Free Dunc and Amos Go to the Dogs by Gary Paulsen

“I don’t mean to be critical or anything, but this place smells worse than my uncle Alfred when he takes off his shoes.”
    Amos was standing by the window holding his nose and trying to wave some fresh air into the room. Duncan—Dunc—Culpepper, his best friend for life, was changing the paper in the cage of a new litter of kittens. “That’s one of the disadvantages of doing volunteer work at the city pound.”
    “You’d think they’d get some spray or something. This is really bad.”
    “It could be a lot worse. You’re lucky you only have to work here for a week. That’s all Judge Simmons gave you for creaming him in the park that day.”
    Amos sighed. “Some people take things too seriously. It’s not like he had broken bones or anything.”
    “He had to go to the emergency room.”
    “Big deal. The doctor said it was only a
slight
concussion. The way he carried on, you’d have thought he was really hurt.”
    Dunc closed the cage. “He said you were a menace to society and should be locked up. By the way, you never did tell me exactly how you managed to run him down.”
    “It wasn’t all my fault. I was taking Scruff for a walk in the park—”
    “I thought that was your sister’s job.”
    “It is. But Amy knows how much I hate to do it. Somehow she always makes sure she’s not around when Scruff needs to go for a walk. Anyway, we were walking along minding our own business when I heard the phone ring. It was that pay phone inthe corner of the park, near the snow-cone stand?”
    Dunc nodded. “I know the one.”
    “I was pretty sure it was Melissa calling to see if she could meet me someplace. Before I left home, I told everybody to let Melissa know I would be in the park when she called.”
    Dunc nodded again. Amos had it bad for a girl named Melissa Hansen. He had been in love with her ever since Dunc could remember. The problem was, Melissa didn’t share those feelings. Whenever Amos was around, she had a way of looking at him as if he weren’t really there—sort of the way you look through a window.
    Amos continued, “You know how she likes me to get it on that all-important first ring?” He didn’t wait for Dunc to answer. “I started moving on the first beat. My form was great. Head up, arms pumping. I looked better than one of those marathon runners.”
    Dunc waited.
    “The only problem was, I forgot that I had tied Scruff’s leash to my belt loop, on account of he likes me about as much as I like him, and he’s always trying to get away. When I started for the phone, I dragged him a few feet, but then he saw his chance and decided to start running too. Only he kept going after I reached the phone.”
    “Did you answer it?”
    “Not quite. Judge Simmons chose that exact moment to step out onto the sidewalk with Brutus, his Great Dane. My border collie ran underneath Brutus and wrapped his leash around the dog’s hind legs and then around the judge. I’m pretty sure he did it on purpose. It still might have worked out okay if that park bench hadn’t been in the way. Did you know they cement those things into the ground?”
    “Was that when the judge fell over and bashed his head on the sidewalk?”
    Amos nodded. “When I hit that bench, Scruff hit the end of his leash. The judge didn’t have a chance. Right before hepassed out, he told me he would send me to the electric chair if it was the last thing he ever did.”
    “Then I guess it’s lucky he only gave you a week of volunteer work here at the pound.”
    Amos sniffed the air. “You call this lucky?”
    Dunc patted a basset hound. “It’s not so bad. You’ll get used to it after a while. Besides, there are a lot of neat animals down here. Take Roger over there.” Dunc moved to the large cage on the end of the row and stroked the German shepherd. “He’s big but lovable.” The dog licked Dunc’s hand and barked as if he understood.
    A smaller terrier in the middle of the second row of cages started