Billy's New Dog

Billy's new dog



Billy had the biggest dog you ever saw. Usually kids say their dog's so big their kid sister could ride on it. Me'n Billy both could ride Mammoth all day long. Billy named him after a kind of dead elephant. I said "Why didn't you just name him Elephant?" Billy said that would be a dumb name for a dog. He had a point. Besides, Mammoth was shaggy, and regular elephants hardly have any fur at all. Billy said mammoths were very shaggy.

One day, I went over to Billy's house. It was summer, and we didn't have anything to do. Billy said we should take Mammoth over to the old quarry. Maybe there would be some older kids skinny-dipping. Maybe some of them would be girls. Well, it could happen. If it didn't, we could throw stones off the cliff into the lake and stuff like that.

So we were walking through the woods, looking out for anything interesting, like insect galls or walking stick insects, or money that bank robbers might have dropped. You never know. Mammoth ran ahead, like dogs usually do. All of a sudden we heard him barking, then growling. Then we heard something else. We didn't know what it was. It sounded like a big truck engine revving. We ran up the path and around a bend and there was Mammoth. Facing him was this... Thing. It was growling, that's what we'd heard. It looked like a dog, but its back was higher than my head, a lot higher. Its fur stood up all along its back and it had huge teeth that stuck out of its mouth, curling up and around on each side. I would have thought it was a wild pig, but it didn't have a pig snout. Besides, whoever heard of a pig 7 feet tall? So this monster growled at Mammoth again, and made a little rush at him, like it was charging, but it stopped. Mammoth turned tail and ran. He ran right by us. He didn't slow down to say goodbye, and I didn't blame him. We would have been running too, but we couldn't move.

The monster slowly walked up to us. It sniffed all around me. It was loud, and when it sniffed my face it almost sucked me into its nose. I guess I should have been afraid, but I couldn't even think. When it got done with me it turned and did the same thing to Billy. Then it licked his face. Tongue was bigger than his head. It was awesome! When it got done, Billy was soaked to his waist.

"I think it likes you," I said.

"Yeah," he said weakly. "I hope I can keep it."

Well it turns out Monster don't need dog food. I don't know what he eats, but he finds it in the woods. Mammoth never came back, and Billy told his parents he was so sad Mammoth ran off he didn't want another dog yet. They don't know about Monster. He stays out somewhere in back of Billy's house and keeps out of sight until Billy whistles. We've kept quiet until now, but you've been talking up your dog somethin' fierce, and the time has come to see what's what. You put up your 10 bucks and you're gonna see Billy's new dog. I bet he can beat your dog.


End