Bandit (4 page)

“Wow!” said Lizzie a few minutes later. She could hardly believe her eyes. “This is awesome.” She and Maria and Maria’s dad had gone outside to greet Uncle Teo and help get Bandit settled in the truck. Climbing up into the high cab had been tricky, but Lizzie had watched the way Maria swung up the metal stairs and copied her. It was cool to be way up high in the cab of a big rig. Lizzie had been fascinated by the big front seats, the giant steering wheel, and the windshield as big as a picture window. Then Maria had pulled aside a curtain behind the front seats, revealing a tiny room complete with a bed, bookshelves, cabinets, and a mini-fridge.

“A person could practically live in here,” said Lizzie.

“A person practically does,” said Uncle Teo with a grin, after he’d swept Maria into a bear hug. “When a person is on a long cross-country trip, that is. I’ve slept back here many a night. It’s just as comfortable as my bed at home.”

Mr. Santiago stuck his head into the secret room. “Is this where Bandit will be riding?” He held the black-and-white pup in his arms.

Uncle Teo nodded. “I’m all set for Mr. Fluffy. See?” he asked, waving a hand toward the back. Lizzie spotted a small dog crate tucked next to the bed, complete with toys, food and water dishes, and a comfy-looking red plaid cushion. “I found all of Roscoe’s old things and set him up. He can snooze back here while we’re driving down to Boston.”

Lizzie took Bandit from Mr. Santiago and knelt
down by the crate. “Here you go, sweetie,” she said, settling him inside it on the red cushion.

Bandit went into the crate but did not lie down. He sat looking up at Lizzie with his bright button eyes.

Now what? Can we go back out now?

“Ohh,” Lizzie sighed. She could hardly stand to say good-bye to Bandit. He didn’t even know that he was going to the hospital, to have a big operation. The poor guy, all alone in the big city.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Lizzie,” said Uncle Teo, as if he’d read her mind. “I promise to take good care of him. I have the day off tomorrow, and I won’t leave the animal hospital until I know the fluffball is okay.”

Lizzie nodded. “Thanks,” she whispered. She reached in to pet Bandit. “Lie down, now. Be a
good boy,” she told him. She petted his silky ears one more time, and Bandit licked her hand.

Maria knelt down beside her and petted Bandit, too.

“Okay, girls,” said Mr. Santiago. “Uncle Teo has to get going.”

Lizzie and Maria each kissed Bandit one more time. Then they went back out into the cab of the truck, opened the door, and climbed down onto the sidewalk. Lizzie looked up at the truck, which was shiny green with a yellow lightning bolt painted across the door.
T. SANTIAGO
said the sign in white lettering under the door handle,
LONG-HAUL TRUCKING.

“Look, Lizzie!” said Maria, tugging on her sleeve. She pointed to the window. “Bandit looks like he’s going to drive
himself
to Boston.” There was the black-and-white pup, sitting on Uncle Teo’s lap. He must have popped right out of his crate and jumped into the driver’s seat.

Uncle Teo opened the window. “I had a feeling this might happen,” he said. “Just like my dog Roscoe. He always wanted to ride up front so he could keep an eye on where we were going.” He held up a tangle of red nylon webbing. “I’ve got this harness, so I can strap him safely into the passenger seat. He’ll be fine.”

Lizzie and Maria watched and waited as Uncle Teo buckled the harness around Bandit, settling him into the front seat on top of a pillow so he could watch out the window. They waved at him. “Bye, Bandit!” they called as Uncle Teo started up the truck. “Bye-bye!”

At school the next day, Lizzie yawned over her vocabulary worksheet. She had not gotten much sleep the night before. She was too worried about Bandit. He might be having his operation right now, this very moment, as she was drawing a line between the word “affectionate” and the definition
“having or showing fond feelings.” She couldn’t stop thinking about Bandit. Would he make it through the operation? How long would it take him to recover from it? How soon would she be able to see him again? And how would she ever find a forever home good enough for this special puppy?

She gazed at another vocabulary word without really seeing it. Instead of connecting words to definitions, she began to draw pictures of Bandit’s face all around the margins of her paper.

