Free Stick Dog Slurps Spaghetti by Tom Watson Page A

Dog!” Poo-Poo yelped.
    â€œWhat is it?!”
    â€œI just wanted to find something we could play with,” Stick Dog teased.
    â€œWhat is it?!” Stripes yelped, and began to hop up and down.

    Stick Dog teased some more. “Something we could share.”
    Karen began spinning around in a circle. “Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!”
    Stick Dog placed his front left paw on a corner of the plastic bag and tore it open with his front right paw. More than a dozen meatballs rolled out onto the ground.
    â€œThey’re meatballs,” Stick Dog said.
    â€œMeat!” Poo-Poo screamed.
    â€œBalls!” Mutt yelled.
    â€œMeatballs!!” Stripes yelped.
    â€œBalls made out of meat!” Karen screamed. “Is this some kind of crazy dream!? Am I living in a fantasy world?! Where humans aren’t strange?! Where I can catch my tail?! Andwhere balls are made out of delicious meat?!”
    Stick Dog rolled three meatballs to each of his friends and kept the last two for himself.

    There was no talk. And there was no hesitation. The dogs devoured the meatballs in less than a minute—the perfect dessert to their earlier spaghetti dinner.
    When the meatballs were gone, they lounged on top of that hill for a few minutes. They were full—wonderfully full.
    â€œI don’t want to go all the way down that hill,” Stripes said after a little while. “Let’s just stay here for the night.”
    â€œNo,” Stick Dog said. “Too many humans around here. They are finishing their meals and heading out to their cars. We should probably get back to my pipe.”

    The others knew he was right. They just didn’t want to make the long journey home.
    â€œI have a plan to get to the bottom,” Karen said.
    Instantly, Mutt, Poo-Poo, and Stripes all said they had plans too.
    â€œNo, no,” Stick Dog said quickly. “This time I have a plan.”
    â€œWhat is it?” Karen asked.
    â€œWe roll.”
    His friends loved that idea. Karen rolled down the hill first, giggling the whole way. Her dachshund body was the perfect shape to roll down a grass-covered hill. Stripes went next, yelping with glee the whole time.

    â€œI’m next,” Mutt said, and positioned himself sideways at the top of the hill to begin his roll.
    â€œWait a minute, Mutt,” Poo-Poo said. “I forgot something.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    Poo-Poo came closer and pulled something from his own fur. It was long and thin and reflected the moonlight when Poo-Poo held it at a certain angle.
    â€œIt’s a screw,” Poo-Poo said, and presented it to Mutt. “I found it on the ground by that back door. Thought you’d like to have it.”

    â€œThank you,” Mutt said, and tucked the screw deep inside his fur behind his left shoulder blade. He looked at Poo-Poo. “I love screws. I used to have one just like it. Let’s roll down together.”
    And down they went.
    Stick Dog did not say anything upon overhearing their conversation. Instead, he lifted his head to gaze at the black sky. The stars had multiplied tenfold since the last time he looked. They twinkled and sparkled above him.

    And below him, his four friends had reached the bottom of the hill. Their bellies were full. They signaled to Stick Dog to roll down and join them.
    And that’s just what he did.
    THE END.

COPYRIGHT
    STICK DOG SLURPS SPAGHETTI . Copyright © 2016 by Tom Watson. Illustrations by Ethan Long based on original sketches by Tom Watson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means,