CHAPTER 13

When Lulu arrived at Good Dogs the next morning, Hugo was busy introducing the puppy to all the other dogs.

“Petunia, this is Waffles! Waffles, Petunia!” Hugo said politely.

Petunia stopped wrestling with King for a moment to sniff Waffles up and down. She wagged her tail.

“Nice to meet you, Waffles,” Petunia said. “Wrestle later?”

“Sure!” Waffles said enthusiastically as Petunia got back to wrestling with King.

Hugo continued taking Waffles around. “Waffles, meet Cleo. She lives here. Ah, and this is Patches.”

“Waffles?” Patches said. “You know, I had a waffle once . . . a long time ago . . . Sit down awhile, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“So the puppy has a name!” Lulu said as she approached. “I like it.”

Lulu noticed that the puppy looked totally different from yesterday. Waffles had clearly had a bath.

“You look so much . . . floofier!” Lulu said. “Kind of like me!”

“Thank you!” Waffles replied as Erin bent over to pet her.

“Always so wonderful to meet a new dog!” Erin said. “We’re going to take good care of you here!”

King finished wrestling with Petunia and joined Lulu, Hugo, and Waffles in the front hallway.

“I’m so excited to learn how to be a good dog!” Waffles said to the others. “Just like all of you!”

“Oh, don’t get too hung up on being good all the time,” Lulu responded, thinking about all of yesterday’s adventures. “Sometimes it’s nice to just be a dog.”

“I second that,” Hugo said, nodding knowingly.

“I third it!” King said, holding his head high. Lulu could tell King was excited to be older than someone, and in a position to give advice for once.

“That’s why I’m here today, actually,” Lulu continued. “To be a dog! Spend some time with ordinary canines, you know. It keeps me humble. Tomorrow I’ll be on a movie set with Jasmine. But I like to mix it up.”

“That’s exciting!” Hugo said. Waffles ran off to wrestle with Petunia while Lulu brought Hugo and King up to speed.

“Yep! Jasmine got the part!” she said proudly. “And she wasn’t even mad about me getting messy.”

“That’s great! Erin wasn’t mad at me either,” King replied. “Well, she was worried . . . but she and Cleo were both really happy to see me when I got home.”

“Fantastic!” Lulu said. Then she and King turned to Hugo. “How about you?”

“I was so happy to see them,” Hugo said. “I thought they wouldn’t even notice I was gone, but it turned out they were looking for me the whole time.”

Hugo turned to watch as Waffles wrestled happily with Petunia. “And now we have a puppy in the family! They were so happy I came home that they agreed to take her in.”

“Wow! Another kid to take care of?” Lulu asked. “That’s a lot of extra responsibility! Think you can handle it?”

Hugo smiled as he watched Waffles, and shrugged. “It’s what I’m good at,” he replied. “When Zoe was born, I wasn’t sure I was ready for another kid, but I made it work, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

Lulu watched Hugo as he watched Waffles play, and she thought that he looked so, so happy. She was sure he’d be a great big brother.

Ding dong! Ding dong! The doorbell rang, and all the dogs naturally started barking with excitement and confusion.

“Who could that be?” Lulu asked.

“I wonder if Erin is expecting mail,” King said, wagging his tail and running to the door. “I love mail! And the man who carries the mail! Let’s see if I can knock him over!”

Erin held King back as she opened the door, and all the dogs were shocked to see who was on the other side: Napoleon! And one of his people.

Erin seemed surprised too, and she invited Napoleon’s mom inside to talk while Napoleon walked over to Lulu, King, and Hugo.

“What are you doing here?” Lulu asked. “Didn’t you say that doggy day care was for . . . what did you call us . . . goody two-shoes? Or was it little babies?”

“Oops, I guess I did say that, huh,” Napoleon said. “Well, sorry about that. I was just trying to impress you.”

“Well, we’re excited to see you again,” Hugo said.

“My mom thinks something called ‘socialization’ will be good for me,” Napoleon explained. “I don’t know what that is, but I hope it tastes good.”

