Free Forensics Squad Unleashed by Monique Polak

kinds, Montreal .
    A lot of people use Kijiji, a free online classified-ads service. Maybe the purebreds the site is advertising include German shepherds.
    Dad moves the cursor so it hovers over the listing, but he doesn’t click on it. “I don’t like the idea of buying a dog on Kijiji,” he says. “Winter tires or a washing machine maybe. But not a dog. I’m more comfortable dealing with a breeder. Even if it ends up costing more.”
    Dad scrolls down the page.
    “Hey, what about that one?” I say. I’ve spotted a listing for German shepherd puppies. “Can you imagine how cute a German shepherd puppy would be?”
    “Cute, yes, but I don’t think a puppy is the way to go,” Dad says. “For one thing, puppies are a ton of work. We’d have to paper-train him—”
    “Or her.”
    “Or her. I think I’m ready to deal with dog hair. But poop and pee in the house? I’d need to meditate a lot more before I could handle that. Besides, if we really want to go ahead and train him—or her—to be a guard dog, that’d be even more work, not to mention time.”
    I have an idea. “What if we search for an already-trained German shepherd guard dog and see what happens? It’s worth a try.”
    Because Dad knows I am even faster on the keyboard than he is, he passes the laptop over to me.
    The first listing is for what someone is calling a senior German shepherd. Apparently the dog has a great personality, but he is having some trouble with his hind legs.
    Dad clicks on the dog’s picture. “Poor fellow,” he says. “But I guess full range of movement is a must for a guard dog.”
    There’s another listing for a German shepherd guard dog that someone wants to give away for free. Only this one isn’t good around kids. “I bet that’s code for he bites,” Dad says.
    “Can you imagine Mom around a dog who bites? She’d have a heart attack every time he opened his mouth.”
    Dad is already reading the next listing. “Hey, have a look at this one,” he says
    I am already having a look. Montreal dog trainer looking to sell recently retired guard dog. Price is negotiable. What matters most is finding the right home . I click on the link for more details. It takes us to the dog trainer’s website. He specializes in training guard dogs. He has a seven-year-old German shepherd who recently retired from the guard-dog business but is in good shape. “We need to make sure he’s still capable of guarding a house,” Dad says. “And that he’s healthy…and only bites bad guys, not kids.”
    “Seven is forty-nine in dog years,” I tell Dad. “That isn’t old.”
    Dad chuckles—he is forty-nine too.
    I click on the Contact me bar, and together Dad and I compose a message. We are interested in the guard dog you have for sale. Is he still in good enough shape to guard a house? If so, we’re wondering if we could meet him.
    I hit Send .
    “You never know,” Dad is saying when the computer pings a few minutes later.
    Roxie is in excellent shape and would make a fine family guard dog. I really wish I could keep her, but my place isn’t big, and I’ve already got two dogs. What matters most to me is that she goes to the right home. You can meet Roxie pretty much any time. Let me know when would work for you. I’m on Sherbrooke Street West.
    Sherbrooke Street West? That’s not far from where we live. Dad must be thinking the same thing. I catch him checking the time at the top of the computer screen—4:45 PM . “Why don’t we write back and ask if we can go meet Roxie now?” he says.
    After we set things up with the trainer—his name is Larry—Dad calls out to Mom, “Lila, Tabitha and I are going to go for a little drive. D’you want us to pick up anything while we’re out?”
    “No, but thanks for asking,” Mom calls back. She must still be hard at work. Otherwise, she’d come to the door to say goodbye. Just as we are in the hallway putting on our shoes, she calls, “Don’t forget to reset the