Read Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream for Free Online

to allow that little drop of blue flavor to spread in his mouth. He smiled.
    Stick Dog watched all this. He had already tasted a dark-brown puddle of his own and he, like the others, had found a flavor that was utterly scrumptious. But he had noticed Poo-Poo and that strange bluepuddle he was tasting. When Poo-Poo, still smiling, opened his eyes, Stick Dog asked him, “What is it? Is it good?”
    â€œReally, really good,” Poo-Poo whispered. “And really, really familiar.”
    â€œFamiliar?”
    Poo-Poo nodded and raised his head, staring off into the distance. Lost in thought, he swayed his head a little. “I can see circles, small circles,” he said. “They’re flavorful and of many different colors. They’re hollow in the middle. Yellow, purple, orange, blue. Just circles. They’re coated in something—something powdery.”
    Mutt, Stripes, and Karen had overheard all this. They knew Poo-Poo’s descriptions were not to be missed. They left their puddles and came closer to listen.
    â€œI can see a garbage can. It’s tipped over,” Poo-Poo continued. “A human had thrown out a cereal box. And a lot of those circles had spilled out. And I found them, Stick Dog; I found them. There must have been thirty or forty of those multicolored circles. And I ate them all. They were so sweet. A flavor I’d never tasted before. That’s what this small blue puddle tastes like. I’m trying to remember the name. It was something dramatic, elegant, and beautiful. A name for the ages. A name I’d always remember.”
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Mutt, Stripes, and Karen all at once. “What’s the name?”

    Poo-Poo’s eyes flashed open. “Froot Loops!” cried Poo-Poo. “That’s what that blue puddle tastes like! Froot Loops! Froot Loops!! Froot Loops!!!”
    â€œWell, I’m glad you remembered,” said Stick Dog.
    â€œMe too,” Poo-Poo said as a sense of calm came over him. “That would have driven me nuts.”
    Stick Dog looked both ways down the street. There were no cars or humans visible, but he knew they had to hurry.
    â€œI’d like to take our time here and explore and enjoy all these flavors,” Stick Dog said quickly. “But we’re way out here in the open. We’d better finish off these little puddles and fast.”
    There were not that many puddles; they were pretty small, and there were five dogs. So it was only a matter of twenty or thirty seconds before all the different-colored puddles were gone.
    â€œNow what?” Mutt asked. Poo-Poo, Stripes, and Karen all turned toward Stick Dog as well.
    â€œThat’s easy,” he answered. “We follow the truck.”
    â€œFollow the truck!?” Stripes exclaimed. “That’s impossible. It must be miles away by now! We’ll never catch up to it. We’re not nearly fast enough!”
    Stick Dog calmly held up his front right paw—and Stripes stopped speaking.
    Stick Dog pointed down the street. Perhaps only a quarter of a mile away was the strange truck with “ICE CREAM” written on its side. It was stopped like before, and there was a small crowd of humans gathered around it.

    Stripes, Poo-Poo, Karen, and Mutt couldn’t believe their eyes. It was the exact same truck—and not very far away at all.
    Stick Dog repeated, “We follow the truck.”
    And that’s exactly what they did.

Chapter 9
DRIPS ARE DRIPPY
    What followed over the next hour—and the next mile—was a pattern that Stick Dog came to understand and, more important, predict. The truck stopped three times, and each time the same things happened in the exact same order.
    Stick Dog wanted to make sure they had all paid attention. He was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, he could steer his friends to a greater ice cream reward than just a few small puddles every twenty minutes. This would be, he