Just a Dog Read Online Free PDF Page B

working and she went to the table where all her vet stuff was. When she came back she had a really pointy, sharp-looking knife in her hand.
    Straight away I started to go all cold and sweaty. It felt like something had sucked all the blood frommy head and some big blob was rolling around in my stomach. The vet told me I looked ‘as pale as a sheet’ and she thought maybe I should go outside and get some fresh air and a glass of water. I thought so too, so that’s what I did.
    When I got to the girl at the front desk I tried to ask her for some water, but I didn’t really get to finish asking because my head went all heavy and swirly like when you go upside down in a roller coaster loop. Then I passed out. I remember starting to fall and then I remember hearing a bell ringing. Then nothing. When I woke up Dad was looking down at me and he was holding something cold and wet on my head. It turned out to be a wet hanky.
    The receptionist girl told me that I fainted right on top of her desk and my head hit the little bell that you ring to let someone know you’re there, which is kind of funny I guess as long as you’re not the person fainting and hitting your head. I ended up with this big bruise on my cheek just under my eye from the desk, and the vet had to put a bandage around the cut on my forehead from the bell to stop it bleeding all over the place.
    After that I just lay down on the bench in the reception area and Dad and the vet went back to try and fix Mister Mosely up. They were gone a while. When they came back, Moe was with them and he had these black spiky stitches in his gum where the vet had to cut the hook out and a plastic bucket thing tied around his neck to stop him scratching at the stitches with his paws. He looked like a half-dog, half-vacuum cleaner, especially when he sniffed along the ground. It probably would have made me laugh if I didn’t think I was going to throw up any second.
    When it was time to leave the vet’s Dad had to carry me to the car because he was worried I was going to faint or vomit or both. He had to carry Mister Mosely too. That was because Moe couldn’t see where he was going too well with his bucket helmet and he kept bumping into everything. The gas the vet gave him for the operation made him a bit wobbly too. Lucky Dad was pretty strong, because not many people could pick Mister Mosely up. The only other person I ever saw do it was Uncle Gavin when he was showing off one time.
    Dad said me and Mister Mosely were ‘two peasin a pod’ that day. I guess that was pretty right, because neither of us could walk properly and we both had stuff on our heads and even the bruise on my cheek matched that black tear spot thing under Mister Mosely’s eye. It was even on the same side.
    So like I said, I reckon that’s the weirdest Mister Mosely story ever. Dad used to love telling it. Once he called it ‘the day Moe thought he was a fish’ and he said Uncle Gavin must have got it wrong about ‘Moe’s secret ingredient’. It wasn’t Rottweiler or Great Dane at all. Dad reckoned it was groper.
    I loved it when Dad told that story. He made it sound so funny and it always made me laugh. Except maybe for the bit where Mister Mosely has the hook in his mouth and I keep calling him to come home and he keeps trying to come every time, even though he knows he can’t. That bit’s never funny.

13 Mister Mosely’s One Trick
    Some dogs can do heaps of tricks, like those circus dogs or the ones in the movies, but Mister Mosely only ever learnt one trick. It was a pretty good one but, and it just sort of happened by accident.
    It all started because of the paper man. He drives an old VW with the top cut off. It sounds like a motor mower and you can hear it coming from way down the road. The paper man chucks the newspapers from his car. He’s a pretty good shot too, because he doesn’t slow down too much and he