No Dogs Allowed Read online

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  To Emily, Joshua, Noah, and Justin

  —S. C.

  To Annabelle and William

  —J. C.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  1. The Lucky Find

  2. Those Dogs Are Us!

  3. Dogs? What Dogs?

  4. How Was Your Morning?

  5. Run, Dogs, Run!

  6. Kate and Lucie to the Rescue

  7. At the Shelter

  8. A Song Is Born

  9. Give Those Dogs a Bone

  10. And the Winner Is …

  11. Where’s That Dog?

  12. Doo-Wop, Doo-Wop!

  13. Here, Doggy-Doggies!

  Woof-Ha-Ha! Dog Funnies

  Dog Heroes

  Mix-and-Match Dogs

  Woofa-Wow!

  A Dog of My Own by Stephanie Calmenson

  My Life with Dogs by Joanna Cole

  Teaser

  About the Authors

  Copyright

  1

  The Lucky Find

  Early one morning the clock radio went off in Kate Farber’s room. Kate popped up in bed. Wonka-wonk! Amos-on-the-Airwaves was honking a horn into the microphone.

  Is there a car in here? thought Kate.

  She looked around her room for cars. Of course there weren’t any. It was just Amos finishing his traffic report. Amos Adams was Tuckertown’s favorite radio announcer, and everyone loved to listen to him.

  Amos had stopped honking and started barking. Woof-arf-yip!

  Kate looked around her room. It was as neat as a pin, and there were dogs everywhere. They were on her sheets and pajamas. They were dancing across her lamp shade. There were knickknack shelves filled with little glass dogs all lined up in neat rows.

  Kate loved dogs. But there would never be a real one in her room. She lived in a garden apartment where the rule was NO DOGS ALLOWED. Kate was a sensible girl. She knew there was no point in begging for a dog. But that didn’t stop her from wishing for one.

  She was wishing for one when Amos got her attention with the word contest.

  “It’s Adopt-a-Dog Week, and we’re having a song-writing contest,” he said. “We need a catchy song to get people out adopting dogs from the Tuckertown Shelter. Woof-arf-yip! Start writing and send your songs in pronto!”

  Pronto means “quickly.” That was just right for Kate. Kate did everything quickly.

  She quickly grabbed her glasses from her night table and put them on. The brown frames looked good with her freckles and dark-brown hair.

  Then she speed-dialed her best friend, Lucie Lopez.

  Kate knew what Lucie would be hearing at the other end. She’d be hearing the special ring they had programmed on their phones. Arfa-arf! Arfa-arf!

  Lucie wished she could have a dog, too. But she lived in the same garden apartment building, right next door to Kate. So, instead of a real dog, she had thirty-two stuffed dogs facing every which way in her room. She also had tons of books about dogs. They were piled up in stacks on her dresser, chairs, and even the floor. She had read every single one more than once.

  Lucie’s room was as messy as Kate’s room was neat.

  Kate pressed the speaker button on her phone and started getting dressed while Lucie’s phone kept ringing. Arfa-arf!

  Lucie finally picked up on the fourth arf. Lucie definitely was not a morning person.

  “Hullo,” she said sleepily, pushing her ginger-colored bangs out of her eyes.

  “Quick! Meet me outside,” said Kate, tying her right sneaker.

  “I’m still sleeping,” said Lucie.

  “No, you’re not. You’re talking,” said Kate, tying her left sneaker. “We’ve got a song to write, a contest to win! Amos says the dogs at the shelter need our help.”

  “Huh?” said Lucie.

  “I’ll explain outside,” said Kate. “Hurry up and get dressed. I’m wearing my Dalmatian tee.”

  “Mine’s in the laundry,” said Lucie, yawning. “I’ll wear my pink poodle shirt. I got new pink ribbons to match.”

  “Of course you did,” said Kate.

  Lucie loved ribbons. And she definitely loved pink.

  Kate and Lucie had been best friends since they were little. They thought they were the luckiest girls in the world to be living right next door to each other.

