News For Dogs Read Online Free PDF

Debbie.”
    “Thanks a bunch!” Bruce responded sarcastically, but he was actually relieved. At least with Andi, he knew what he was dealing with. He had no idea what he could expect from Debbie and what she might do to be cute. Anybody who volunteered to write a gossip column was the sort of person who made him nervous.
    So he and Andi set off with fifty copies of the paper and, after a stop at home to sell a copy to their mother, continued on down to Aunt Alice’s house at the end of the block. In recent months, every time Bruce had seen their great-aunt, he had found himself doing a double take. On the surface, she seemed no different from what she had always been — a sweet, fussy, white-haired lady who gardened and played bingo. It was only the past November that he and Andi had learned that, back in her younger days, Aunt Alice and her husband had run a detective agency. It was next to impossible for Bruce to incorporate those two images.
    “A newspaper subscription!” Aunt Alice exclaimed when they explained the reason for their visit. “What an interesting coincidence! It’s been months since anybody wanted to sell me a subscription, and now it’s happened twice in one day!”
    “Somebody else is selling a newspaper for dogs?” Andi asked in horror. “I thought we were the only ones!”
    “I’m certain you are, dear,” Aunt Alice said reassuringly. “Yours is the only dog newspaper I’ve ever heard of. Jerry Gordon and his cousin came by this morning selling subscriptions, but those were for magazines, not newspapers, and nothing on their list was about dogs. Has either of you met Connor?”
    “No,” Bruce said, “but I’ve heard about him.”
    “A delightful young man,” Aunt Alice told them. “He looks a lot like Jerry. He’s here in Elmwood for the summer, visiting the Gordons, and he and Jerry are raising money for charity by selling magazine subscriptions. I wasn’t familiar with the titles, but they all sounded interesting.”
    “Did you subscribe to one?” Andi asked her.
    “Yes, a magazine called
Happy Housekeeping
,” Aunt Alice said. “And I definitely want to subscribe to
The Bow-Wow News.
How much is it?”
    “Fifty cents for one issue or three dollars for the summer,” Andi said, feeling a bit guilty, since she knew her aunt didn’t own a dog. “You don’t have to do this, Aunt Alice. We know you don’t like dogs much.”
    “But I
do
like my great-niece and great-nephew,” Aunt Alice said, beaming at them. “And it’s not that I
dislike
dogs, it’s just that I’m allergic to dog hair. I’ll take a subscription for the summer. Just wait a teensy minute while I run and get my purse.”
    She disappeared into the house, and Andi whispered to Bruce, “Do you think she’s packing a gun underneath that housecoat?”
    “Of course not,” Bruce whispered back. “That detective stuff was years ago, back when Uncle Peter was alive. That is, if it ever happened. Dad and Mom may have been kidding us.”
    Aunt Alice came bustling back with three one-dollar bills. She handed Andi the money and reached for a newspaper.
    “Oh, my!” she gasped, catching sight of the front-page photo. “I know Mrs. Bernstein from Garden Club! What in the world is she doing?”
    “Serving dinner,” Andi told her, although she thought that was obvious. Mrs. Bernstein was holding a plate piled with meat loaf.
    “Who’s that in the high chair?” Aunt Alice asked. “Is that their grandchild?”
    “That’s Bully, their bulldog,” Bruce told her. “Like it says in the headline, Bully loves meat loaf.”
    “I can’t wait to read the story,” Aunt Alice said, staring at the photo with fascination. She hurriedly kissed them both good-bye and rushed into the house.
    “That went rather well,” Andi remarked, fingering the crisp new bills.
    However, the rest of their sales efforts weren’t so productive. They sold a copy of the paper to Andi’s fifth-grade teacher, who considered