Nice Snowing You!

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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  Copyright © 2014 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Sebastien Braun. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC. Printed in the USA.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-0-698-16774-2

  Version_1

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  FUN FACTS ABOUT SPARKY’S ADVENTURES IN SWITZERLAND

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

  For Gladys and Steve Krulik, Josie’s favorite puppy-sitters—NK

  For Leo and Archie—SB

  CHAPTER 1

  “Queenie, get out of my yard!” I bark as loud as I can. I’m trying to scare that mean old cat away.

  Queenie doesn’t budge. She just sits there under my tree, licking her paws.

  “I’m gonna get you!” I bark at her.

  Queenie yawns.

  Okay. That’s it. I warned her. Wiggle, waggle, whoa! Here I come!

  I start to run after Queenie. But I’m not very fast. It’s hard to run with a coat tied around your belly and booties strapped to your paws.

  I keep running. Fast. Faster . . . I can’t go fastest.

  Queenie leaps up onto my fence and laughs at me. I don’t speak cat.But I can tell when I’m being laughed at.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  Queenie’s not the only one laughing. That laugh is coming from the yard next to mine. It’s Frankie, the German shepherd who lives next door.

  “Nice coat, Sparky,” Frankie says. But it sounds like he doesn’t really mean it. “You look like a giant red sausage with a head and legs.”

  “I didn’t want to wear a coat,” I bark back. “My two-leg, Josh, made me.”

  “You look ridiculous.” Frankie laughs again. “Dogs don’t need coats. We already have fur coats.”

  I don’t like being laughed at. I’m taking this coat off right now!

  I grab the coat with my teeth. Rip! Rip! Rip! My teeth are strong. Pieces of my coat fall to the ground.

  Riiiiipppp! I tear at the spot on my coat where the two sides meet. The coat opens. I feel better already.

  Shakity, shake, shake! I shake that coat right off.

  “Uh-oh, pup,” Samson, the old mixed-breed who lives on the other side of the fence, says to me. “Your two-leg gave you that coat to keep you warm. It’s a cold day. You shouldn’t listen to Frankie. Sometimes he’s just teasing you. And that’s not nice of him.”

  “Hey!” Frankie says. “I’m a nice dog. I just—”

  Samson doesn’t let him finish. “Stop trying to make the pup feel bad about himself,” he tells Frankie. “Sparky’s two-leg loves him. That’s why he gave him that coat.”

  It feels good to have a smart dog like Samson sticking up for me. But it doesn’t feel good not having my coat. It’s really cold out here.

  I look up at the sky. White stuff is starting to fall on me. It looks like white kibble. I wonder if it tastes like kibble.

  “I’m gonna catch you!” I bark to the white stuff. My eyes stare at a piece of fluffy white kibble falling from the sky. I open my mouth and chase it as it falls.

  Bang! Ouch! I’m so busy staring up at the white kibble, I don’t see my tree standing there.

  “Ha-ha!” Frankie starts laughing at me all over again.

  Grrrr.

  I try to ignore Frankie. So I look down to find the piece of white kibble I was chasing. But I can’t see it anymore. It’s all mushed up on the ground with the rest of the cold white stuff.

  I lower my head and take a bite. Wiggle, waggle, weird. This isn’t like the kibble in my food bowl. It’s more like the water in my water bowl. Only colder. A lot colder.

  Now my outsides and my insides are cold.

  I know what will cheer me up! I pad over to my favorite digging spot near the flowers. Or at least where the flowers used to be, before it got so cold. Then I start to dig. Diggety, dig, di—

  Oh no! I can’t dig. The booties are covering my paws. What’s a dog to do without his paws?

  I lie down and grab one of the booties in my teeth.

  Rrrip! The first bootie comes off.

  Rrrip! There goes the second.

  The booties on my back paws are harder to get to. I reach my head around. I twist my middle. Yes! I’ve got a bootie in my teeth. Yank, yank. Rrrip! Rrrip!

  And now the other one. Yank, yank. Rrrip! Rrrip!

  Whoopee! I’m bootie-free!

  Diggety, dig, dig. The ground is cold and really, really hard. But I’m not giving up. Diggety, dig, di—

  Sniffety, sniff, sniff, sniff. I smell something really good. Like chicken, beef, and sausage all rolled into one.

  The smell is coming from the hole.

  I look down. My bone! Right where I left it!

  “Hello, bone!” I bark excitedly. Then I stop barking. I don’t want Frankie, or even Samson, to know about my bone. This isn’t just any bone. It has magic powers. It can kaboom me right out of my yard! No, really. The first time I took a big bite of my magic bone, it sent me all the way to London!

  London was fun—and yummy. You wouldn’t believe the snacks the two-legs leave on the floor for dogs like me. Sausages, cheese, and fish and chips (that’s what the dogs in London call french fries). But London was scary, too. Mean two-legs lived there, such as the dogcatcher, who threw me in the pound, and the Bulldog Boys, who tried to keep all the food for themselves.

