Book #5: Oh No, Newf!
Yeti is a great dog.
Heidi is dog-crazy. So when she finds a friendly, abandoned Newfoundland, she’s determined to take care of him. Even if her parents have forbidden her from bringing a dog home, she’ll find a way—by keeping Yeti in her friend’s shed!
There’s just one thing …
Yeti is sweet, and Heidi wants to give him a real home. But he’s also enormous and clumsy, and basically her parents’ worst nightmare. Can Heidi turn him into a model dog? Or is Yeti just too big to handle?
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Read an Excerpt:
There’s a big field across from the school with a track running around it, which grown-ups use a lot for exercise. You can usually find someone jogging there, wearing sweatpants and headphones and a determined look, but this afternoon it was empty. Trees and thick bushes grow around the edges, hiding the field from the streets around it, and there’s a big space in the middle that the town uses for summer sports. I play soccer there a lot.
My bike went bump bump bump over the dirt as I pushed it toward the low wall that runs along one side of the track, under the trees. Avery was sitting on the wall, throwing stones at a tree trunk. Sometimes he waits for me there so we can walk home together.
“I have this great idea,” he said as I walked up. “Let’s take that lunch money I ‘stole’ and run away to New York City and never come back.”
“I know you didn’t steal it,” I said. I dropped my bike on the grass and hopped up on the wall next to him. “Are your parents going to be really mad?”
“Well, Dad’s staying in a hotel again this week,” Avery said, “so maybe she won’t tell him, since they’re ‘not speaking.’ But Mom—” He threw another stone, really hard, and it bounced off the bark with a clunk.
“Maybe if you explain it to her . . . that it was a mistake. . . . ” I said. “I can talk to her if you want.”
“Whatever,” Avery said. “It’s not worth it. If she wants to get mad, fine. I don’t care. That stupid little brat.” He jumped down, picked up a handful of rocks, and tossed them all at once. Blip blip bonk bonk bonk they went as they pinged off the tree and scattered to the ground.
I didn’t argue with him. If I tried to defend everyone Avery gets mad at, or if I tried to defend him to all my other friends, I’d never have time for anything else. “Why do you think Cameron said it was you?” I asked.
Instead of answering, he shoved his hand in his pocket, pulled out a small white object, and tossed it at me. I lunged to catch it and would have fallen off the wall, but Avery caught my arms and pushed me back up.
“There you go, throwing yourself at me again,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Thanks,” I said with a grin, peering at the thing in my hand. It was an eraser, little and white and shaped like a tiny white dog—some kind of terrier, I guessed, with a red collar around its neck and a little pink tongue hanging out. “This is so cute,” I said.
“I thought you’d like it,” Avery said with a shrug. I looked up in surprise, and he went, “Don’t get all mushy-wushy on me, Tyler. I found it on the playground yesterday. Problem is, the brat saw it at the same time and she pitched a fit when I wouldn’t let her have it.” He poked a finger in one ear and turned it, scrunching up his face. “Man, she’s loud. I told her to go annoy someone else and left her there screaming. Anyway, I guess that’s why she’s mad at me.”
“Do you think she made it all up?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Either way, she’s an annoying brat.”
“Wow,” I said, flipping the eraser between my fingers. “So you won this in a fight with an eight-year-old girl. No wonder I have such a crush on you.”
“Shut up,” he said, grabbing my foot and pulling off my sneaker.
“Give that back!” I yelled as he ran off across the field. “I’m not going to chase you with one shoe, Avery! Get back here!”
“What, this?” he called, stopping several feet away. He tossed my shoe from one hand to the other. “You want this?”
I crossed my arms. “I’m not going to come after it,” I said.
“OK,” he said with a shrug. “Then we can just stay here forever. Suits me. I don’t want to go home.”
Rrrrrrrooorrrroorrrrrooooooo.
I tilted my head at Avery. “Did you just growl at me?” I asked. I was sure I’d heard something—something like a growl or a whimper or a mumble. Had it come from the bushes by the wall? Some of them had thick leaves and overgrown vines tangled around them. Was there an animal hiding in one of them?
“You’re losing it, Tyler,” Avery said, wiggling his finger by the side of his head like I was crazy.
“You didn’t hear that?”
