued various small creatures, only to have them escape into the undergrowth. By now they were near the far end of the park, where the landscape became more open.
    As Waggit and Tazar rounded a corner the path opened up into a small glade. Waggit stopped and felt his hackles rising. There in front of him, no more than fifty feet away, was a fat squirrel sitting eating something. It had its back to Waggit, but every so often it would stop its nibbling, look around, and smell the air, its whiskers twitching as it tried to pick up the scent of danger. Fortunately the dogs were downwind of the animal, so it couldn’t smell them.
    To the left was a large rock. If he could reach it without detection, Waggit could use it as cover to skirt around and get ahead of his prey. From that position he could drive the squirrel toward Tazar.
    Waggit slowly moved forward as Tazar got into position to receive the prey. Slinking so low that he could feel his belly dragging on the ground, Waggit inched quietly forward. He was within ten feet of his target when he stepped on a small stick that broke with a sound like a rifle shot in the still of the night. The squirrel whirled around, saw the danger it was in, and ran into the open glade. Waggit bounded after it at full speed. Now in the middle of the clearing, the squirrel started to run in a zigzag pattern, constantly changing direction, hoping to confuse its attacker. Waggit, who was easily confused, stopped, mesmerized by the performance. With a quick dash it tried to escape, but made a fatal error. When it should have fled into the woods, it went toward the rock, whichwas too steep and too slippery for the small animal to climb. There was nowhere it could go that Waggit couldn’t grab it, and the squirrel knew it.
    The two animals faced each other, neither quite sure what to do next. Waggit could smell the waves of fear coming off his prey, and suddenly the animal started chattering in high-pitch panic. The dog looked into its eyes and realized that, although it was fat in preparation for the long, lean winter months ahead, it was young, like him, barely fully grown—another puppy, or whatever you called a young squirrel. He sat down, unable to make the final kill.
    The squirrel grabbed its chance and ran along the foot of the rock and into the woods beyond. The whole drama had only taken a few seconds, but to Waggit it seemed like hours. He heard Tazar behind him and felt the leader’s breath on the back of his neck.
    With quiet anger the older dog said, “You let it go. You had it cornered and you let it go.”
    â€œI didn’t know what to do. I’ve never done this before.” A whimper came into the puppy’s voice.
    â€œWhat you do is kill it,” Tazar said sternly. “The rules are different now. These are the rules of survival;not just your survival, but that of your brothers and sisters.”
    â€œI don’t have brothers and sisters. You’re all just a bunch of dogs I ran into when I got lost,” Waggit whined.
    â€œThey are your brothers and sisters in more ways than you know right now. That you will soon discover.”
    Waggit was so upset, and so longing for his owner to come back and rescue him, that he didn’t even bother to ask Tazar what he meant.
    The Lady Magica and Raz had caught up with them.
    â€œWassup?” asked Raz.
    â€œOh, nothing. Just