Doggone It! Read Online Free PDF

call the animal shelter.”
    “But Snookums, look how cute she is,” Mr. Derkman pleaded.
    “I don’t want to look at her. I want you to get rid of her,” Mrs. Derkman insisted.
    Katie gulped. Things were not going the way she’d planned. She’d thought her teacher would fall in love with the puppy at first sight. Katie figured that once Mrs. Derkman learned to love dogs, she’d be nicer to Pepper. But that wasn’t what was happening at all. Mrs. Derkman hated the dog.
    What a mess! First, Pepper had gotten in trouble, and now this poor little dog was going to be sent to a shelter—and it was all Katie’s fault.
    Suddenly, the puppy picked up her head and licked Mrs. Derkman on the hand.
    “Yuck!” the teacher exclaimed. “Dog germs.”
    Mr. Derkman petted the puppy on the head. “I think she likes you, Snookums,” he said.
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Mrs. Derkman said.
    “She wants you to hold her,” Mr. Derkman said. “Come on, just for a minute.”
    Mrs. Derkman sighed. “Fine. For a minute. Then you call the shelter.”
    Mr. Derkman placed the puppy in his wife’s arms. The little dog snuggled up against Mrs. Derkman’s shoulder.
    The teacher slowly reached up and nervously stroked the puppy’s fur. The puppy nuzzled closer against Mrs. Derkman’s neck.

    Mr. Derkman smiled. “She’s awfully cute, Snookums. And she seems to need a home. We could give her a nice home.”
    Mrs. Derkman sighed. She’d seen that look in her husband’s eyes before. There was no fighting him when he wanted something this badly.
    “Well, I’m certainly not going to walk her,” Mrs. Derkman told her husband.
    “I’ll do that,” Mr. Derkman assured her.
    “And I don’t have time to brush her or bathe her,” Mrs. Derkman continued.
    “I’ll take care of that,” Mr. Derkman said. “I’ll take care of everything. All you have to do is enjoy her.”
    Mrs. Derkman handed the dog over to her husband and shook her head. “That’s going to be the hardest part,” she said.

Chapter 14
    A few mornings later, Katie awoke to a terrible screeching noise.
    “How much is that doggie in the window?” Mrs. Derkman sang from her garden.
    “Aroo!”
    Mrs. Derkman and the dog were singing together! Katie had to see this! She dressed quickly, put Pepper on his leash, and headed outside.
    Mrs. Derkman was working in her garden. The white puppy was sitting at her side. Neither the dog nor Mrs. Derkman seemed to notice Katie at first. They were too busy singing.
    “There was a teacher, had a dog, and Snowball was her name-oh,” Mrs. Derkman sang.
    “Ruff! Ruff!” Snowball chimed in.
    Mrs. Derkman stopped singing when she saw Katie and Pepper. “Hi, Katie,” she said cheerfully.
    “Hello,” Katie said.
    “Why don’t you bring Pepper over here?” Mrs. Derkman said. “I’d like him to meet Snowball.”
    Katie was about to tell Mrs. Derkman that Pepper already knew Snowball, but she decided not to. It would be too hard to explain.
    “You can take Pepper off the leash if you want,” Mrs. Derkman said, as Katie led her dog into the teacher’s yard.
    Katie looked down as she unhooked Pepper’s leash. She could see Snowball happily chomping on a cucumber. Mrs. Derkman didn’t seem to mind at all.
    “I suppose I owe you and Pepper an apology,” Mrs. Derkman said slowly.
    Katie didn’t know what to say. She’d never heard her teacher apologize to anyone before.
    The teacher watched as Pepper and Snowball sniffed each other. “I never dreamed it would be such fun to have a pet,” she told Katie. “Snowball seems to like my singing even more than my plants do. And she’s more fun to talk to than Sven was.”

    Katie was amazed. Having a dog sure had changed Mrs. Derkman. She didn’t seem as stern as she did in school.
    “Now, don’t you think you should go study for that Social Studies test?” Mrs. Derkman continued. “It’s going to be very hard.”
    Okay, maybe she hadn’t changed that much.
    Katie