They nodded. Lulu was pretty sure “socialization” wasn’t a food; she thought it had something to do with Instagram, but she didn’t want to correct him.

“Plus, I had fun spending time with you guys yesterday,” Napoleon continued. “It’s fun being around other dogs. I taught you all how to be bad . . . Maybe I could learn a thing or two about being good?”

“Everybody, listen up!” King announced, jumping onto the couch and barking to get the attention of all the dogs. “This is Napoleon! He’s our friend. Napoleon, this is everybody!”

Napoleon wagged his tail as the other dogs barked their greetings. Erin said goodbye to Napoleon’s mom and turned her attention to the dogs.

“Time to go to the park!” she said. “Everybody, come sit over here!”

She whistled and Lulu, Hugo, King, and the others walked to the door and sat in a line on her cue. Lulu held her head high, ready for her leash—not because she wanted to be perfect and well behaved, but because she was excited to go to the park and play with her friends. Waffles and Napoleon followed her lead and sat down next to her by the door.

“Am I . . . am I doing this right?” Napoleon asked nervously.

“You’re doing great,” Lulu whispered back.

“Good boy, Napoleon,” Erin said.

Erin leashed them all up, and they started their morning walk through the neighborhood, toward the park. Then through the park and into the dog run. It was the same walk Lulu had done every morning with Erin at Good Dogs, but somehow this morning it felt like everything had changed. Like life was full of new possibilities!

“Everything looks so different now,” Hugo said, as if reading her mind.

“And smells different too!” King chimed in.

“It’s amazing what one little adventure can do,” Lulu said.

Once they got to the dog run, King spotted Nuts running along the top of a bench. “Hey, Nuts!” he called. “Good to see you again.”

Nuts smiled and opened his mouth as if to respond, but then his expression changed. “I’m sorry! I just remembered that I’m very, very mad at you!” Nuts huffed and scurried back up into his tree.

“Oh, come on!” Hugo barked up into the tree. “Don’t be mad! Dogs love to chase squirrels! It’s just something we do! It’s nothing personal.”

“Really?!” Nuts replied. “So this is just going to be your new thing now, huh? Chasing me?”

Hugo, King, and Lulu looked at one another and shrugged.

Maybe, Lulu thought. She would like to do that again. She also barked up into the tree. “You have to admit . . . it was pretty fun.”

Nuts just scoffed and turned away, but she could tell he was thinking about it.

“We’re all friends here, Nuts,” King added. “We were just having fun. But we’re sorry if we scared you.”

Nuts slowly turned to face them. “Okay. I forgive you,” he said. “I have to admit . . . it was sort of fun to be chased. Sort of! It had been a while since I’d run like that.”

Then he scurried down the tree to get closer to them. He looked like he had something very important to discuss. “Since you’re here, I could really use your help,” Nuts continued. “I can’t seem to find the acorns I buried yesterday.”

Lulu, Hugo, and King gave one another a look, as if to say, “This again?”

“They’re under the—” Lulu started, but Hugo hastily cut her off.

“Shh! Not so fast,” he said to her. Then he turned to Nuts. “We can help you with this problem, if you do something for us in return . . .”

Nuts cocked his head to the side. Lulu understood immediately what Hugo meant, and smiled.

“Let us chase you!” she said. Nuts thought for a moment, then twitched his tail with excitement.

“Okay!” Nuts declared. “That seems like a fair deal.”

“You can have a head start,” King said. “Ready, set, GO!”

And just like that, Nuts bolted away. He hopped up onto a bench and ran quickly around the perimeter of the park, hopping from bench to bench and running as fast as he could.

“Hey, Napoleon! Hey, Waffles!” Lulu called as the three of them started to run. “Let’s go chase that squirrel!”

Napoleon dropped the stick he was chewing on, and Waffles stopped barking at her shadow. They quickly joined Hugo, Lulu, and King in their high-speed pursuit of the nimble squirrel.

Now they were all running as fast as they could, barking as loud as they could, and having the time of their lives.