At the desk next to Lizzie’s, Maria was yawning, too. And when Lizzie looked at her friend’s worksheet, she saw that Maria was also drawing pictures of Bandit. Maria was better at drawing dogs. Her pictures showed Bandit’s whole body. Bandit sitting, Bandit running, Bandit lying on a heart-shaped dog bed. Lizzie smiled at her friend. “Those are really good,” she said.

An aide from the office came into their classroom and handed a piece of paper to Mrs. Abeson. Lizzie saw her teacher read it, then thank the aide. Then Mrs. Abeson looked straight at Lizzie.

“Lizzie, Maria, can you come up here for a second?” She waved them up to her desk.

Lizzie looked at Maria. She felt her stomach clench up into a tight knot.

“Your mom called,” Mrs. Abeson said to Maria. “She asked me to give you a message from your uncle Teo. It’s about Bandit.”

Lizzie grabbed Maria’s arm. Maria stared up at Mrs. Abeson, speechless. “What does it say?” Lizzie asked. “What does it say?”

“He’s fine,” Mrs. Abeson said quickly. She knew all about Bandit, since Lizzie and Maria had shared stories about him many times over the last week. “He made it through the operation just perfectly, and now he’s resting comfortably.” She checked the note. “It says here that Maria’s uncle Teo will be bringing Bandit back home in about four days.”

Lizzie leaned into Maria, sighing with relief. “Yes!” Lizzie whispered. “He’s okay. He’s going to
be okay.” Maria nodded happily, and they grinned at each other.

“Um, you can let go now,” Maria said.

“Oops,” said Lizzie. She looked down to see that she was still gripping Maria’s arm. “Sorry.”

They went back to their seats, but the bell rang before they could finish their worksheets. As they lined up to go out to recess, Lizzie tapped Maria on the shoulder. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she said. It was time to come clean. Time to tell her friend the truth.

“What?” asked Maria. “Something about Bandit?”

“No, something about me. Something about the dogs I’ve been walking.” They were outside now, over by the swing set. Lizzie sat down on one of the swings, and Maria took the next one over. Lizzie twisted around, spiraling the swing’s
chains as she tried to figure out how to say what needed to be said.

“You mean, about the dogs you’ve been walking over on Sunset?” Maria asked.

Lizzie picked up her feet and let her swing spin back around until she felt dizzy. She put her feet down and stared at Maria. “How did you know that?”

Maria shrugged. “I saw you the other day when my dad and I were on our way to the store. You had a big golden retriever with you.”

“Atlas,” said Lizzie. She swallowed. “Are you mad?” she asked her friend. “I just … I wanted to make as much money as I could, to help Bandit.”

“And to prove that your business was better than mine,” Maria added. But she gave Lizzie a little smile as she pushed off, letting her swing fly. “I
knew
it,” she said. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist making it into a contest.”

“I—” Lizzie shut her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she said, instead of trying to defend herself. “You were right. And you know what? I have too many dogs to walk. I could really use some help. I could really use
your
help.”

The next four days flew by. Walking dogs after school every day was a
lot
more fun when you did it with a friend. Once Lizzie had confessed to Maria, they decided to merge their two businesses into one. They were known as the AAA Dynamic Dog Walkers, and they walked all their clients’ dogs together, even Ginger the slowpoke.

Now, on Friday night, Lizzie and Maria sat in Maria’s room, waiting for the arrival of Uncle Teo and Bandit.

“When did he say he’d get here?” Lizzie asked for the tenth time, as she jumped up to look out the window.

Maria rolled her eyes. “After dinner. That’s all he said.”

“We had dinner an hour ago.” Lizzie bounced up and down on the bed, knocking over three of Maria’s stuffed horses. Maria’s room was as full of horse pictures, horse toys, and horse books as Lizzie’s room was with dog things.

“Lizzie, calm down.” Maria put the horses back in place. “They’ll get here when they get here.”

Lizzie made a face. “You sound like my mother.” Then she jumped up again. This time she was positive she had heard the rumble of a big engine, just outside. “Listen. What’s that?” She ran to the window. “It’s them. They’re here!”