  By the time they hung up, Lucie had swung her legs out of bed and put one foot on the floor. Squawk! She had stepped on an old stuffed dog that had a squeaker in it.

  How did that get there? thought Lucie.

  Meanwhile, Kate was already dressed and had tied her hair in pigtails. She grabbed a breakfast bar and headed outside.

  On the way, she heard her mom call, “Please take the bag in the hall to the thrift shop!”

  “Got it!” said Kate, sweeping up the bag on her way out.

  Kate sat on her front steps to wait for Lucie. She didn’t like waiting, but with Lucie for a best friend, she was used to it. While she waited, she hummed a tune and tapped her feet. Five minutes later, Lucie came out.

  “Another trip to the thrift shop?” Lucie said when she saw the bag at Kate’s feet.

  “My mom’s on a cleaning mission,” said Kate, jumping up. “Let’s go!”

  Kate and Lucie started toward the Lucky Find Thrift Shop. They went there a lot, mostly just to look around. And whenever they bought something, they liked knowing the money went to charity.

  “Wait till you hear about the song contest!” said Kate. She told Lucie all about it.

  “Maybe we could win and help the dogs!” said Lucie. “We’re great at rhyming.” Then she added, “We do it all the timing.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. Lucie ignored her and started singing:

  Adopt a puppy!

  It’s better than a guppy!

  “I like it!” said Kate. She took a turn.

  Adopt a dog.

  It’s better than a hog!

  As they walked to the thrift shop, the song got sillier and sillier.

  “Hi, Mrs. Bingly!” they called as they walked through the door of the Lucky Find.

  “Hi, girls,” said Mrs. Bingly, the store owner. “What have you got there?”

  Kate set the bag on the counter. “Mom’s cleaning her closet again,” she said.

  “Wonderful,” said Mrs. Bingly, taking the bag to the back of the store.

  “Hey, Kate, look at this!” called Lucie.

  Lucie was modeling a hot-pink hat with six kinds of fruit on the brim. It was draped with ribbons. Just right for Lucie.

  She noticed a fluffy purple boa and tossed it around her neck.

  She got a bright-green pocketbook and hung it on her shoulder.

  “How many things are you going to try at once?” said Kate, being her usual sensible self.

  “Maybe I’ll try on shoes next,” said Lucie.

  “If you keep going, you’ll be wearing everything in the store,” said Kate.

  Lucie didn’t worry about being sensible. A display of sparkly necklaces had already caught her eye.

  “Look at the two with the pink dog bones hanging down,” she said, putting all the other stuff back.

  Even Kate couldn’t be sensible once she saw those necklaces.

  “Let’s try them on,” she said. “They’re perfect for Adopt-a-Dog Week.”

  “They’re perfect for us!” said Lucie.
/>   The girls each grabbed a necklace and went into the fitting room so they could look in the mirror.

  “Help me with the clasp,” said Lucie.

  “Got it,” said Kate. “Now help with mine.”

  They turned to admire themselves.

  “These look great on us!” said Lucie.

  “Let’s get them!” said Kate.

  “Woofa-woof!” they said together, giving each other high fives.

  Woofa-wow! Kate and Lucie had no idea they were about to get the surprise of their lives.

  The instant their hands touched, the necklaces lit up and there was a pop and a whoosh in the fitting room of the Lucky Find Thrift Shop.

  When the smoke cleared, Lucie and Kate couldn’t believe their eyes. Two dogs were staring straight at them from the mirror.

  2

  Those Dogs Are Us!

  “How did those dogs get in here?” said Kate. She looked behind her. No dogs.

  Lucie looked under the fitting room chair. No dogs.

  They looked in the mirror again. The two dogs were still there, staring back at them.

  Kate and Lucie looked at each other. Out of the corner of their eyes, they could see the dogs looking at each other.

  Lucie cocked her head. The dog in the mirror cocked its head.

  Kate wiggled her behind. The dog in the mirror wiggled its behind.