“I didn’t hear anything,” he said with another shrug. He tossed my shoe behind his back and caught it in his other hand, then waved it at me.
“We shouldn’t be late for dinner,” I said, deciding to ignore the weird noise in the bushes. “Then we’ll get in even more trouble.”
“Bet my mom wouldn’t notice,” he said.
“Bet she would,” I said. “Avery, give me back my sneaker.”
“Nope,” he said, dancing back another step.
“You’re a pain in my butt,” I said.
“That’s why you’re in loooooooooove with me,” he said. “Hey, do you know you’re wearing two different-colored socks?”
I looked down and realized that my shoeless foot was wearing a dark blue sock, while the other one was wearing a yellow sock with black polka dots. How had I done that? I must have been in such a hurry that morning that I hadn’t even noticed. My room is always kind of a mess, no matter how much my mom yells at me to clean it. It’s easy to get things mixed up in there.
“Yeah, I did that on purpose,” I said.
“Sure you did,” he said.
“If you don’t give me back my shoe right now,” I said, “I’m going to tell everyone at school that you’re secretly in love with me.”
“Like anyone would believe that, when I’m so far out of your league,” Avery said, but he was frowning. “Hey, I have an idea. Since you like dogs so much, how about, if you want it—then you can fetch it!” He turned and threw my sneaker as hard as he could. It flew up in a huge arc, up and up and up and way out across the field.
“Avery!” I shouted, but then suddenly there was a huge rustling sound, and something exploded out of the bushes. A blur of black-and-white fur flew out, shot past Avery, and zoomed across the grass. Before my sneaker even hit the ground, the fur blur was halfway to where it was going to land.
I gasped.
It was a dog—the biggest, furriest dog I’d ever seen.
Avery’s mouth was wide open. I’m sure mine was too. We stared as the dog pounced on my sneaker, wrapped his massive jaws around it, and came trotting back toward us. His glorious black tail swung back and forth like a giant flag in a parade. He held his head up high and his long fur swished shaggily as he pranced over the grass.
He was gorgeous.
The dog trotted right past Avery and over to me. He was so huge, his head was even with my knees even though I was sitting up on a wall. The dog dropped my sneaker right in my lap, nudged my knee with his nose, and looked up at me with the biggest, softest brown eyes I’d ever seen. A long pink tongue hung out of his mouth and he looked like he was smiling all over his shaggy black face.
My heart nearly leaped out of my chest when he looked at me. It was like we could read each other’s mind, and they were saying the same thing: Hey there, best friend.
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Is your canine friend a crazy klutz?
Poor Yeti! He doesn’t mean to cause so much trouble—he just doesn’t realize how big he is! Every time he turns around, his long exuberant tail knocks something over. I can really relate to this…like Heidi, I feel like I’m constantly crashing into things or breaking stuff by accident!
And that’s the important thing to remember: Was your dog being deliberately bad, or was it just an accident? I know it can be frustrating, but try not to yell at your dog for something totally accidental. If you make him anxious and high-strung, he’ll probably end up nervously breaking more stuff, or acting out in some other way…plus he’ll just be sad, and you don’t want that!
What might help is finding another way to get your crazy dog’s sillies out (remember that song?). Every dog is happier when they get enough exercise, so if your dog is always bounding around the house and crashing into things, try taking him for a long walk to tire him out. Or take him into the yard or out to the park and throw the ball for him until he’s exhausted. All that energy has to go somewhere—and once he has a better way to get rid of it, he’ll hopefully be much calmer at home. A happy dog who’s flopped out on the rug, snoozing away, is much less likely to accidentally break something!
It’s probably also a good idea to move anything valuable and breakable out of the dog’s reach anyway. I mean, isn’t a lovable dog worth a little rearranging? :-) Or keep that stuff in a room he can’t go in…it’s easier to keep a door closed than to clean up a mess later!
And if something happens no matter what you do, try to remember the last time you accidentally broke something. Imagine how your dog feels, stuck inside the house all day—especially if he’s a big dog and there’s not a lot of space for him to run around.
And then take a deep breath, remember that you love your dog more than any stuff, and go get a broom instead of yelling at him. Later on, when you’re snuggling on the couch and he gives you his big “I’m sorry” eyes, you’ll feel much better! Good luck!