She and Maria flew down the stairs and out the door with Mr. and Mrs. Santiago right behind them, just in time to see Uncle Teo climbing out of the truck’s cab, carrying Bandit. The puppy
looked tiny in the big man’s arms. Uncle Teo smiled at the girls. “Here he is,” he said. “Good as new.”

Lizzie and Maria crowded around Uncle Teo, cooing over Bandit and reaching out to pet his ears and let him lick their hands. “Is he really okay?” Lizzie asked.

“He really is,” said Uncle Teo. “In fact, he’s
better
than okay.” He smiled down at the puppy in his arms. “This dinky dude is something else.”

“What do you mean?” Lizzie asked.

Uncle Teo shook his head, still smiling. “On my way back, I stopped for a bite to eat. Bandit was in the truck—I thought he was asleep on his bed. But when I was paying my bill, I heard barking from outside. I ran out, and there was Bandit, yapping his fluffy head off at a guy who was trying to steal gas out of my truck’s tank. Just a few
days after heart surgery, and the little guy is scaring off robbers!”

Bandit let out a little yip right then.

I told him a thing or two, didn’t I?

Lizzie and Maria laughed. “I’ll have to add that to our flyer,” Lizzie said. “ ‘Good watchdog’. Maybe now somebody will want to adopt Bandit.”

Uncle Teo cleared his throat. “Actually, somebody does.” He grinned sheepishly. “Me. I think he’ll make a great copilot. It turns out that the fluffball is pretty good company.” He squeezed Bandit tighter, and Lizzie saw the palm trees on his arms wave in the breeze.

“Really?” asked Maria. “That’s great, Uncle Teo! That means we’ll get to see Bandit all the time, whenever you visit.”

Lizzie saw the way Uncle Teo was looking at Bandit. It was obvious that the big man
had finally fallen under the tiny dog’s spell, just like everyone else. And Bandit would have a life of adventure on the road, meeting people all over the country and seeing new places every day. Bandit had found the perfect forever home.

“Now all we have to do is finish making the money to pay the animal hospital for his operation.” Lizzie sighed. It was going to take many months of dog-walking to pay that bill.

But Uncle Teo grinned. “I think you might be surprised. Remember Mrs. Kenyon, at Al’s Truck Stop? She has been very, very busy raising money from every one of her regular customers. She asked me to bring you both, and Bandit, over to Al’s for breakfast tomorrow. She’s got a pretty big check waiting for us. I think once we add in what you girls have been earning we’ll be just about there.”

“Yay!” yelled Lizzie and Maria.

* * *

Lizzie rubbed her stomach. Oh, boy! Another breakfast at Al’s. “This time I’m going to”—she was about to say “eat all my pancakes,” but then she looked over at Maria—“order the short stack,” she finished instead, smiling at her friend.

Taking care of someone else’s pet is a big responsibility. If you want to be a dog walker or a pet-sitter, it’s important to make sure you understand everything about the animal’s personality and special routines.

When I dog-sit my friend’s dog Woofy, I have to give him five special pills and two special powders every night with his dinner! When I walk another friend’s dog, Sofie, I have to remember that she knows how to squirm out of her collar. And Buddy, a cat I have taken care of, only likes a certain kind of food, served in a certain dish.

Most pets are happiest and safest if you take care of them the same way their owners would.

Dear Reader,

My very first job, when I was about ten years old, was walking the neighbor’s dog. Every day after school I would go next door to pick up Sable, a beautiful collie, and walk him around the block. I got paid 50 cents for each walk. Luckily, Sable was very well-behaved and never even pulled on the leash. I’m not sure if I could have managed five dogs at once, the way Lizzie did!

Love from the Puppy Place,
Ellen Miles

P.S. For double the amount of adorable pups, check out THE PUPPY PLACE SPECIAL EDITION: CHEWY AND CHICA!

DON’T MISS THE
NEXT PUPPY PLACE
ADVENTURE!

Here’s a peek at
COCOA!

“A puppy?” Charles felt his heart skip a beat. “What about a puppy?”

“I’m trying to figure that out.” Dad stopped on the sidewalk, staring at the screen of his phone. “These messages are all jumbled. Meg seems to be trying to tell me that—”

“Dad!” Charles tugged on his father’s sleeve.