  Another time I chomped on my bone, I ended up in Hawaii. Did you know that in Hawaii two-legs stand on the water and ride the waves? I don’t know why they think it’s fun. The giant water bowl there—the two-legs call it the Pacific Ocean—is cold and salty. And the waves are so high that one almost swallowed up my friend Lolani. She was lucky I was there to save her.

  But the scariest time came when my bone kaboomed me right into the Land of Cats! Well, it was actually a city in Italy called Rome, but lots of mean cats lived there. Two of them stole my bone. Luckily, the magic only works for dogs, so those cats thought it was just a yummy-smelling bone, nothing more. With the help of my friend Bernardo, I tricked those cats into giving me back my bone, and I made it home again, safe and sound.

  Sniffety, sniff, sniff. My magic bone smells so meaty. If I bite into my bone again, I will wind up somewhere else. Somewhere new. Somewhere far, far away. Maybe my bone could take me somep
lace warm.

  Yes, someplace warm would be nice.

  Chomp!

  Wiggle, waggle, whew! I feel dizzy—like my insides are spinning all around—but my outsides are standing still. Stars are twinkling in front of my eyes—even though it’s daytime! All around me I smell food—fried chicken, salmon, roast beef. But there isn’t any food in sight.

  Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!

  CHAPTER 2

  The kabooming stops. Just like that. The loud scary noise is gone.

  But I’m still cold. Really cold. My body is shakity, shake, shaking. And my teeth are chomp, chomp, chomping—even though there’s no food in my mouth for them to chomp on.

  There is a lot of white kibble here. Piles and piles of it. The white kibble is as cold here as it was at home. I wonder where here is. I’ve never seen any place like this before.

  Sniffety, sniff, sniff. I’ve never smelled any place like it before, either. There’s a sweet smell in the air. I think it’s coming from those green trees. But that’s all I smell. I don’t smell other dogs. Or two-legs. Or anyone.

  Wiggle, waggle, uh-oh. Am I the only one in this strange place?

  Wait a minute. What’s that? Over there, by that sweet-smelling tree? It looks like a two-leg. He has eyes, a long nose, and a smiling mouth. And he stands up tall like a two-leg. Only . . .

  This two-leg doesn’t have legs. Just a big round belly and a head.

  I clutch my bone tight in my teeth—just in case the two-leg with no legs wants to steal it. But the two-leg with no legs doesn’t try to steal my bone. He doesn’t move at all.

  I sniff his butt. At least I think it’s his butt. It’s hard to tell. He doesn’t smell like a two-leg.

  I don’t think this two-leg will steal my bone. I don’t think he can. He has no paws. And he’s standing very, very still. Sort of like those statues I saw in Rome.

  Diggety, dig, dig. I think I will hide my magic bone right here, near the sweet-smelling trees and the two-leg with no legs. That way I will know just where to find it when I’m ready to go home. I paw my way through the cold, wet white stuff and down to the hard dirt below. I make sure the hole is deep, deep, deep. Then I bury my bone in the hole and cover it with dirt. There! Now no other dog can find it.

  “Hurry up! Follow me!”

  “No, not that way. What is wrong with you?”

  Phew. I buried my bone just in time, because suddenly I hear a pack of dogs coming my way—and they sound like big dogs.

  “Why are you always going the wrong way?” I hear one of the dogs bark.

  Now I can see them. I was right. They’re huge dogs. Saint Bernards. Four of them. Two girls and two boys. And they’re all barking at the same time.

  Well, they’re all barking except one. She’s crying. “I’m sorry,” she whimpers. “I didn’t mean to get lost.”

  “I am sick of rescuing you, Lena,” the biggest dog barks back at her. “Your job is to rescue two-legs. Not to be rescued.”

  “Who ever heard of a Saint Bernard getting lost on the ski slopes?” the other girl dog asks her.

  “You were lucky we came by,” the smaller boy dog tells her. “You could have gotten hurt.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lena whimpers again.

  “We’ve got rescue work to do,” the biggest Saint Bernard says. “We’re going back to the lodge. You stay here and do whatever it is you do while we’re working.”

  I watch as the three mean Saint Bernards run off, leaving Lena just lying there with her head in her paws.

  Sniffle, sniffle, sniffle. Lena is whimpering.

  I feel bad for her. It doesn’t feel good to have another dog make fun of you. I know, because Frankie makes fun of me sometimes.

  “Hello,” I say, trying to be kind.

  “Hi,” Lena says in a quiet voice. “Are you from around here?”

  “No,” I answer. “I’m from Josh’s house. My name’s Sparky.”

  “Oh,” she says. “Hi, Sparky. I’m Lena.”

  “Where are we?” I ask her.

  “Zermatt. A village in Switzerland.” Lena gives me a funny look. “You’re not lost are you? Because I’m not very good at helping lost dogs. Or lost two-legs, either.”

  “I’m not lost,” I tell her. That’s the truth. You can’t be lost if you’re not trying to get anywhere.