  “It can’t be,” said Kate.

  “No way,” said Lucie.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” asked Kate.

  “You mean that those dogs in the mirror are us?” said Lucie.

  “Exactly,” said Kate. “It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

  “It’s impossible,” said Lucie.

  They studied the dogs. The one looking at Lucie was shaggy with ginger-colored fur hanging almost to her eyes. The fur looked a lot like Lucie’s bangs.

  The dog in front of Kate was white with brown ears, tan spots, and patches around her eyes. The ears looked a lot like Kate’s pigtails. The spots looked like her freckles. The patches were like her glasses.

  Both dogs had silver collars with pink dog bones twinkling in the light. They were just like the dog-bone necklaces that …

  “Aaahhhh!” Kate and Lucie screamed together.

  “Is everything okay in there, girls?” called Mrs. Bingly.

  “Girls?” whispered Kate. “We’re not girls anymore. We’re dogs!”

  “Everything’s fine!” called Lucie.

  “Fine? What do you mean fine?” hissed Kate. “We just turned into dogs!”

  “How do you like the necklaces?” called Mrs. Bingly.

  “They’re fine, too!” called Lucie.

  “Except that now they’re dog collars,” whispered Kate.

  “Why don’t you come out and show them to me?” said Mrs. Bingly.

  “Oh, great. How are we going to get out of here?” whispered Kate.

  “Follow me,” said Lucie.

  She got down low and slinked under the curtain of the fitting room.

  Mrs. Bingly had started arranging tea sets on a shelf. The dogs crawled past her.

  “So far, so good,” whispered Lucie.

  “Watch out!” whispered Kate.

  Oops! Too late. Lucie had bumped into a mannequin dressed in a lacy evening gown. It started toppling over. As Mrs. Bingly grabbed the mannequin, she looked down.

  “Dogs? How did dogs get in here?” she shouted.

  Kate and Lucie jumped up and started to run. Mrs. Bingly was right behind, shooing them out.

  Lucie looked over her shoulder and knocked into a rack of scarves. A blue striped scarf fell on her back. A red striped one draped over her eyes.

  Just then the door opened and a customer walked in. With the scarf over her eyes, Lucie couldn’t see a thing. She ran right into the man and knocked him down.

  Kate used her teeth to pull the scarves off Lucie. Then they jumped over the customer together.

  Mrs. Bingly raced to help the man up.

  “Out, out!” she yelled at the dogs. “Can’t you read?”

  “I hope we still can read,” said Kate as they ran out the door.

  When they got outside, they looked back at the sign in the window. They still could read. And the sign was the same as the one at their apartments. In big black letters, it said:

  NO DOGS ALLOWED!

  3

  Dogs? What Dogs?

  “Stop sniffing me!” said Kate.

  “I can’t help it. Everything smells amazing—even you!” said Lucie.

  “Get a whiff of this garbage can,” Kate said as they passed Patty’s Pizza.

  Lucie was there in an instant. She scarfed down an old pizza crust lying on the ground.

  “Yuck, you just ate garbage!” said Kate.

  “I know. It was delicious,” said Lucie.

  Then they passed a window and saw their reflections.

  Boing! Kate’s tail went straight up in the air.

  Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy! Lucie wagged her tail so fast, her whole backside went from side to side.

  “We really are adorable as dogs,” said Kate. “I love your shaggy coat.”

  “I love your spots,” said Lucie.

  “I love our dog-bone collars,” said Kate.

  “Maybe we can get dog sweaters with ribbons,” said Lucie.

  “Puh-lease!” said Kate, rolling her eyes.

  They were trotting along, when suddenly they stopped in their tracks.

  Sniff, sniff.

  “Do you smell what I smell?” said Lucie.

  “You mean Banana-Fandana gum?” said Kate.

  Thanks to their new, super-dog noses, the girls could smell it all the way down the street.

  DJ Jackson always chewed three pieces of gum at once. He said it gave him the full flavor.

