Muttley Read Online Free PDF Page B

heardthe
yip-yip-yip
of a Chihuahua and the deep, booming bark of a big old chocolate Lab. Only the basenji and the malamutes, breeds that don’t bark, sat quietly and waited for Lizzie to come pat them. Lizzie even heard Muttley’s hoarse bark, with that special hound song at the tail end:
aaaaooooowww!
    She laughed and held out her arms for hugs and pats. Five dogs charged over and began to climb on her, licking her face and ears. They licked and slobbered and drooled and —
    “Ugh.” Lizzie woke up with a start to find that it wasn’t all a dream. She really
was
being licked. “Muttley, what are you doing?” Lizzie sat straight up in bed and wiped off her face with her pajama sleeve. “Are you crazy? Cut it out.” What was going on? Muttley, the laziest dog in the history of the world, suddenly wanted to play — in the middle of the night?
    Muttley whined, jumped off the bed, and ran to the door. Then he turned around, ran back, andleapt up onto the bed to lick Lizzie’s face some more, whimpering and whining. Again he threw himself off the bed and scrambled across the floor to the door. He looked back at Lizzie. He whined and barked and howled.
Aaaaooooowww!
he yodeled.
    By now, Lizzie was awake enough to realize that something must be wrong. She pushed off her covers and grabbed her robe. “What is it, Muttley?”
    But as soon as she was out of bed, Muttley disappeared. She heard him running down the hall to the Bean’s room, where he started to bark and howl again.
    Danger! Danger! Wake up! Wake up!
    Lizzie followed Muttley into the hall — and stopped in her tracks when she smelled something strange. She sniffed, and sniffed again. Then, suddenly, she knew what it was. Smoke!Her heart began to beat wildly. A few minutes earlier she’d been dreaming a happy dog-show dream. Now she was caught in a real-life nightmare. Was her house about to burn down?
    “Dad!” she yelled. “Charles! Fire!” As Muttley skidded and scrambled his way down the hall to Charles’s room, Lizzie raced to the Bean’s room. She found him standing up in his crib, his eyes wide and his cheeks bright pink. “It’s okay. I’m here,” she told him. She reached in to help her frightened little brother out.
    By the time she and the Bean were in the hall again, Dad and Charles were up, too. A sleepy-looking Buddy stood next to Charles.
    Dad yelled to be heard over Muttley’s barking and howling. “Stairs are safe.” He had already run down and back up again to make sure. “Go on down and straight out the front door. I’ll be right behind you.” He punched numbers into the phone as he shouted and waved them along, and Lizzie could guess what those numbers were: 9-1-1.
    Of course the Petersons had a family fire plan. Lizzie knew that no matter how they each got out of the house, the plan was always the same: they were supposed to meet near the old apple tree in the far corner of the front yard. That way, they would know right away if they had all gotten out safely.
    Lizzie picked up the Bean. Usually he was almost too heavy for her to lift, but now he felt light as a feather. She grabbed Charles’s hand. She glanced back at her room, wishing she had time to save her model-dog collection — but she knew what Dad would have to say about that. “Come on,” she said as she started for the stairs. “Buddy, you, too. Muttley, come.”
    But when she turned around, she could tell that Muttley was waiting until Dad got moving, too. Muttley barked at Dad. He ran around behind him and nipped at his ankles.
    Get out! Get out! Get out!
    He didn’t stop barking until he had herded all four of them out onto the lawn and followed them to their meeting spot under the apple tree. By that time, his bark was hoarser than ever.
    Just a few seconds later, Lizzie heard a siren. Muttley lifted his muzzle to the sky and howled along as the siren drew closer.
Aaaaawwwoooo!
he sang out. Buddy began to bark and howl, too. The sound sent a prickle