  Chomp, chomp, chomp. My teeth start that chattering thing again. My whole body is shakity, shake, shaking. I’m really cold.

  I just want to dig up my bone and go home so I can lie on the nice warm couch in my living room.

  But before I do, I’ll take one more lick of the cold, wet, white stuff on the ground. I’m thirsty. Oh, and there’s a spot that looks just like the yummy shave ice in Hawaii! I open my mouth and stick out my tongue.

  “No!” Lena shouts before I can get one good lick. “Don’t lick the yellow snow!”

  I jump back. “Why not?” I ask her.

  “Because my brother Luca left that yellow stuff in the snow,” she says. “I mean, he had to go, so he lifted his leg and . . .”

  Oh. I get it. I definitely don’t want to lick that. “Thanks. I was thirsty. And this cold white stuff tastes like the water in my water bowl.”

  “It’s called snow,” Lena tells me. “We’ve got plenty of it in Zermatt. It gets cold up here in the mountains. So water comes down as snow.”

  “What’s a mountain?” I ask her. Then I frown. I hope Lena doesn’t think I’m dumb because I don’t know what a mountain is.

  But Lena just smiles and points to some high snow-covered things growing out of the ground behind us. “Those are mountains. See that big one there? That’s the Matterhorn. I got lost in the woods on that today. I get lost all the time.”

  Lena looks sad again. I’m not going to dig up my bone right now. Lena seems so sad and lonely. I’m going to stay here a little while longer and be her friend. Everybody needs a friend.

  CHAPTER 3

  The first thing I ask my new friend is, “Where can I find some food? I’m hungry.”

  “There is always leftover cheese and bread behind the lodge,” Lena tells me.

  Yummy, yum, yum! I love cheese. And bread. My tail starts to wag. It loves cheese and bread, too. Which is weird, since my tail doesn’t have a mouth to eat with.

  “Let’s go to the lodge!” I bark excitedly. Then I stop barking. “Um . . . what’s a lodge?”

  “It’s a building where two-legs eat, drink, and warm themselves,” Lena explains. “Dogs can’t go inside the lodge. But there’s always food and water for us outside.”

  “You live outside?” I ask her. That sounds terrible. It’s so cold here.

  Lena shakes her head. “We have nice doghouses right near the lodge. That way we are always around if two-legs need rescuing.” She stops for a minute and sighs. “My brothers and sister do the rescuing. I’m not good at finding my way around.”

  Grumble, grumble, rumble. That’s my tummy telling me it’s hungry. “Can we go to the lodge now?” I ask her.

  “Okay,” Lena agrees. But she doesn’t move.

  “Um . . . do you know where the lodge is?” I finally ask her.

  Lena looks to her right. “I think it’s that way,” she says slowly. Then she shakes her head and looks to her left. “Or it could be that way. Or maybe behind us. Or . . .”

  Lena’s tail tucks itself between her legs, nervously. Then Lena starts to whimper.

  Uh-oh. I have to help her. A good friend always tries to help. There has to be a way for us to get to the lodge. I just have to thinkety, think, think of something.

  Wait a minute! My tail starts to wag excitedly. It knows I have an idea. A great idea!

  “Didn’t your brother say they were going to the lodge?” I ask Lena.

  Lena nods. “Yes. My brothers and sister always
wait there until it is time to go out on their next rescue.”

  “Well, there’s yellow snow over here,” I tell Lena as I use my snout to point to the right. “It wasn’t there before. Neither were these three sets of paw prints. I bet they were left by your brothers and sister on their way back to the lodge.”

  “Maybe,” Lena says. “It’s worth a try.”

  Rumble, rumble, grumble. My tummy is talking to me again. It’s really hungry. And so am I.

  “Come on,” I tell Lena. “Let’s follow the yellow snow!”

  CHAPTER 4

  “Well, look who made it back,” the biggest of Lena’s brothers says as we arrive at the lodge. “I’m surprised we didn’t have to come rescue you again.”

  “Cut it out, Luca,” Lena’s sister says. But she doesn’t tell Lena that she did a good job getting back to the lodge.

  Lena’s other brother cocks his head and smiles a little. “It didn’t take you very long at all this time,” he tells her.

  “Thanks, Jonas,” Lena says.

  Jonas seems a little nicer than Luca.

  “Come on, Jonas and Charlotte,” Luca says to Lena’s brother and sister. “I smell bread in the bin around the corner.”

  Lena doesn’t say anything when her brothers and sister go off without her to find the bread. But I can tell my new friend is sad. That makes me sad.

  Just then, a two-leg dumps a few hunks of cheese into one of the food bowls.

  I run over and take a big chunk of smelly, sour cheese in my mouth and bite down. Yummy, yum, yum!

  “It’s Swiss cheese,” Lena explains.

  “Boy, do I love cheese!”

  “Me too,” Lena says. “I’m glad you said to follow the yellow snow. How did you know to do that?”