CHAPTER 1

“GRRRRRRR! GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!”

My eyes fly open. I leap onto my paws.

I was asleep. But that barking woke me right up!

“I said, GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!”

It’s coming from my next-door neighbor, Frankie. He’s a German shepherd. When he barks like that, the whole neighborhood can hear him.

What’s going on?

I walk over to my fence and peer through the holes.

Frankie’s two-leg is trying to take something off his back. It looks like a coat that is tied to a leash.

“Get this harness off of me!” Frankie sounds really mad.

Frankie’s two-leg unstraps the coat-leash thing. She takes it inside.

“That’s better,” Frankie says, shaking his body. Then he spots me peeking through the fence. “What are you staring at, Sparky?”

“Nothing,” I tell him. “I just wanted to say hi.”

“Hi,” Frankie grumbles back. “Did you see that awful thing? There is no way I am ever going for a walk with that harness on again. Ever.”

“What’s wrong with a harness?” I ask him.

“Are you nuts?” Frankie yells at me.

“No, I’m Sparky ,” I tell him. “Remember?”

Frankie frowns and grumbles something under his breath.

“I like when Josh and I go for a walk with my leash,” I continue. “That way I know we’ll stay together.”

“Dogs are supposed to run free,” Frankie tells me. “My two-leg is so slow. Sometimes I have to pull her just to get her moving.”

“Sometimes I pull Josh, too,” I admit. “And sometimes he pulls me. But the best time is when we walk side by side.”

“Yeah, well, my two-leg can never keep up with me,” Frankie says. “Now she’s making me wear this ridiculous harness instead of a collar when we walk.”

“Why does she do that?” I ask him.

“Why do two-legs do anything ?” Frankie asks me.

I don’t have an answer for that.

“I’m telling you, one day I’m going to break free of that thing,” Frankie says. “Then I’m going to run and run and run. Like a dog is supposed to.”

I do not think dogs are meant to run like that. What if I ran really far away, and Josh couldn’t find me? That would be awful.

But I don’t say that to Frankie. I don’t think he is in the mood to hear me argue with him.

Frankie lies down under the tree in his yard.

Snore. Snore. Snore.

Frankie isn’t talking anymore. He’s asleep.

Now I have no one to talk to.

Josh is not home. He went away in his metal machine with the four round paws.

So I have no one to play with, either.

I have nothing to do. Unless... Wait! I know something fun I can do all by myself. I can dig!

I race over to the place where Josh keeps his flowers. Diggety, dig, dig . Dirt flies everywhere. I am digging a really big hole. I am a great digger. Diggety, dig ...

Hey. What’s that in the middle of my hole?

It’s a bone. My bone. My big, bright, sparkly bone.

“Hello, bone!” I bark.

The bone doesn’t answer. Bones can’t bark.

Sniffety, sniff, sniff. The bone smells so meaty. I just have to take a bite.

CHOMP!

Wiggle, waggle, whew. I feel dizzy—like my insides are spinning all around—but my outsides are standing still. Stars are twinkling in front of my eyes—even though it’s daytime! All around me I smell food—fried chicken, salmon, roast beef. But there isn’t any food in sight.

Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!