  Thunk, thunk, thunk.

  “Do you hear what I hear?” said Kate.

  “You mean Danny’s basketball?” said Lucie.

  Danny DeMarco always bounced his basketball while he walked. If he wasn’t bouncing it, he was spinning it on his finger. If he wasn’t spinning it, he was taking jump shots.

  Sure enough, DJ and Danny turned the corner. They were the two most annoying boys on the planet.

  With their super-dog ears, the girls could hear every word the boys were saying, even though they were still far away.

  “I bet Lucie and Kate are going to enter Amos’s song contest,” said Danny. “Whatever they come up with will be goofy for sure.”

  “Our song will be way better,” said DJ.

  Grrr. Kate and Lucie growled.

  Then Lucie whispered, “They are so obnoxious.”

  “With a capital O,” said Kate.

  “Check out those dogs,” said DJ. “I wonder who they belong to.”

  “They’re pretty cool-looking,” said Danny.

  “Omigosh,” whispered Lucie. “They think we’re cool!”

  “Well, we are,” said Kate.

  Boing! Kate’s tail went up again.

  Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy. Lucie’s backside wagged and wagged.

  “Maybe we should take them home,” said Danny.

  Aaahhh! Kate’s tail dropped, and Lucie stopped wagging.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” whispered Lucie.

  The dogs ran to the corner. But the light was red.

  They heard DJ say, “I want the shaggy one.”

  “I want the white spotted one,” said Danny.

  “Ugh! Did you hear that?” said Lucie.

  “Quick! In here,” said Kate.

  They raced down an alley and hid behind a Dumpster.

  Sniff, sniff.

  “This smells even better than the garbage can,” said Lucie.

  “Forget that! We’ve got to change back before Danny and DJ find us,” said Kate.

  “You’re right. Let’s do it,” said Lucie.

  “Do what?” said Kate.

  Kate and Lucie looked at each other.

&nbs
p; “What did we do to become dogs?” said Lucie.

  Kate tried to remember. “First, we put on the necklaces,” she said.

  “Okay, then what?” said Lucie.

  “We said something,” said Kate.

  “What did we say? Hurry! They’re coming,” said Lucie.

  They heard Danny’s and DJ’s footsteps loud and clear.

  “Think, Kate, what did we say?” said Lucie.

  “Abracadabra?” said Kate.

  “That doesn’t sound right,” said Lucie.

  The boys were getting closer.

  “Maybe they’re behind that Dumpster,” said DJ.

  Lucie and Kate got so scared they barked. Woof!

  “I hear them!” said Danny.

  “That’s what we did. We barked!” whispered Lucie. “Then what?”

  “Um, um … we gave high fives,” said Kate. “Quick! Let’s do it.”

  First they woofed. Then they tapped their paws together. Nothing happened.

  “We’re still dogs,” whispered Lucie.

  “I know!” said Kate. “We have to woof and tap at the same time.”

  Together, they said “Woofa-woof!” and tapped their paws.

  Woofa-wow! Their dog-bone necklaces lit up. With a pop and a whoosh, they were back to being girls. And not a second too soon. Danny and DJ were standing right in front of them.

  “Hey, did you see a couple of dogs around here?” said DJ.

  “Dogs? What dogs?” said Kate.

  “One was shaggy, and one was white with spots,” said Danny.

  “You must be seeing things,” said Lucie.

  “Yes,” said Kate. “In fact, you should go to your eye doctor.”

  “There were definitely two dogs here,” said Danny.

  “We don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Lucie, looking innocent.

  “Come on, Lucie,” said Kate. “We have places to go.”

  “And things to do,” said Lucie.

  The girls linked arms and walked off with their dog-bone necklaces twinkling in the sun.

  4

  How Was Your Morning?

  “Do you realize what just happened to us?” said Kate.

  “You mean turning into dogs?” said Lucie.

  “That would be it,” said Kate.

  “I wonder where the necklaces came from,” said Lucie.