Free Honey by Ellen Miles

CHAPTER ONE
    “Whoa, Buddy!” Charles tightened his grip on the leash. Buddy might only be a puppy, but he sure was strong! He was barreling down the sidewalk, towing Charles along behind him.
    “He can’t wait to see his sisters,” said Sammy.
    “Maybe,” Charles said doubtfully. “But I think it’s just that Buddy’s always in a hurry. It’s like my dad’s favorite joke: This dog is wolfing down his food, eating as fast as he can, and his owner says, ‘What’s your hurry? Late for your nap?’”
    Sammy cracked up. That was the nice thing about having Sammy for a best friend, thought Charles. He always laughed at Charles’s jokes. Charles laughed at Sammy’s jokes, too. In fact, the two boys were writing a joke book together!First it was going to be called
101 Funniest Dog Jokes,
but then they found out that there already was a book with that name. So now it was
102 Funniest Dog Jokes.
    “That could be joke number ninety-eight!” Sammy said. “We’re almost done!”
    “Except for the pictures,” Charles said.
    Both boys groaned. Neither of them was that great at drawing dogs. Sammy could draw dinosaurs and airplanes, and Charles could draw school buses and dump trucks. But dogs were hard. And the joke book would be
so
much better with pictures.
    Sammy said the book would be a bestseller and that they’d be rich. Charles wasn’t so sure. But honestly, he didn’t really care. He just liked to think up jokes and write them down.
    Just then, Buddy pulled at the leash again. This time, he wanted to sniff a tree. Buddy sniffed and sniffed. And sniffed. And then he sniffed some more. Charles stood there, trying to be patient.Finally, Buddy lifted his leg and peed. Then he looked up at Charles.
    What’re we waiting for? Come on! Let’s go!
    And Buddy forged on ahead, pulling Charles behind him. Charles shook his head and smiled. Buddy sure was silly sometimes. But Charles loved his little puppy more than anything in the world. Buddy had soft brown fur and big brown eyes and a heart-shaped white patch on his chest. Buddy had come to stay with Charles and his family as a foster puppy, but he had ended up becoming a permanent part of the Peterson family. All the Petersons loved Buddy: Lizzie, Charles’s older sister; the Bean, his little brother (whose real name was Adam); and Dad. Even Mom, who was usually more of a cat person, had fallen in love with Buddy.
    The Petersons had fostered lots of puppies who needed homes. That meant that they had giveneach puppy a safe, happy place to live until they could find it the perfect forever family. The very first puppy the Petersons had fostered had been adopted by Sammy and his parents, next door. That was Goldie, a golden retriever. She and Buddy were best friends, just like Charles and Sammy.
    “Maybe Buddy
is
excited about seeing his sisters,” Charles said to Sammy now as Buddy towed him along. It was true that Charles had told Buddy that they were going downtown for a special reason on that bright, sunny Saturday morning in February. Charles had explained to Buddy that they were going to have a family reunion at the Lucky Dog bookstore. Not a Peterson family reunion. No, this was Buddy’s
dog
family.
    When Buddy had first come to the Petersons’, he had arrived along with his doggy mother and two sister puppies. That was the first time thePetersons had fostered a whole dog family. It was a challenge to find homes for them all, but everything worked out in the end.
    Jerry Small, who owned the bookstore, had adopted Skipper, the mother dog. She had a great life, since she got to hang around the store every day. All the bookstore customers loved Skipper. She was a star! Cocoa and Cinnamon, Buddy’s sisters, had been adopted by Mary Thompson. Mary was a real, live author. In fact, she was famous for a book called
So Many Puppies.
The amazing thing was, Cinnamon and Cocoa looked just like the puppies in that book. So it was perfect that Mary had decided to give