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Bogusville is a small town. They’re sure to find me. I guess I’ll just have to confess.’
    â€˜Come on now, talk!’ Fiona Fullstop said, bending down. ‘We heard you do it! Come on, Sylvia, talk!’
    â€˜Sylvia?’ Selby thought.
    â€˜Yes, talk, Sylvia!’ Davina demanded.
    â€˜This cat is a goldmine!’ Fiona said, pushing Selby out of the way to get to the cat box. ‘I’m going to sell this story for millions and billions of dollars! Hey! Who let that dog in here?! Out of the way, you!’
    Selby watched as Fiona Fullstop grabbed the cat box and barged out the side door of the theatre with Davina close behind. In a second they’d sped away.
    â€˜It was all a bit of a shemozzle,’ Mrs Trifle said to Dr Trifle when she got home. ‘The book launch was cancelled. By the time I got there the author had run off, taking her cat with her.’
    â€˜She probably just didn’t want to be embarrassed when her cat didn’t talk,’ Dr Trifle said. ‘Everyone knows that animals can’t talk.’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Mrs Trifle said, giving Selby a good scratch under the chin. ‘Sometimes I get the feeling that Selby understands every word we say. Isn’t that true, Selby?’
    â€˜I could answer that,’ Selby thought, sighing secretly at the thoughts of the wonderful times he’d hoped to have with Sylvia, ‘but I won’t — not yet, anyway.’
    Paw note: See ‘Selby in Love’ in the book
Selby Screams
.
    See ‘Selby Lovestruck’ in the book
Selby Snowbound
.
    S
    Paw note: See ‘Selby Smitten’ in the book
Selby Snaps!
.
    S

You Lucky Dog, You!
    â€˜What’s this game on TV with the balls and the numbers?’ Dr Trifle asked as he watched a red ball with a number on it roll down a tube.
    â€˜It’s called a lottery, dear,’ Mrs Trifle said.
    â€˜A lottery? Do people win money or something?’
    â€˜Yes. They buy a ticket with numbers on it. If their numbers come up they can win millions of dollars.’
    Dr Trifle scratched his head, then said, ‘What do they do with the money?’
    â€˜I guess they buy houses and yachts and they travel.’
    â€˜It all sounds pretty silly to me.’
    â€˜I agree,’ said Mrs Trifle. ‘But some people enjoy just the betting part. They feel good when they think they can win and they feel bad when they lose. And if they do win then they jump up and down and scream. They like it when their feelings go up and down like a roller-coaster.’
    â€˜Well, I don’t,’ Dr Trifle said. ‘I feel good just the way I am.’
    â€˜Oh, how I’d love to win millions of dollars,’ Selby thought as he lay nearby. ‘But what would I do with the money? I don’t really
need
anything. I have something that no amount of money can buy. I’ve got the wonderful Trifles to look after me.’
    Selby watched another ball roll down and stop.
    â€˜But wait,’ he thought. ‘
I’ve
got everything I need, but how about all the poor people who haven’t? If I won millions of dollars, I think I’d give it away. That would make me feel really good. What am I thinking?, I can’t buy a lottery ticket anyway.’
    Selby was right. He couldn’t buy a lottery ticket. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t find one — which is exactly what happened …
    * * *
    Two days later, Selby was out for his morning walk. He’d just passed the Bogusville Newsagency, and there it was on the ground.
    â€˜A lottery ticket,’ he thought. ‘Someone must have dropped it. And they didn’t write their name on it so I can’t give it back. Hey, this is going to be fun!’
    That evening the Trifles went out and Selby lay in front of the TV watching the coloured balls roll down.
    â€˜Okay,’ Selby thought, ‘I want the first one to be seventeen,