Read Harry Cat's Pet Puppy for Free Online Page B

don’t blame you,” sighed Tucker Mouse. “The country is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there either.”
    â€œIt sounds so far away,” said Huppy. “Don’t you even want to visit me?”
    Tucker jumped up and tried to grab the dog’s neck but fell back and had to content himself with hugging a foreleg. “Of course we want to visit you!”
    â€œBesides,” said Huppy, “I like New York!”
    â€œThere you are,” said the mouse. “You’re born in New York, you like New York—despite the mess it is. Despite the fact you’ve been thrown away in an alley on Tenth Avenue. Harry, this is a New York dog with a New York problem. We’ve got to solve it right here in New York. Leave Chester in peace.”
    â€œThen solve it!” said Harry, somewhat sulkily. “Well?”
    â€œWell—” At the end of ten minutes of whisker wiggling, Tucker only came up with a meantime idea—until they could find Huppy a permanent home. He went over it with them. If Harry could get them back to the drainpipe that night—“Oh, I can. Once I’ve been through even the craziest labyrinth, I can find my way back again.” And if Huppy would only not grow for one day—“I promise!” So Tucker outlined his meantime idea.
    They all agreed it would have to do.
    The next night the plan was in effect. It was late, almost dawn, and the three animals were sitting in the very same doorway on Forty-first Street. Outside, the winter thaw still held, but inside them there was a dismal kind of chill. All day long, after certain arrangements were made, Tucker and Harry had been busy acting natural. And earlier that night there had been an especially tasty scrounged-up dinner—with unmelted ice cream for dessert—but no one would have called the atmosphere festive, despite all the small talk the cat and mouse made. Huppy had lapped his ice cream in silence. And in silence the three of them now were waiting.
    Lulu Pigeon flapped down in front of them. “Okay, men,” she said, “it’s all set. Let’s go.”
    â€œI need ten breaths of fresh air!” announced Huppy anxiously.
    Harry gave the pigeon a private look, and said, “Go ahead, Huppy—help yourself.”
    Everybody pretended not to be counting, and the puppy took many more breaths than ten.
    But soon Lulu Pigeon began to fidget. “We ought to get moving. Max said just before the sun came up. And Max isn’t the kind of a guy you keep waiting.”
    â€œCome on.” Harry nudged the dog with his shoulder. “And don’t worry.”
    â€œI’m not!” insisted Huppy in a voice that broke off at the end in a squeak.
    â€œWell, I am!” Tucker Mouse muttered to himself.
    Tucker’s plan was that since Lulu Pigeon had said dogs lived in Bryant Park, Huppy should stay down there—“temporarily, for a little while,” he kept explaining to Huppy and Harry all day. (What Lulu had really said was a pack of dogs hung out in the park, but Tucker didn’t like the sound of those words too well, so he left them out.) He’d sneaked down to the park that afternoon and talked it all over with the pigeon. She said jake by her but she’d have to ask Max—the gang leader. (Tucker didn’t like that much either.)
    They waited beside the stone basin of the winter-silenced fountain. Without anyone’s knowing exactly when, a chunk of the darkness, which had also been waiting, took the shape of a dog and slipped up behind them. “This him?” came a muffled, deep voice.
    â€œGosh, you scared me!” squawked Lulu. The others had jumped up and turned around too.
    â€œQuiet, bird.”
    Lulu flapped and said softly, “Yeah, Max—this is Huppy.”
    â€œHi, kid.” The voice seemed to be hiding a laugh somewhere.
    Huppy hung his head down.