“Hold on, bucko,” Dad said, still toggling away at his phone. “Let me just—”

“But, Dad, look! Isn’t that Meg? With that dog?” Charles pointed up the street. A big, strong dog dragged a woman up the street, pulling her like a boat tows a water-skier. Charles noticed the dog’s beautiful brown coat and thought that it must be a chocolate Lab, because it looked just like Zeke and Murphy, Harry and Dee’s dogs.

“Yeeeooww!” yelled Meg. “Sorry! Sorry!” she said, to the other people on the sidewalk, as she ran along behind the dog, barely missing a lamppost, a mailbox, and a fire hydrant.

Dad had finally let his phone fall to his side, and he stared openmouthed as Meg and the dog charged closer. “I guess that must be the puppy she was writing about,” he said.

“Here, pup,” said Charles, as the dog approached. He squatted down and held his arms open and the dog barreled into him, knocking him over. Then,
as Charles lay laughing on the sidewalk, the dog licked every part of his face: his chin, his mouth, his cheeks, his nose, his closed eyes, his forehead, and even his ears. Charles laughed even harder because it tickled so much. When he opened his eyes, he saw the dog standing over him, grinning a doggy grin and panting happily. Her big thick tail bashed Dad in the knees with every wag.

“This is a
puppy
?” Dad asked Meg, as he bent to pat the dog’s head.

Meg laughed. “Well, yes. She’s only about a year old. But I have a feeling this dog will be
acting
like a puppy for a long, long time.”

“She’s beautiful,” said Charles. He threw his arms around the dog’s strong neck and kissed her silky soft ears. Her glossy coat was the exact color of a Kit Kat, Charles’s favorite chocolate bar. But she didn’t smell like chocolate. She smelled deliciously of dog. Her yellowish eyes were bright, her ears were alert, and her brown nose twitched and
shivered, working overtime to sniff out all the good downtown smells. She had long, gangly legs and huge, chunky paws, and she was at least twice as big as Buddy. “What’s her name?” he asked Meg.

“Cocoa,” said Meg.

When the dog heard her name, she whirled around and jumped up excitedly onto Meg, making her stagger backward into Dad. “Whoa, there,” Dad said as he helped Meg stand upright again. “This dog sure does have a lot of energy.”

Charles squatted down on the sidewalk again to try to calm Cocoa down. He gave her nice, long pats the whole length of her body; that usually worked for Buddy when he was overexcited.

“Tell me about it,” said Meg, sighing. “That’s why we need to find her a home—fast. I already have my hands full with my two dogs. I can’t handle this one, too.”

“A home?” Dad asked.

Charles felt his heart skip another beat. Maybe Cocoa was going to be their next foster puppy!

“Didn’t you get my texts?” Meg said.

“I was just trying to read them, but I couldn’t quite—”

Meg waved a hand. “I know. I was kind of in a hurry. Anyway, here’s the story. This pup belongs to an older couple, Ernest and Charlotte Thayer, out on Franklin Street?”

“Judge Thayer?” Dad asked.

“That’s right, he used to be a judge. He’s retired now. He and his wife are both pretty frail, but they still manage to live in their own house and take care of themselves.”

Charles wasn’t sure what “frail” meant, but he had a feeling it was the opposite of the way Cocoa was.

“And?” Dad asked.

“And a couple of hours ago, the dog came running toward Ernest, banged into him hard, and broke his leg,” Meg finished, all in a rush. “I was one of the EMT
S
on the call, and it was obvious that Charlotte was not going to be able to take care of this puppy on her own. Anyway, Charlotte came with us in the ambulance, so there wasn’t going to be anybody at home with the dog, so—”

“So you brought Cocoa along, too?” Dad asked.

Cocoa’s head snapped up when she heard her name, but Charles still had his arms around her, so she didn’t jump onto Dad. “Good girl, good girl,” he whispered into her ear.

Meg nodded. “She rode right up front in the ambulance, with Ted. I couldn’t figure out any other way to deal with the problem. And now—”

Dad made a face. “I get it. Now you want us to take this crazy mutt.”