How I Got a Life and a Dog

How I Got a Life and a Dog — page 3

How I Got a Life and a Dog — page 4 — Friday night the new apartment we have this dog now His name is Reggie Don’t look at me I didn’t name him My mom got him at the pound yesterday That’s the way pound dogs come already named Supposedly it’s too late to change this one’s name from Reggie to something more doglike like say Trooper or Flash or Blitzkrieg because it would confuse him Or at least that’s what Mom says the pound told her Mom was supposed to be bringing stuff home from the Supa-Sava to make tacos with But she wasn’t holding a bag of groceries just a leash with Reggie hooked to the other end This apartment is way too small for a dog I Then again she lies Take him back I told her 1

How I Got a Life and a Dog — page 5 — How I nicky Flynn fINAllY Get A liFe ANd A dog I hate guessing I said Reggie used to be a seeing-eye dog she said Isn’t told her And it’s totally true I’m sleeping on a foldout sofa in the living room There’s barely enough room for the two of us without adding a big drooly pound dog into the mix especially one that looks all sad and sort of embarrassed about his name Guess what Nicky Mom said That’s me Nicky Flynn though technically speaking my name is Nicholas But nobody ever calls me that except her and only when she’s mad that great So why isn’t he working for some blind guy I said Seeing-eye dog my foot I’m nobody’s fool In fact you wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through Mom says I’m way too serious for a kid my age She says I’m like this forty year-old man trapped in an eleven-year-old body Yeah well believe me if I were a real forty-year-old there’d be a few changes around here P S I’m eleven and three-quarters I guess it didn’t work out Mom said What did he do I said She didn’t have the details The pound doesn’t give those out All they would tell her was that Reggie was a full blooded German shepherd which is supposedly one of the smartest breeds out there I gave him the once-over He didn’t look all that smart to me Just sad He did look like a German shepherd though I’ll give him that much 2

How I Got a Life and a Dog — page 6 — You CAN’t teACH AN old doG New trICks Take him back I said But you’ve always wanted a dog she said I’ve always wanted a pool table But the landlord’s not going to allow that up here either I said Our landlord lives right below us He’s always telling me to pick up my feet and turn down the TV I never even thought about my feet where we used to live We had a big house of our own and we could say or do whatever we wanted I already asked Mom said The landlord told me a dog was OK as long as it wasn’t too big and didn’t make a mess of the new carpet We both looked over at Reggie He must go eighty pounds easy Let’s just give it a few days Mom said And that was that She led Reggie into the living room my room and told him to make himself at home He sniffed around a little then whined What’s the matter boy Mom said Are you hungry We ended up going to Taco Mucho over in the strip mall We drove-thru and ate in the parking lot with the public radio station on so we could catch the rest of the news Reggie just sat there in the backseat panting Maybe he guessed we would stop off at the Supa-Sava on the way home to buy him a can of dog food Or maybe he just knew better than to beg any tacos off of me That’s when she remembered about the groceries 3

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