Free Miss Klute Is a Hoot! by Dan Gutman Page A

it’s hard to stop.
    â€œI think grizzly Labradoodles have rabies!” shouted Alexia.
    â€œIt’s a wild animal!” shouted Ryan.
    â€œIt’s an attack Labradoodle!” hollered Michael.
    â€œHelp!” shouted Neil. “The giant, grizzly attack Labradoodle is going to bite my head off!”
    â€œI’m afraid of dogs,” whimpered Emily, who is afraid of everything. “I want my mommy!”
    The rest of us started to come out from under our desks, but the dog barked and we all went back into hiding.
    â€œI’ll read better! I promise!” said Ryan. “Just take that man-eating Labradoodle away!”
    â€œIt’s not a man-eating Labradoodle!” said Mr. Macky.
    â€œJust take it away!” Michael shouted.
    The giant, man-eating, grizzly attack Labradoodle barked again. It must have been a little freaked out by everybody freaking out. That made everybody freak out even more .
    â€œEEEEEEEK!” Emily screamed.
    â€œHelp!” Alexia shouted. “I’m too young to die!”
    It was hilarious. You should have been there.

We all made a run for the door to escape the giant, man-eating, grizzly attack Labradoodle before it could bite our heads off. But Mr. Macky wouldn’t let us out of the room.
    â€œStop!” he shouted, holding up his hand like a traffic cop. “Everybody calm down. The dog will not hurt you. She’s here to help you with your reading.”
    WHAT?!
    â€œHow could a man-eating dog possibly help us with our reading?” asked Alexia.
    â€œShe’s not a man-eating dog,” Mr. Macky told us as he leaned over to scratch the dog’s ears. “She’s a therapy dog.”
    Therapy dog?
    We all looked at each other. Not even Andrea knew what a “therapy dog” was, and Little Miss Know-It-All thinks she knows everything .
    â€œWhat’s a therapy dog?” asked Neil the nude kid.
    â€œTherapy dogs are dogs that are trained to help people,” said Mr. Macky.
    â€œSo you want us to read . . . to a dog ?” Ryan asked.
    â€œSure!” said Mr. Macky.
    â€œAnd you think that’s going to make us better readers?” asked Michael.
    â€œYes!”
    Mr. Macky is wacky! *
    Mr. Granite said that while we read to the dog, he would be in the teachers’ lounge for a while. That’s a secret room just for teachers where they can go to play video games, take a nap, or get a foot massage. My friend Billy, who lives around the corner, told me that the teachers’ lounge at his school has an all-you-can-eat buffet.
    All-you-can-eat buffets are cool because you can eat as much as you want. That’s why they’re called all-you-can-eat buffets. They have the perfect name!
    Hey, what if you went to one of those all-you-can-eat buffets and you just kept eating and eating and eating without stopping? I guess at some point they would tell you, “Okay, that’s all you can eat. Now get out of here.”
    It would still have the perfect name!
    I know that doesn’t have anything to do with the story. The point is that Mr. Granite went to hang out in the teachers’ lounge.
    â€œIt’s against the rules to bring a dog to school,” said Andrea, who probably has a poster in her room with all the rules on it so she can study them in her spare time.
    â€œTherapy dogs are allowed in school,” Mr. Macky told us. “Her name is Miss Klute. She’s four years old, and she’s really friendly, patient, calm, and gentle around people. Would you like to pet her?”
    â€œI’m afraid,” said Emily, of course.
    â€œMiss Klute doesn’t bite,” said Mr. Macky. “She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
    â€œIt’s not flies I’m worried about,” Emily said. “Does she bite girls? Girls named Emily?”
    â€œOf course not!” Mr. Macky said. “She loves people. And Miss Klute is even hypoallergenic. Does