Say No More Read Online Free PDF Page A

it.
    Really, it had been a matter of minutes. Well, less than an hour. I was never sure about time. But the sun hadn’t slipped any lower. Instead, it just hung there up there in the sky, blazing down on me. Singeing my fur. Making my tongue dry out and stick to the roof of my mouth.
    I’d spent the day trailing along behind Cam as he cleaned out troughs and refilled them, letting me bite at the spray of the hose before he lowered it in. After that, we made a trip to the feed store and loaded up the bed of the truck. Hunter didn’t go with us. He was busy ‘making macaroons’ with his grandmother, whatever those were. Back at the farm, Cam toted the big floppy sacks on his shoulders, two at a time, and piled them in a corner of the hog barn. He scraped manure from pens and stall floors with a broad shovel and tossed it into a wheelbarrow, then dumped it all in a pile outside the barn door. When he pushed the wheelbarrow back into the barn, I dashed over to the pile and helped myself to a treat.
    He peeked around the door’s edge. “Get out of there!”
    I froze with the tasty, dried out patty in my mouth. Then I crunched down on it, gulping the little bits down as fast I could, because I knew what was going to happen next.
    Two seconds later he had his fingers in my mouth, prying the manure out of it. That was when he’d clipped the leash back on me and tied me to this post. Then he left me here while he tromped out into the hayfield with Ray and Slick to round up a bull that had gotten out of his pasture. Unfortunately, a tall water tank stood between me and the view of them doing their work. That alone was cause for protest.
    I lowered my chin between my paws and whimpered pathetically for dramatic purpose. But Cam was too far away to notice. Much longer and I’d have to start barking. Which never went over well.
    The leash that tethered me to the fence post was thin, yet strong, made of three braided strips. I sniffed it, let the molecules stir my memory. Ah, leather. Now this I could do something about. When I was younger, I found one of Lise’s leather sandals under the bed. Since it was on the floor, I figured it was fair game. So I eased my aching gums on it. Lise had been very unhappy when she discovered me beneath the bed, the straps worked loose from the sole, which I’d chewed in two. I learned then not to eat things that had Lise’s scent on them. Or Cam’s. Although Hunter didn’t seem to care if I ate his plastic toys or shredded his coloring papers. My situation, however, was getting desperate now ... I really shouldn’t ... I should wait ...
    But this was an exception.
    Sneaking a look around to make sure Cam or Ray hadn’t reappeared, I sank my teeth into the stiff leather and worked it back and forth between my jaws, until what little saliva I had softened it.
    Off in the distance, the bull snorted and bellowed. Ray and Cam clapped their hands as they shouted back and forth. Slick barked once, twice. Why didn’t he get in trouble for barking, huh?
    Almost at once, two of the braids on the leash separated. I pinched and sawed at the remaining strip as fast as I could.
    “Dad, Dad!” Cam’s voice rose sharply. “Get back!”
    Leaping to my feet, I bolted to the end of the leash. Ray and Cam were now in the corner of the pasture.
    Then, I saw it. The bull rushing at Ray.
    Ray swiped his cane sideways, then back, trying to fend off the raging beast. But it kept coming. Hooves slapped at the ground, flicked up chunks of earth. A great black mass hurtled toward an old, brittle-boned man.
    The bull lowered his head, the gleaming tips of his horns pointed squarely at Ray’s chest.
    Desperate, Ray flung the cane in the bull’s direction, but it fell harmlessly, lost in a sea of grass. He sucked his torso backward, dodged to the side. But his feet were unsteady, the movement too quick. Ray went down, covered his head. Fifty feet away still, Cam shouted.
    A gray blur exploded around the side of